GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2015

H                                                                                                                                                    1

HOUSE BILL 384

Short Title:        Greensboro/Police Disciplinary Actions.		(Local)
Sponsors:	Representatives R. Johnson, Brockman, and Harrison (Primary Sponsors). For a complete list of Sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly Web Site.
Referred to:	Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House.

March 30, 2015

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT authorizing the city of greensboro to disclose to any person and members of a police review board LIMITED PERSONNEL INFORMATION concerning the disposition of disciplinary charges against police officers.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 160A‑168(c), as amended in Section 1 of S.L. 2001‑20 and applicable to the City of Greensboro only, reads as rewritten:

"(c)       All information contained in a city employee's personnel file, other than the information made public by subsection (b) of this section, is confidential and shall be open to inspection only in the following instances:

…

(7)        The city manager, with concurrence of the council, or, in cities not having a manager, the council may inform any person of the employment or nonemployment, promotion, demotion, suspension or other disciplinary action, reinstatement, transfer, or termination oftermination, or other disposition of disciplinary charges against a city employee and the reasons for that personnel action. Before releasing the information, the manager or council shall determine in writing that the release is essential to maintaining public confidence in the administration of city services or to maintaining the level and quality of city services. This written determination shall be retained in the office of the manager or the city clerk, and is a record available for public inspection and shall become part of the employee's personnel file.

(8)        In order to facilitate citizen review of the police disciplinary process, the city manager or the chief of police, or their designees may release the disposition of disciplinary charges against a police officer and the facts relied upon in determining that disposition to the Human Relations Commission Complaint Subcommittee,Subcommittee, or a successor board or committee established by the city council to provide for citizen review of the police disciplinary process, including a police review board, and may release the disposition of the disciplinary charges to the person alleged to have been aggrieved affected by the officer's actions or to that person's survivor. Commission members shall maintain as confidential all personnel information released to them under this subdivision that is not a matter of public record under this section, and any member who violates that confidentiality is guilty of the violations set forth in subsections (e) and (f) of this section. Each member of the Commission shall execute and adhere to a confidentiality agreement that is satisfactory to the city. For purposes of this subdivision,subsection, the term "disposition of disciplinary charges" includes determinations that the charges are sustained, not sustained, unfounded, exonerated, classified as an information file, or classified as any other disciplinary disposition category subsequently adopted by the Greensboro Police Department."

SECTION 2.  The act applies only to the City of Greensboro.

SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.