I read in both the San Jose Mercury News and The Weekly about the release of Santa Clara Councilmember Patricia Mahan’s medical information by the Human Resources Department. The City Attorney, Brian Doyle, subsequently supported this stating because it is a “public official we had to report it to council”. However, that does not give the City the right to release this information publicly. This then puts every high level (or perhaps all) city employee in the position that their private information can be released. One of the most basic Human Resources policies is that of employee confidentiality. If this had been a corporation involved and the HR Department released personal information on a senior level corporate employee, the HR Manager would have been immediately fired. I think the Santa Clara HR Manager and City Attorney need to go back to school and re-take courses on Ethics and Code of Conduct regarding employee confidentiality. Shame on them!
Regards,
Winnie
