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Re: Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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Home away from home
 
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As it should be! There is nothing particularly complex about the data being provided in Excel format, or any other format. Any database system should be able to provide a function to export the data into a delimited document, which can then be easily exported by anyone onto ANY type of spreadsheet or database software. To generate and provide the data should not have taken several months. If that's not stonewalling, I don't know what is.
Posted on: 2015/3/26 12:52
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Re: Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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Home away from home
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2008/10/19 1:18 Last Login : 2020/9/25 20:40 From somewhere else
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I can assure you, at least in Jersey City, that information is maintained on an ongoing basis and in spreadsheet format. When the current administration came in, the personnel dept. was able to hit print and provide names, titles, length of service, civil service status and salaries by dept. for the city's entire workforce.
Posted on: 2015/3/26 0:10
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Re: Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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2013/3/29 21:43 Last Login : 2023/9/5 18:27 From Bergen Hill
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It really depends upon how many employees they have dedicated towards obtaining all the information requested. For all the talk about saving money, it's not as if the information comes free.
i also like how the journalist thinks supplying the information in the specified format should be just as simple. Ultimately, it took a few months. That isn't completely awful given how long it has taken in other locations...
Posted on: 2015/3/25 19:40
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Dos A Cero
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Re: Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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You think wrong. And, that FOI officer that you mention gave you bad information. There is no such thing as privileged employee income, title or salary information. It is all a matter of public record. The only exceptions to OPRA disclosure laws are related to sexual harassment suits that may have been file, Social Security and driver's license numbers, collective bargaining negotiations information, and a few other very limited scope exceptions. The text of the NJ OPRA legislation is here or here. If you are bored, and would like to see ALL of the salary information for employees in NYC or NYS, you can use this site and there are several others. In fact, the government of the City of New York has its own website that makes access to this information also possible. I don't have the URL at hand, but will post it later. Also, if you are particularly bored, and looking for more reasons to be mad at the PA, check out the Public Authorities section of the SeeThroughNY site and do a search of the Port Authority of NY & NJ, and then look at the salaries. Insane salaries being paid out over there, particularly when it comes to those who   NB: I should qualify what I wrote by saying all of the above is applicable to NY and NJ. Some states may have different standards. In NY and NJ, multiple websites exists that go through the painstaking process of collecting and collating this data and make it easily searchable by the public.
Posted on: 2015/3/23 0:52
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Re: Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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2006/11/13 18:42 Last Login : 2022/2/28 7:31 From 280 Grove Street
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I don't think so - I've spoken to an FOI Officer of a government institution and it was made quite clear that you can gain access to all incomes, however there is a privacy issue when requesting incomes about a specific person by name - You have to request the title of a position to get the information - In layman terms; It becomes an issue when you request how much Mr Knuckle-head earns, but not if you request the income of the Building Inspector (for which Mr Knuckle-head performs)
Posted on: 2015/3/22 21:40
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My humor is for the silent blue collar majority - If my posts offend, slander or you deem inappropriate and seek deletion, contact the webmaster for jurisdiction.
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Re: Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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Home away from home
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Wrong. Government is the public's business and the public has a right (a duty, really) to know how Government spends the money that is entrusted to the treasury and should have access to the records of government operations, employees, etc. That Hudson County makes it hard to get this data flies on the face of government openness, which is a reality in NYS and NYC. I would hope that the reporter stays on top of this issue and continues to expose this abuse of trust.
Posted on: 2015/3/22 16:01
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Re: Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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The article made BoingBoing!
Good going Terrence, now if you would only burrow into the reval nonsense, you'd convince me there's a real reporter at the Journal.
Posted on: 2015/3/21 21:13
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Re: Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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I'm shocked this could happen in Hudson County! Shocked!
Posted on: 2015/3/21 12:47
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Re: Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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Home away from home
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2006/11/13 18:42 Last Login : 2022/2/28 7:31 From 280 Grove Street
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It would be easier if you requested the salary amounts via each and every department and via position number and title - I would think asking for actual individual names to be a big hurdle ... Once you get those details that don't cause a privacy issue, you can then cross-reference them with staff independently via their position title
Posted on: 2015/3/21 7:43
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My humor is for the silent blue collar majority - If my posts offend, slander or you deem inappropriate and seek deletion, contact the webmaster for jurisdiction.
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Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggle
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Obtaining salary info from public agencies remains a struggleBy This is the story of what happens when you ask public entities how much they pay their workers. To commemorate Sunshine Week, a nationwide celebration of open government, The Jersey Journal embarked on a mission to use the state Open Public Records Act to obtain a list of every public employee in Hudson County, plus the workers' titles, hire dates and pay information. And we wanted the data emailed in spreadsheet format, so we could compile and compare it with minimal fuss. This should be easy. All of the requested information is unambiguously public, and technology has made storing and sending documents easier than in 2001, when OPRA was first enacted. Yet it took more than two months to obtain the data from the county's public entities. The Jersey Journal was stymied in its effort by public officials who insisted that the newspaper file its requests on specific public-records forms, even though standardized forms aren't necessary; the sheer number of public entities (at least 60 spread out among the county's 12 municipalities), many of which don't have OPRA forms on their websites, if they have websites at all; and officials who seemed unwilling or unable to email the information. Read more: http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... it&utm_medium=twitter
Posted on: 2015/3/21 5:59
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