If you have a job your personnel records are, well, personal. Your employer has information about you that is not to be shared with others—for example, your Social Security number.

If you are a public employee, holding a job with government at any level, your personnel files are even more specifically protected. Any exposure of your work record can give you grounds for a complaint or a law suit for breach of that statutorily required confidence.

For the most part this seems to be a good idea. In the course of doing their work public employees are sometimes placed in difficult positions, enforcing rules, imposing fines, settling estates ... in short, performing tasks that may stir up great citizen disgruntlement.

Then too, those employees are human beings, prey to all of the shortcomings that beset our species. Sometimes they behave badly, or accuse others of bad behavior. In order for these workers to do their jobs effectively it would seem that a system that buffers public knowledge of private lives is a reasonable policy.

With good management, all such issues can be investigated and addressed appropriately.

However, it’s my sense that there are government employees whose public roles ought to override the privacy protection accorded most workers. Recent accusations and allegations concerning Asheville’s chief of police offer a case in point.

Following a single-car auto accident involving his son, APD Chief William Andersen was accused of meddling with the investigation by a senior officer. Allegations included attempted coercion of testimony regarding the incident.

Initially these accusations became part of the criminal investigation of the accident, and were left to the State Bureau of Investigation and the district attorney for resolution. When the chief was cleared of criminal charges, the allegations reverted to an internal personnel inquiry, because they involved an employee complaint against a department manager.

Under Asheville’s system of governance, the chief of police is hired by and serves at the pleasure of the city manager, so the manager’s office conducted the internal investigation. Involved parties were interviewed, e-mail, phone and other records were examined, and a conclusion was reached.

Due to the seriousness of the charges, and the implications for public confidence, City Council authorized a very limited release of those conclusions (as permitted under applicable personnel law.)

The chief retained his job, as did the employee making the charges. Some reassignments within the department were suggested and put into effect. An outside contractor was hired to evaluate the internal management structure of the police department, and to offer recommendations for change.

Nobody was happy.

During the long internal investigation, the Asheville Citizen-Times weighed in with a front-page editorial which suggested that City Council was shirking its responsibilities to citizens by sitting on its hands instead of somehow leading a public charge into the fray.

This completely ignored the fact that council was prevented by law from making any public statements other than general support for the legal process. Other officers jumped into the limelight, making further charges which once again could not be publicly addressed. 

Distrust of the police department, specifically the chief and senior officers, was fanned into flames. The city manager’s office was accused of a cover-up or worse. 

All of this, despite the fact that each step along the way followed the letter and spirit of the law.

No public good was served.

Public employees in senior management positions ought not to be subject to the same privacy protection as the worker-bees in their departments. Like elected officials, their records, allegations of misconduct and the result of any investigation ought to be part of the public record. That’s the only way  public trust can be maintained.

At the same time, anyone who makes allegations about a senior manager should know that their allegations would be made public, and that the results of any investigation involving their claims would also end up in the public eye. In other words, lodging complaints against that higher-up would result in giving up the privacy of their own personnel records. Such a policy ought to provide some screen against frivolous claims and put cards on the table.

Public office is a public trust, and we could all benefit from a little more sunshine.

•

Cecil Bothwell, author of nine books, including “She Walks On Water: A novel” (Brave Ulysses Books, 2013), is a member of Asheville City Council.