As the North Carolina General Assembly hurtles toward the May 8 crossover deadline, legislators are rushing to pass bills. Bills that do not pass at least one chamber by crossover are unlikely to become law (although there are ways around that problem).

One bill, Senate Bill 299, appears unlikely to make the cut. That is unfortunate because it would add some important transparency to help us know why teachers and other government employees were fired from their previous jobs.

Making more personnel files open to public inspection

The bill mainly expands the type of employee records that state government agencies must retain and make available to public inspection. While currently only promotion records are retained, the bill would require agencies to maintain records for demotions, transfers, suspensions, separations, and dismissals. The bill specifically includes university system leaders (including chancellors, the Board of Trustees, and the system’s President) in the list of those subject to greater employee records disclosure.

The bill contains protections against disclosing employees’ medical information and other information protected by state law. In addition, employees can appeal to strike some information from their records.

In addition to state agencies, those subject to greater employment records disclosure include:

  • School systems
  • Community colleges
  • Public mental health and substance abuse facilities
  • Public hospitals and other health facilities
  • County governments
  • Municipal governments
  • Water and sewer systems

The bill would let citizens know, the employment history of political officials, teachers, and other government workers.

Senate bill 299 is dead, but is it really?

Although SB 299 did not pass the Senate before crossover, we may see some version of it passed by the General Assembly either this year or during next year’s short session.

A common method to reviving a dead bill is to add it as an amendment to a bill that has made it though crossover. In the most extreme version, legislators will take a bill that has passed one chamber but is dead in the other, scrape out all of the original bill except for the bill number, and replace with a totally new bill. The bill would then have to pass both chambers in its modified form.

Another common method is to roll the bill into the state budget. Many policy proposals end up in the budget, even if they don’t belong there. What makes that an appealing tactic is that it lets legislators pass policy proposals that might otherwise get vetoed, especially if it is part of a deal that the governor otherwise wants. The most famous recent example is when then Gov. Roy Cooper refused to veto what he called a “bad budget” because it included Medicaid expansion.

So, there is still hope for more government personnel transparency.