CONFIDENTIALITY OF COMPLAINANTS, BUREAU OF PLANNING AND SUSTAINABILITY
Administrative Rule Adopted by City Council
ARC-ENN-9.01
A. BACKGROUND
The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability’s enforcement program relies upon confidential complaints to initiate investigations into alleged rules infractions. There is no legal obligation for citizens. Whether or not a violation exists is independently determined by a bureau field inspector. After the inspector determines that a violation exists, the inspector is source of information for any enforcement action.
B. POLICY
The Bureau shall treat complainant information as confidential submissions under Oregon law.
C. PROCEDURE
The Oregon Public Records Law allows information submitted to the City in confidence, and not otherwise required by law to be submitted, to be considered confidential. The names of complainants and contact information about them, such as addresses, phone numbers or email, will be treated as confidential and not released to the public.
The Bureau shall undertake steps to inform complainants at the time of intake that the Bureau will take all reasonable precautions to treat their names and contact information as confidential.
Information and documents that have complainant information may be provided to the public; however, the complainant’s name and contact information shall be removed or otherwise rendered illegible before being released to the public. Complainant information within the complaint database will be encrypted for privacy.
Complainant information will be disclosed if ordered by a court.
HISTORY
Ordinance No. 185451, passed by City Council June 21, 2012 and effective July 21, 2012.