San Benito High School District Superintendent Stan Rose has
declined to release the pay status of food service attendant Nancy
Polizzi. His decision comes despite a recent California Supreme
Court decision, which denotes all public employee salaries as
public information.
San Benito High School District Superintendent Stan Rose has declined to release the pay status of food service attendant Nancy Polizzi. His decision comes despite a recent California Supreme Court decision, which denotes all public employee salaries as public information.
Tom Newton, an attorney with the California Newspaper Publishers Association, said Rose’s decision was “simply out of whack with the law” and that the district could be sued to obtain the information.
“This is simply a question of whether or not a public employee is being compensated,” Newton said. “The superintendent’s decision shows contempt for the Supreme Court and contempt for public access.”
Rose has called Polizzi’s pay status “personnel matters” and today responded to a California Public Records Act request filed by the Free Lance on May 16, with a letter stating: “… there are numerous cases on point where employers investigating the alleged wrongdoing of an employee have withheld production and personnel materials. In addition, the California constitution protects employees’ privacy interests.”
Newton called Rose’s response “very short on legal analysis.”
Rose did not return Free Lance phone calls Wednesday.
Newton said all public employees’ pay status and pay rates are public information since their paychecks come from tax dollars. He cited the 2007 Supreme Court decision in the case of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers v. Superior Court of Alameda County. The decision states, he said, that “no public employee has a privacy interest with regards to their salary.”
Polizzi was placed on an unspecified “leave” shortly after her March 27 testimony in the Santa Clara County murder trial of 26-year-old Fresno resident Francisco Vega, Rose said at the time.
Vega, along with 23-year-old Hollister resident Joshua Joseph, were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for waiting outside Owens’ San Jose home then entering the house and shooting him several times with a .22 caliber handgun.
During her sworn testimony, and in a subsequent interview with the Free Lance, Polizzi said she gave the two convicted killers money to buy the handgun used to kill Owens as well as money to start a “marijuana operation.”
She also said she was involved in a sexual relationship with both Owens and Joseph – who is her stepson – and that Joseph warned her that “David is dead” before the murder.
Polizzi has not been charged in the case, and Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Daniel Carr said he will consider that her possible involvement after he finishes a current murder trial expected to last through this week.
