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Tampa's Lawyer: Don't Log Data On Laid-Off Workers

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By ELLEN GEDALIUS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 5, 2007

TAMPA - City Attorney David Smith has rejected Councilman John Dingfelder's request to provide more detailed information about laid-off city employees.

Compiling a list of the employees' gender, race and other personal factors could cause people to incorrectly conclude the city made layoff decisions based on that information, Smith said. That could expose the city to lawsuits, he said.

At issue is Mayor Pam Iorio's announcement last month of plans to lay off 100 city workers, mostly janitors and security personnel. She plans to privatize those services.

The city council would need to approve those contracts, prompting Dingfelder last week to say he wanted a list of all affected city employees and their genders, race and length of service. He also wants to know how many dependents each has on the city's health care plan.

Smith said Tuesday in a memo to the council that the information doesn't exist in the form Dingfelder wants it, and the city is not obligated to prepare a report that does not exist in order to comply with a public records request.

"The very creation of such a list would subject the city to litigation risk should individuals who are laid off in the future believe that their loss of a job was due to any of such factors," Smith wrote. "I have advised the administration not to prepare such a report."

Smith also wrote that anybody has the right to compile his or her own summary of information by having staff members glean the information from personnel records. The city can charge a fee for that service. However, Smith advises the council against compiling such a list.

In an interview, Dingfelder said he would gather the information himself. He also criticized Smith's memo.

"While I always appreciate David's legal advice, he's looking at this from an administrative perspective," Dingfelder said. "From a legislative and policy perspective, these are valid issues. This has nothing to do with lawsuits."

Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at (813) 259-7679 or egedalius@tampatrib.com.

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