Group files records requests for Michigan school, state employee pension information

LANSING — Some Michigan public school retirees say they are unsettled by a nonprofit's recent public records requests for their pension information. 

"I still have no idea what they're doing with that information," said Thelma Sain, a retired Michigan public school teacher who lives in Georgia. "It's more information than I would give."

Sain and other Michigan public school retirees who are part of the state pension system were notified this week their names and pension information were released through the Freedom of Information Act request, Department of Technology, Management and Budget spokesperson Caleb Buhs said in an email. 

Steven Schupbach, who works for the Illinois nonprofit American Transparency, which tracks government spending, asked for retired public school workers' first and last names, middle initials, residential zip codes, last employer zip code and monthly payment amount. 

American Transparency maintains a searchable database of public employee salary and pension records on its website, openthebooks.com, as well as information on other public expenditures. 

Since public employee salaries and pensions are paid by tax dollars, it should be easy for the public to see how much people are paid, American Transparency CEO Adam Andrzejewski said. 

"Taxpayers should not have to have a search warrant to see how their money is being spent," he wrote in an email. "The people of Michigan deserve to see the granular details of who's receiving what, when and after how long. It's the only fair way to debate taxpayer-guaranteed job benefits."

The Office of Retirement Services released information about 204,447 public school retirees to Schupbach, Buhs said. It is also working on a similar request from the nonprofit for retired state worker pension information.

ORS released names, middle initials, employers and total gross salary for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, but did not fulfill the requests entirely.

That information is public under the Freedom of Information Act. More sensitive information, like Social Security numbers, is not releasable under the act.

"As public sector entity, we are bound by the Freedom of Information Act and required to make public documents available when properly requested," Buhs said in an email. "DTMB goes to great lengths to ensure that any information released does not contain confidential information, redacting that data as allowed by law."

Sain, who taught at Muskegon Heights and Jackson Intermediate school districts, said she was uncomfortable with the release of her information and wishes she had control over whether it was released. She was happy the state notified her of the public records request, but still disturbed by it.

"I did a double-take," she said. "My name? My initials? My initials set me apart from every other Thelma there is."

The group should explain why it wants to know such detailed information about specific retirees, like incomes and middle names, which is information that could help someone steal their identities, Sain said. 

"If I see there's validity in your [interest in] getting this information, then perhaps I would say OK," she said. "But for you just to be able to get this information, it's disturbing."

Requests for employees' salary and retirees' pension information have become an annual routine.

Schupbach made the same request last year, also causing an uproar among some retirees who said they felt the information would be used to insinuate retirees were overcompensated.

Michigan administers retirement programs for retired state workers, public school employees, judges, state police employees and National Guard members. Collectively, there are about 227,000 working and 281,500 retired people who have accounts through these programs.

More:Michigan can say 'thank u, Ariana Grande'; Her hit '7 Rings' boosts state pension funds

Jarrett Skorup, Communications Director of the Midland-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy, filed a similar request for current state and public school employees' salary information. The Mackinac Center, a free market think-tank, maintains a database of those salaries and uses the information to write about trends in public sector pay or about the highest-paid state or school employees. 

Other states maintain registries of public employees' salaries, Skorup said. 

"Anybody can file a public records request and get your name and salary," he said. "That's been the law for 40 years in the state. We are making it easier, but we think there's a public purpose for that."

Contact Carol Thompson at ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.