STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
OFFICE OF
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

September 23, 1975

Mr. George H. Danforth
Beadle County State's Attorney
312 Kansas Avenue S.E.
Huron, South Dakota 57350

OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 75-164

Public disclosure of names of poor relief recipients

Dear Mr. Danforth:

You state that the 1975 Legislature passed several statutes relating to poor relief recipients. SDCL 28-13-42 prohibits the release of the name of any recipient for official publication. SDCL 7-18-3.1 prohibits publication of the names of recipients as part of the minutes of the County Commissioners' meeting.

You raise the following questions:

1. Do the above statutory limitations, or any other limitations, prohibit the County Auditor or any other county official from releasing the name of Poor Relief recipients to a local credit bureau as part of a monthly Poor Relief Statement?

2. Do the above statutory limitations render the records containing the names of Poor Relief recipients no longer a public record and no longer available to public inquiry?

The 1975 statutes referenced in your request read as follows:

28-13-42. The county auditor or any other county official shall not release the name of any poor relief recipient for official publication.

7 -18-3.1. The name of any person receiving or who is entitled to poor relief as provided in chapter 28-13 shall not be published as a part of the minutes of county commissioners meetings as provided in § 7-18-3.

The above are obviously limitations on the publication of the names of poor relief recipients. Both provisions appeared as part of Section 1, Senate Bill 200 (1975) and must be considered together as a prohibition against publication in the official newspaper or newspapers of the county. However, they do not address the question of the confidentiality of such information as to persons making inquiry at the county auditor's office.

SDCL 1-27-1 and 1-27-3 provide that records required to be kept by a public officer, unless specifically enjoined by law to be kept secret, shall be available and open to public inspection during regular business hours. If the Legislature had intended to remove access of the public to records of the names of poor relief recipients it would have said so in the same manner as is done, for example, with regard to records of adoption. (SDCL 28-1-31.) I am unable to find such a statute with respect to poor relief recipients.

Therefore, it is my opinion that the county auditor or other county official is not prohibited from and, in fact, is not authorized to withhold the names of poor relief recipients from the public. The information is public record and may be inspected during regular business hours subject only to the reasonable regulation and supervision by the appropriate county official. 1945-46 AGR 342. The answer to both your Questions No.1 and No.2 is NO.

Respectfully submitted,

William Janklow
Attorney General

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