Last Tuesday, an hour before the state provided the Richmond Times-Dispatch with a list of state employees' salaries, Virginia Secretary of Administration Lisa Hicks-Thomas sent an e-mail to all state employees alerting them to the release of information.
"In accordance with the law, we must provide this data for each employee . . . by the close of business today," Hicks-Thomas wrote. "We apologize for any inconvenience the mandatory compliance with this request may cause."
Subsequently, dozens of calls poured in to the newsroom starting Tuesday afternoon, most from state employees and managers concerned about their wages being made public.
State employees' salaries are public information, according to the state's Freedom of Information Act; The Times-Dispatch obtained the data using FOI.
When asked last week why the state sent an e-mail about the FOI request to all employees, Gov. Bob McDonnell's communications director, J. Tucker Martin, said, "The e-mail was sent to state employees as a courtesy. They deserved to know that due to this FOIA request their salary information could be made public in the days ahead."
The Times-Dispatch requested the salary information Oct. 4, and after days of negotiating specifics of the request, the state provided the list last Tuesday, Oct. 12.
Below is the full text of Hicks-Thomas' e-mail to state employees:
Dear Fellow State Employees:
In an effort to continue to keep you informed on matters that affect us all as employees of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I'm writing to tell you that on Monday, October 4, 2010, the Richmond Times Dispatch, under the Freedom of Information Act, requested that the Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM) provide the name, job title, and salary of every state employee. In accordance with the law, we must provide this data for each employee in the DHRM database by the close of business today. Please direct any questions that you have regarding this action to the Human Resource representative within your agency. We apologize for any inconvenience the mandatory compliance with this request may cause. Thank you again for all your hard work and dedication to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Sincerely,
Lisa Hicks-Thomas
Secretary of Administration
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