California Supreme Court Finds Limited Exception to Employees' Access to Supervisor Notes Under FFBOR

On August 24, 2015, the California Supreme Court issued a decision in Poole v. Orange County Fire Authority. The Court held Government Code section 3255 did not compel the County to provide a firefighter the opportunity to review and respond to a supervisor's personal notes regarding the firefighters work performance if the notes were not used for a personnel purpose. The supervisor did not share the notes or make them available to anyone with authority to take adverse disciplinary action against the firefighter. For these reasons, the Court held the supervisor's notes did not constitute a file "used for any personnel purposes by his or her employer."

Under the Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act ("FFBOR"), a firefighter has the right to review and respond to any negative comment that is "entered in his or her personnel file, or any other file used for any personnel purpose." In Poole, a supervisor maintained raw notes on his subordinates. The notes documented factual occurrences for his reference when writing employees' annual reviews. Some of the occurrences in the supervisor's notes described instances where the employees had failed to complete assigned duties. The supervisor did not make these notes available to anyone with authority to take adverse action against the firefighter and not all of the notes were documented in annual performance reviews. The Court considered the narrow question of whether the FFBOR required the supervisor to provide employees the opportunity to review and respond to negative comments in his notes that were not included in the employees' annual performance evaluations or performance improvement plans.

It is well established that employers must provide firefighters and public safety officers an opportunity to review and respond to negative comments entered into files used for personnel purposes. For example, in Venegas the appellate court concluded that an index card maintained by internal affairs documenting all complaints against an officer constituted a file "used for... personnel purposes," because it would be available to those responsible for disciplinary action. In addition, in County of Riverside, the county was required to disclose to a police officer adverse comments in a file containing the results of a background investigation the county used to determine whether to continue to employ the officer. And in Aguilar, the appellate court held an officer was entitled to review and respond to an uninvestigated citizen's complaint placed in a confidential investigative file. These cases remain authoritative in compelling employers to provide firefighters and public safety officers the opportunity to review and respond to adverse comments placed in files "used for... personnel purposes."

The Court distinguished this case from other cases interpreting similar statutes on the basis that the supervisor's notes were not available to anyone making personnel decisions in the future. Based on a unique set of circumstances, this case clarified FFBOR protections are not triggered by a supervisor's private notes that were not used for any personnel action.

Supreme Court to Resolve What Counts As a Personnel File

Government Code section 3255 requires employers give firefighters an opportunity to review any adverse comments before they can be placed in the firefighters "personnel file, or any other file used for any personnel purposes by his or her employer."  Likewise, Government Code section 3256.5 give firefighters the right to inspect their files and request corrections.  But, some employers have tried to skirt around the law by making adverse comments in secret files or other places.  Now the California Supreme Court will weigh in on what constitutes a personnel file under FFOBR when it hears the appeal of Poole v. Orange County Fire Authority.

In Poole v. Orange County Fire Authority, the Court of Appeal ruled firefighters have a right under FFBOR to review and respond to personnel comments entered into "daily logs," even though the employer claimed they were not put in the employee's "personnel file."

The case is about a firefighter with the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA). OFCA keeps personnel files at OFCA's headquarters in Irvine, but a fire captain kept a separate file at the fire station on each of the firefighters he supervised, which he called "daily logs." He used in the preparation of yearly evaluations and did not give firefighters an opportunity to review them before recording them.

When the firefighter found out about the "daily logs," he requested management delete them pursuant to section 3256.5(c).  However, OFCA refused, claiming they were not subject to FFBOR because “while the notes were intended to be used for personnel purposes, they were never ‘entered’ into any file.” The Court of Appeal disagreed, noting firefighters should be able to review the daily logs because the purpose of the law is to “facilitate the firefighter’s ability to respond to adverse comments potentially affecting the firefighters employment status.”

The California Supreme Court granted review on February 26, 2014.