Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "confidentiality"

Real Relationships: Secrets will divide us

2011-11-07T16:20:30Z

Q: I have a very good friend who doesn't seem to understand the need for confidentiality. It isn't that I am a secretive person, but sometimes when you tell people things, especially close friends, you don't want them to go spread the word.

This girl is a very close friend of mine, but I find myself hesitating to share anything secretive or confidential with her because she might bring it up to someone else. I know she isn't meaning to make me uncomfortable or embarrassed, but she does.

I guess I feel like our friendship will never be what I want it to be because I can't trust her or confide in her. Should I say something to her or just never tell her anything I don't want retold?

A: Well, shoot. I have run into this situation a few times myself, and I have concluded one thing: People either are or are not confidential people.

There are those who love to talk, love to share and love to tell tales. Those people, though really fun to hang out with, aren't typically the kind you can confide in. They aren't bad people. In fact, they are normally extremely engaging.

If this friend is one of those kinds of people, then there isn't much you can do to convince her that what you are about to tell her is for her ears only. You are likely correct in your assumption that she isn't being mean or sneaky — she doesn't have a filter, nor does she think about your privacy before she repeats a good tale.

OK, so that sounds a little harsh, but I am just saying, you can't expect her to change her personality.

On the other hand, there are friends who understand the difference between show-and-tell conversations and "I really need to talk with you about this, but I don't want it repeated" conversations. If you are lucky, you have exactly one of these people in your life right now. If you are blessed to have more than one, then you are well taken care of! These friends are not a dime a dozen, but it is them you can really trust with your secrets, your feelings and your private struggles.

I suggest to you that you keep very confidential information out of her hands — and ears — and focus on building your friendship in other ways. Meanwhile, take stock of your other friends and see if you have that one friend who you know you can tell anything to in confidence. Also, remember to be that friend to others. You might be the only one

Have a relationship question? Email sacpress@live.com. Questions will be featured every Monday in "Real Relationships".

Retiree benefits data released to the Bee

2011-06-17T02:23:39Z

The agency that manages retirement benefits for Sacramento County employees provided in-depth information about retirees’ finances to The Sacramento Bee earlier this week after a lengthy court battle.

The Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System released information about retirees on June 13, Richard Stensrud, the chief executive officer of SCERS said Wednesday.

Joyce Terhaar, executive editor of the Bee, confirmed in an interview Thursday that the newspaper received retiree information from SCERS after suing for it in 2010.“In general, it should have been available from the beginning,” Terhaar said, referring to the data SCERS submitted.

The Bee, which joined with the First Amendment Coalition in a lawsuit against SCERS in 2010, is currently working on stories about the retirees’ information, Terhaar said. She added that she did not know the dates the stories will be published.

The Bee stories may report information that includes the names of retirees and beneficiaries who are collecting benefits, their retirement dates, the names of the departments or agencies for which they worked, their jobs at the time of retirement and how long they were in the retirement system, according to a June 9 letter Stensrud sent to SCERS members.

Retirement allowances, cost of living payments and current retirement payments could also be included in the stories, he wrote.

A June 10 Bee editorial said that the taxpayers should not be blocked from learning the information. “That money comes not just from county employees and retirees, but taxpayers, too. Taxpayers have a right to know what they are paying for,” according to the editorial.

James Diepenbrock, the president of SCERS’ board of directors, said the board did not want to release the information because doing so would make SCERS vulnerable to lawsuits by its members.

Diepenbrock said SCERS must adhere to County Employees Retirement Law of 1937. “That act specifically states that we are to maintain the confidentiality of members’ records,” he said. “As a fiduciary, the board and I felt we can’t release this data because of the way the law reads.”

Terhaar said the courts disagreed with the board’s interpretation of the law.

Stensrud also acknowledged the courts’ views in his letter to retirees.

“Unfortunately, however, both the trial court and the Court of Appeals concluded that the disclosure principles of the (California Public Records Act) outweigh the confidentiality provisions of the 1937 Act,” he wrote.

The Sacramento Bee and First Amendment Coalition won both of their legal fights with SCERS. The Third District Court of Appeals decided May 11 that names of SCERS’ retirees and beneficiaries and their payment information should be publicly released, according to a statement on the SCERS website.

The prior court battle played out in Sacramento County Superior Court, which determined in July 2010 that the data about retirees and beneficiaries should be released under the state’s Public Records Act.

“SCERS does not agree with the conclusion reached by the courts, and continues to believe that ‘naming names’ adds minimal value to the oversight of public employee benefits,” Stensrud wrote in his letter.

