On April 22, 2008, Silver Hadden Silver Wexler + Levine filed in the Orange County Superior Court a lawsuit seeking an injunction on behalf of the Orange County Employees’ Association representing approximately 13,000 members in the County of Orange. Specifically, the lawsuit seeks to enjoin the public disclosure of the names of County employees to the Orange County Register newspaper until the County of Orange provides reasonable written notice to the Association and the opportunity to meet and confer as to the issues of safety on the proposed disclosure. 

On April 16, 2008, following concealment by the County from the Association, the Association discovered that approximately one month previously, the Count y received a request from the Orange County Register under the Public Records Act for the County to provide an electronic copy of payroll records for all current County employees for the fiscal year, including the employee’s name, title, department, base pay, bonus pay, overtime pay or any other type of monetary compensation.

In accordance with the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (Government Code Section 3500, et seq.), public employers are required to provide reasonable written notice to the recognized employee organization and the opportunity to meet and confer respecting matters within the scope of representation prior to arriving at a policy or course of action. Pursuant to wellestablished case law under Government Code Section 3500, et seq., any rules and practices by a public employer affecting employees’ safety constitutes a mandatory subject of bargaining.

In its lawsuit, the As sociat ion cont ends that it has a legitimat e interest in preventing the imminent and unwarranted public disclosure of names of those represented employees whose safety is subject to jeopardy by the proposed disclosure; for example ,victims of domestic violence, stalking or gang violence, a nd of whom exception from disclosure would be warranted under the Public Records Act.

Within the week following the institution of the lawsuit, the County and Association agreed on mutually acceptable notification procedures to effectively inform the Association’s represented employees of the Public Records Request, opportunity to identify those employees whose particular circumstances would justify the non-disclosure of information under the statutory exemptions of the Government Code and a suitable procedure for employees to challenge any preliminary decision by the County denying any claimed exemption for any employee.