Four denials: How North Myrtle Beach illegally handles Freedom of Information doc requests
In recent weeks, the City of North Myrtle Beach has called to remove their city manager, had him sign a confidentiality agreement about the end of his employment and denied four Freedom of Information Act requests.
All of these denials are illegal, according to South Carolina Press Association attorney Taylor Smith.
“Assuming you even have an expectation of privacy and the performance of your public duties, which our Supreme Court has already rejected in most circumstances, if you chose to withhold an entire record under a claim of exemption, you would use what the statute says as your tool, meaning, with redaction, you can black out every single word, even perhaps punctuation, if that would reveal somehow information that is private,” he said. “That is the way in which they would withhold the personnel file lawfully, which they’re not doing here.”
Two different FOIA requests for former city manager Mike Mahaney’s personnel file, filed a month apart, were both denied, according to emails between the city and The Sun News.
“The information requested is exempt from disclosure pursuant to section 30-4-40(a)(2) of the Code of Laws of South Carolina because the information is of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute an unreasonable invasion of personal privacy,” the city cited as their reason for denying Mahaney’s personnel file again on Oct. 24.
At the bottom of a second denial email, Public Information Officer Lauren Jessie listed Mahaney’s salary as $253,010.42 and wrote that his contract began on July 6, 2010, and it ended on Oct. 22, 2024.
In a separate, and third FOIA request for now acting city manager Ryan Fabbri’s personnel file, Jessie cited the same reason, and refused to release documents.
Below her citation of the same state statute used to withhold Mahaney’s file, Jessie wrote that Fabbri’s salary is $130,000.
An email sent to Fabbri on Oct. 22 asking for a copy of his personnel file went unanswered as of Thursday morning.
A fourth request for text messages that contained the words “Mike Mahaney,” “Mike,” “Mahaney” or “City Manager” and were sent or received by elected city council members, the mayor and Fabbri within 30 business days of Sept. 18 were sent on Oct. 30, which is more than a month after the request was made.
Those responses included five grainy photos of individual text messages without the name of the sender, the times or the dates.
A subsequent Freedom of Information Act request asking for the numbers and names of the texts’ senders, was denied in part.
“The names and phone numbers of the “Citizens” from Texts 1 and 2 are exempt from disclosure pursuant to section 30-4-40(a)(2) of the Code of Laws of South Carolina because the information is of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute an unreasonable invasion of personal privacy,” the denial said.
According to the Federal Records Act, communications of government officials are public record.
Smith said that there is no expectation of privacy when communicating with public employees or officials, and that a phone number does not constitute as an unreasonable invasion of privacy.
“It is difficult for me to even assume that by learning a telephone number seven or 10 digits that I suddenly also am linked to a person by their name, address or other identifying information, meaning, if it’s just a number, it is a number,” he said. “It does not even glean personal information, much less information which are behind an expected zone of privacy, and even less that it would be an unreasonable invasion of privacy to release said number.”
At the end of email exchanges with public employees or elected officials, many sign-offs will indicate that the exchange is subject to FOIA and part of public record.
“All e-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to public disclosure under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act (FOIA),” the bottom of Fabbri’s email signature states. “This correspondence is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is proprietary, privileged, confidential or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure.”
Mahaney was first removed from his role and placed on paid administrative leave during a special meeting on Sept. 19.
Approximately one month later, on Oct. 22, city council voted to accept his letter of resignation, and pay him more than $300,000 in exchange for him signing a non-disparaging agreement with North Myrtle Beach’s Mayor Marilyn Hatley.
A request for a copy of Mahaney’s resignation letter remains pending with the city, as of Thursday morning.
This story was originally published November 1, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
