In response to a question during the public comment portion of the March 28 meeting of the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees, township attorney Rob Young clarified the specifics of the confidentiality agreement recently approved by the board members.
The questioner expressed concern that the new policy could conflict with the current federal Open Meetings Act. Young explained that there apparently was misinformation being circulated about the new policy and that it in no way conflicted with current law or changed any information available to the public.
“We are subject to the disclosure of documents that we call FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests. This doesn't change that. Things that the public are not entitled to under FOIA for whatever reason, those are our concern,” he explained.
“This is a backstop to employees who have access to confidential information such as Social Security numbers, banking information, those sorts of things. It doesn't deal with policies or actions of the township board, it just deals with sensitive information,” he said. “It relates to medical reasons an employee might be off work for a period of time. We as a township have to be given this information. You just don't want that information shared,” Young explained.
He said this was an effort to protect the privacy of residents who utilize township services for licenses, permits and other applications on which sensitive material might be required for identification. He compared the policy to the current medical HIPPA laws which protect the privacy of medical information.
Young added that the scope of confidential information should have been defined a “little better.”
“We're going through that,” he said. “This policy doesn't create any further layer of protection and it doesn't pertain to every employee. It just pertains to employees that are dealing that kind of sensitive information.”
