New attorney general rulings in records cases

The following Open Records Decisions were issued by the Office of the Attorney General Feb. 3-6, 2009:
1. 09-ORD-020 (Bullitt County)
Where City of Mt. Washington e-mails subject to the Open Records Act were stored on privately owned servers to which City no longer had access, a records management issue was raised for the Department for Libraries and Archives. As to City e-mails still under the City’s control, the City did not establish an unreasonable burden posed by producing the City’s correspondence with certain individuals, and to the extent that those e-mails were not produced, the City violated the Act. A tape personally owned by the city clerk and used for preparing the minutes of a meeting was not a public record, as established in prior Open Records Decisions.
2. 09-ORD-021 (Boone County)
Office of the Boone County Sheriff violated Open Records Act by charging unsubstantiated copying fees of 20 cents per page for redaction and color copies and violated the Act procedurally by failing to provide a detailed explanation for delay in excess of three days.
3. 09-ORD-022 (Franklin County)
Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Office of Inspector General, violated KRS 61.880(1) in failing to cite the statutory exception authorizing partial nondisclosure of requested investigative records and explain the exception's application to the records withheld. On appeal, OIG properly invoked KRS 61.878(1)(k), incorporating confidentiality provision found at 45 C.F.R. § 2.2(3), in denying request for investigative report generated by the OIG under its contractual relationship with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
4. 09-ORD-023 (Kenton County)
Conflicting evidentiary record precludes a conclusive determination that Northern Kentucky Independent District Board of Health violated KRS 61.880(1) in failing to respond to open records request. The Board otherwise complied with the Act by disclosing all existing responsive records in its possession to the requester.
5. 09-ORD-024 (Harlan County)
Decision adopting 09-ORD-018, and holding that City of Cumberland violated KRS 61.880(1) in failing to respond in writing, and within three business days. The Open Records Act contains no requirement that the requester "check back" to determine if his request will be honored.

For full texts, see Links of Interest below.