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Saturday, March 04, 2006

Ind. Law - Linton mayor doesn't have to release results to city council

The Linton Daily World reported yesterday, in a story by Halea Franklin:

A battle over drug tests results in the city of Linton seems to have been resolved.

On Jan. 10, city employees were given drug tests. Linton City Councilman Kelly Foglesong has requested the test results; however, Linton Mayor Tom Jones has denied him the records.

At the February meeting of the Linton City Council, Foglesong publicly requested the information. Jones denied him access to the information and said the information was part of employee's personnel files.

“I think we have a responsibility to our employees to maintain those files and keep their integrity,” Jones said in February.

On Thursday, Karen Davis, the Indiana Public Access Counselor responded for a formal complaint, filed by Foglesong, that the city violated the Access to Public Records Act (APRA) by denying access to a list of results.

“It is my opinion that the city may withhold the drug test results of individual employees. The drug test results are part of the employees' personnel file,” Davis wrote in her response. “In addition, drug test results are not among the types of information from an employee's personnel file that must be disclosed. Therefore, it is not a violation of the APRA for the city to deny you (Foglesong) these records. In addition, under the APRA the city was not required to compile a list of test results at your request.” * * *

“We're not trying to hide anything. We're just following the law of the State of Indiana,” Jones said, noting the test results are confidential.

Foglesong also said he feels there's a trust issue involved. “Trust is like virginity, once it's gone, it's gone,” Foglesong said.

Jones said there is a trust issue involved - one between the employee and employer. “It's also following state code,” Jones said.

Foglesong said his phone has rung off the wall by those in support of him seeing the results. “I've yet to speak with anyone who's against letting them loose,” Foglesong said.

Jones said Foglesong is the only person who's asked him to see the results.

Here is a copy of the PAC opinion, dated March 1, 2006.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 4, 2006 09:38 AM
Posted to Indiana Law