Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
Pursuant to the requirements of
division (B)(2) of section
1347.15
of the Revised Code, this rule contains a list of valid reasons, directly
related to the office of the Ohio consumers' counsel (OCC) exercise of its
powers or duties, for which only employees of the agency may access
confidential personal information (CPI) regardless of whether the personal
information system is a manual system or computer system:
(A)
Performing the
following functions constitute valid reasons for authorized employees of the
agency to access confidential personal information:
(1)
Responding to a
public records request;
(2)
Responding to a request from an individual for the
list of CPI the agency maintains on that individual;
(3)
Administering a
constitutional provision or duty;
(4)
Administering a
statutory provision or duty;
(5)
Administering an
administrative rule provision or duty;
(6)
Complying with
any state or federal program requirements;
(7)
Processing or
payment of claims or otherwise administering a program with individual
participants or beneficiaries;
(8)
Auditing
purposes;
(9)
Licensure [or permit, eligibility, filing, etc.]
processes;
(10)
Investigation or law enforcement purposes;
(11)
Administrative hearings;
(12)
Litigation,
complying with an order of the court, or subpoena;
(13)
Human resource
matters (e.g., hiring, promotion, demotion, discharge, salary/compensation
issues, leave requests/issues, time card approvals/issues);
(14)
Complying with
an executive order or policy;
(15)
Complying with
an agency policy or a state administrative policy issued by the department of
administrative services, the office of budget and management or other similar
state agency; or
(16)
Complying with a collective bargaining agreement
provision.
(B)
To the extent that the general processes described in
paragraph (A) of this rule do not cover the following circumstances, for the
purpose of carrying out specific duties of the Ohio consumers' counsel,
authorized employees would also have valid reasons for accessing CPI in these
following circumstances:
(1)
Employees of the administration division may review
CPI of individuals who are subject to investigation for alleged misconduct that
may result in discipline or counseling. Such employees may also review CPI of
individuals who are not the subject of an investigation, but who otherwise may
be witnesses or have information related to the investigation.
(2)
Authorized
employees of the agency may review CPI of consumers for the purpose of
developing trends (documenting certain complaints), or gathering information to
be used in legal matters/testimony as that information may apply to the
representation of residential utility consumers in Ohio.
(3)
Employees of the
communications department may review consumers CPI for the purpose of
developing and measuring the effectiveness of outreach and educational
functions and programs as well as fact checking information for accuracy.
