VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. SALARIES. GOVERNING BODY, WHEN ADVERTISING NEW BUDGET, NOT PROHIBITED UNDER 2.l-342(c) FROM PUBLISHING OFFICIAL SALARIES OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES WHOSE ANNUAL RATE OF PAY IS $10,000 OR LESS.

March 20, 1981

The Honorable James H. Ward, Jr.
Commonwealth's Attorney for the County of Middlesex

80-81 394

You ask whether a county governing body, when advertising the budget, is prohibited under § 2.1-342(c) of the Code of Virginia (1950), as amended, from publishing the official salaries or rates of pay of public employees whose annual rate of pay is $10,000 or less.

Section 2.1-342(c) provides that no provision of the Virginia Freedom of Information or Privacy Acts shall be construed as denying public access to the records of the official salary or rate of pay of any public officer official or employee at any level of local government provided, however, that subsection (c) shall not apply to records of the official salaries or rates of pay of public employees whose annual rate of pay is $10,000 or less. Subsection (c) was added by Ch. 810 of the 1978 Acts of Assembly to require public disclosure, upon proper request, of certain personnel records of any public officer, official or employee at any level of local government. Prior to the amendment, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act had been interpreted as not requiring the disclosure of salary records of individually named public employees.¹

The amendment modified the Virginia Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts to require disclosure of salary records of named individuals previously exempt from required disclosure under the personnel records exemption. See § 2.1-342 (b) (3). The amendment, however, specifically exempted from required disclosure the salaries of employees whose annual pay is $10,000 or less.²

Subsection (c) therefore leaves the salary records of such employees exempt from mandatory disclosure. Subsection (c) does not affect voluntary disclosure of the salary records of such employees.³

Accordingly, I am of the opinion that a county governing body, when advertising the new budget, is not prohibited under § 2.1-342(c) from publishing the official salaries or rates of pay of public employees whose annual rate of pay is $10,000 or less.

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Footnotes:

1. See Opinion to the Honorable Frank D. Harris, Commonwealth's Attorney for Mecklenberg County, dated August 15, 1978, found in *REPORT of the Attorney General (1978-1979) at 310*.

2. See, Harris Opinion.

3. Regarding voluntary disclosure by a public body of personnel records, see the following in Report of the Attorney General (1977-1978): supra a) Opinion to the Honorable Mary A. Marshall, Member, House of Delegates, dated October 27, 1977, at 310; b) Opinion to the Honorable Jerry K. Emrich, County Attorney of Arlington County, dated *January 12, 1978, at 489*; c) Opinion to the Honorable Claude V. Swanson, Member, House of Delegates, dated May 24, 1978, at 481. See also Opinion to the Honorable Elise G. Heinz, Member, House of Delegates, dated December 20, 1978, found in Report of the Attorney General (1978-1979) at 317; and Opinion to the Honorable William E. Fears, Member, Senate of Virginia, dated March 27, 1980, found in Report of the Attorney General (1979-1980) at 301.