Disciplinary and Harassment Investigations

communications from the individuals’ personal electronic accounts that were stored solely on personal devices or servers.

The Supreme Court unanimously held that a city employee’s communications about public business are not excluded from the PRA just because they are sent, received, or stored in a personal account. The Court emphasized: the PRA’s purpose is to provide public access to “the conduct of the people’s business”; and the California Constitution mandates courts to broadly interpret laws that provide access to public information. Thus, writings relating to the public’s business prepared by agency employees are public records, regardless of whether the employee prepared the record on a personal or agency account. The Court explained that the location where the writing is stored is irrelevant. Because public agencies will likely be concerned about how to search and obtain public records that may reside in employees’ personal accounts, the Supreme Court issued guidance on this issue: agencies only need to conduct reasonable searches; “extraordinarily extensive or intrusive searches” are not required. Villanova v. Innovative Investigations, Inc. 94 : Tracking Employees Driving Employer Vehicles Via GPS The New Jersey appellate court decided whether the use a Global Positioning System (GPS) invaded the right of privacy. The court held that that, as long as the car is not driven to a secluded location, there is no right of privacy. New Jersey law, like California’s, contains a constitutional right of privacy. However, tracking an individual’s driving with a GPS device no more invades that individual’s privacy than does simply observing or following him “or even taking his photograph while he is walking on a public highway since he is not then in seclusion and his appearance is public and open to the public eye.” Further, a person traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares “has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another.”  Retain a key or combination for each locker, desk or vehicle on agency property and notify the employees of this fact. Make sure any lock on agency property is owned and supplied by the employer and forbid employees to use their own locks.  Provide formal notice to employees they have no privacy interest in lockers, desks, vehicles the computer system and emails, documents and other information on that system, all of this is agency property and may be searched without employee consent or knowledge and that refusal to permit such searches may result in discipline.

2. G UIDELINES FOR C ONDUCTING W ORKPLACE S EARCHES :

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