Sensitive data to be handled with discretion

The newspaper has made California Public Records Act requests to Sutter and Yuba counties and the cities of Marysville and Yuba City for the names, titles and salaries of current county and city employees. This information is a matter of public record; the California Supreme Court ruled as such in August 2007.
Our intention behind the request: Build a public salaries database for the Appeal-Democrat Web site, which already offers a variety of popular databases of valuable information. Our most recent database on the "Info Center" at www.appeal-democrat.com details students' test scores.
Why a salaries database? Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent. And while some of the salary information already is available, for example, on Sutter and Yuba counties' Web sites, our goal is to make it easier for the public to access the information they have the right, by law, to possess. Essentially, we want the A-D database to provide a one-stop resource.
We do not believe a database that includes names would provide information that could lead to identity theft; the salaries database will not include data such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses or e-mail addresses. But perception is reality, and we respect the opinions of those public employees and officials who expressed their safety concerns to us.