Right-to-Know request leads to partial city employee bank account information being released

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Channel 11 exclusively learned that the city of New Castle by mistake, released to the public partial bank information of hundreds of city employees, both past and present.

Channel 11 found out how this happened and what the city plans to do to prevent this type of error from happening again.

“It was certainly an error on our part that information got out,” said New Castle City Administrator Chris Frye.

According to Frye, the city got a Right-to-Know request from a resident for the salaries of city employees and retirees since 2021, which is public information.

This includes police, fire, public works and council members.

However, in that report, the last four digits of the bank account for roughly 250 to 300 city employees was accidentally released, too. Those living in this area say that’s concerning.

The city administrator said the resident who made the request posted that information on a public Facebook page, which was taken down after the city found out what happened.

Frye said they spoke with several local financial institutions and learned the information disclosed was not enough to place any bank account at risk for a breach.

“We regret that limited information for disclosed,” said Frye. “The four digits it did contain was not enough to put anyone’s bank accounts in jeopardy.”

Frye said they have notified or are in the process of notifying everyone impacted. He said the city is working with its attorneys to better train employees to redact information for future Right-to-Know requests and improve its internal procedures to avoid this situation.

They plan to discuss this matter during Tuesday’s city council meeting.

The city encourages anyone affected to reach out to their financial institutions and notify them.

Frye released the following statement on the incident:

Recently, in response to a residents right-to-know request, the City produced several documents. The resident’s request was for the salaries and amounts paid to all city employees and retirees for 2021, 2022 and 2023 year-to- date. The documents produced were essentially a payroll report but did not include information such as social security numbers, dates of birth or other personal and confidential information. However, the report did contain partial bank information for the direct deposit accounts of those individuals who received payments. The documents produced did not disclose the name of the financial institution, the routing number or even the full account number. The information was posted to Facebook by the requestor. Once it was discovered that the report produced included the limited information, the requestor was asked to remove the documents, and he voluntarily did so. City officials confirmed with several local financial institutions that the information produced was not considered a breach and that the information disclosed was not enough to place any account in jeopardy. The City confirmed that employee and retiree’s bank accounts were not at risk for a breach based on the release of the information. The City however, encourages individuals affected to notify their financial institutions of the disclosure. The City is working with its attorneys to better train employees regarding what information is required to be produced in response to a right-to-know request and to improve its internal procedures to avoid this type of situation from occurring in the future.

www.newcastlepa.org

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