“SCERS also continues to be concerned that in this digital age the release of such detailed information could be used by people with questionable motives to prey upon vulnerable retirees and beneficiaries,” he wrote.

SCERS charged the Bee $560 for the records it delivered on Monday, Stensrud said. The charge was to cover the costs of SCERS’ staff time to create a new report out of various databases and for conducting manual research for an element of the data that was not in an existing database, he said.

The Public Records Act states that a public agency can charge fees for “direct costs of duplication” of data.

The information can now be obtained by anyone who wants to make a Public Records Act request. Stensrud said he was unsure of what the charge would be to give out the same information that was provided to the Bee.

Read Stensrud’s June 9 letter to SCERS members here.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

City Hall leaks: What is 'confidential' information?

2010-02-04T06:41:00Z

The Sacramento City Council is eyeing a proposed rule stating that city employees could be fired for leaking confidential information. What are city officials considering 'confidential' information? And what do the definitions mean?

City Attorney Eileen Teichert has drafted language for the proposed rule. The City Council postponed a decision on the proposed rule Tuesday but is expected to take up the issue again at an upcoming meeting.

Leaked information from City Hall has become big news lately. In October, the Sacramento Bee used a leaked memo to report that the Community Development Department's approval of 35 building permits in Natomas may have broken federal rules. The offices of the city attorney and city manager note in a recent report that the department broke rules set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Teichert’s proposal on leaks responds to a request from Councilman Robbie Waters. He had asked Teichert at the Jan. 25 City Council meeting to provide a legal definition for the term “confidentiality.” He said he wanted to see definitions for confidentiality that cover the term on moral and “punitive” level

Teichert defined “confidential information” in two ways in a Feb. 2 report. She wrote that information from closed sessions, in which legal matters are often discussed, are confidential. Information from Teichert is also confidential, the report states. Confidential information includes “oral or written communications by or from the city attorney, containing the city attorney’s legal opinions, advice, thoughts, mental impressions or conclusions that are given on behalf of the city,” the report states.

She noted there are types of information that don't fall under “confidential information.” This applies to information that is “required by law to be reported out of closed session; authorized by the City Council to be disclosed; or otherwise authorized to be disclosed under the law.”

Teichert's proposal states that an “employee disclosing or causing to be disclosed confidential information to any unauthorized person may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

Holly Heyser, a journalist and the faculty advisor of Sacramento State University’s student newspaper, said that when laws are in place to define specific types of information as “confidential,” the argument for the public’s right to learn about the information falls flat.

“If the law authorizes the city to keep certain kinds of information confidential in the first place, then the battle for the public’s right to know has already been lost with respect to that information,” Heyser said in an e-mail Wednesday. “For the city to say there are consequences for employees who leak such information is just an extension of current law.”

However, Heyser noted that people can clash in their views of which kinds of information should be public.

“Where you have the potential for problems is in cases of disagreement over whether certain pieces of information actually can be (or should be) withheld from the public – and that is, of course, what usually impels some employees to leak information,” she wrote.

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy has opposed the idea of a rule stating that an employee could be fired for leaking information. She said it would have a “chilling effect” on whistleblowers.

Read the Feb. 2 report on the proposed rule here.

Photo by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Sheedy opposes crackdown on information leaks

2010-02-03T06:52:26Z

Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy is opposing a proposed rule stating that city employees could be fired for leaking confidential information.

She said at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting the proposed rule would have a “chilling effect” on whistleblowers.

The City Council delayed a decision on the proposal.

The proposal Sheedy is opposing was drafted by City Attorney Eileen Teichert. It states that an “employee disclosing or causing to be disclosed confidential information to any unauthorized person may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

Councilman Robbie Waters wanted Teichert to address confidentiality in a rule. His views on the current proposed language were unclear Tuesday night.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Compromise media shield law seems likely

2009-10-31T02:25:03Z

According to the Associated Press, agreement has been reached between senate, white house, and press representatives on a new version of a media shield law "to protect reporters from being forced to disclose their confidential sources in federal court."

In brief, it would allow the government to seek a source's identity in instances of security leaks with national security implications, the burden would be on the journalist to justify non-disclosure of source identity in criminal cases, and the burden would be on the state to justify disclosure in non-criminal cases.

Of interest to Sacramento Press readers and writers, "The revised bill would also extend protections for freelance or citizen journalists by defining a journalist by the nature of activity engaged in rather than by the organization that employs the reporter."

Full story: Yahoo News