Judge: Board improperly closed superintendent's evaluation, must pay paper attorneys' fees, fine

The Jefferson County Board of Education violated the Kentucky Open Meetings Act when it decided to conduct Superintendent Sheldon Berman's annual evaluation behind closed doors, Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Irv Maze ruled Monday. "While it may have been more convenient for the Board and Superintendent to have this discussion held in private," the reasons for doing so given by the board "do not justify closing the meeting to the public."

The Courier-Journal reported Tuesday that the board had decided not to appeal the ruling. Maze cited a 2008 ruling in the case, by Attorney General Jack Conway, that such evaluations must be public unless they might lead to discipline or dismissal. The board tried to make such a justificiation, but only after it had already decided to close the meeting. Ruling the action a "willful" violation of the law, the judge ordered the the board to pay attorney's fees to the newspaper, which had to pay lawyers to deal with the board's appeal of Conway's ruling, plus a $100 penalty.

"This Court is mindful that it is often difficult to discuss matters such as these in public," Maze wrote, but exceptions to the open-meetings law "should be obvious and not manufactured in order to work around the law." While not controlling outside Jefferson County, Maze's decision upholds an attorney general's decision that does have statewide import, so it's a good tool for reporters and editors anywhere in Kentucky to use in arguments against closing such meetings. To read the decision, click here. To download it as a Word document, also from the Web site of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, click here.

Courier-Journal reporter, photographer get a rare look at Family Court in Jefferson County

The Courier-Journal recently persuaded a Jefferson County Family Court judge to ease Kentucky's strict confidentiality rules long enough to allow reporter Deborah Yetter to research and write a rare report on, and photographer Matt Stone to take pictures of, the court's operations.

The report, the third part of a series on child abuse in the state, was published Tuesday. The story took a close look at several cases involving abused and abandoned children. Judge Joan Byer allowed access "with permission of the parties in the courtroom, as long as children and families weren't identified," Yetter wrote. "Byer said she exercised her discretion to do that because she believes, in most cases, the courts should be open and the public needs to understand what's going on with child welfare." Byer said the system is overburdened and caseworkers are under intense pressure to keep cases closed. (Photo by Matt Stone)

The report included several sidebars, one of which noted that the confidentiality rules usually followed in family court cases exceeded the requirements set by state law, and the practice of some other states. It also quoted childrens' advocates and others as saying excessive secrecy hides faults in the system. The main story can be found here. The sidebar on confidentiality rules is here.

Federal government sets new transparency goals

The Obama adminstration has made a major move toward realizing the president's promise, upon taking office, of more transparency in government. This has impact not just in Washington, but at the state and local offices of federal agencies.

All federal agencies have been ordered to carry out specific tasks and meet deadlines to increase public access to government information. The Office of Management and Budget last week issued an 11-page directive that also calls for agencies to use technology to distribute information, without waiting for people to file Freedom of Information Act requests.

The directive says that in order "to create an unprecendented and sustained level of openness and accountability in every agency, senior leaders should strive to incorporate the values of transparency, participation and collaboration into the ongoing work of their agency."

Among the tasks set out for federal agencies to meet in the first 45 days are:

-- Publish three "high-value" sets of data that have not previously been released in a downloadable format. (This could produce several local news stories, since federal agencies amass a huge amount of data.)

-- Designate a high-level official to be accountable for spending data made available to the public.

-- Form a new working group of senior officials to address transparency and accountablity issues.

The order also sets out other tasks to be accomplished in 60 or 120 days, including more open-goverment Web sites and plans for more transparency.

The full text of the OMB order can be found here.

City utility bills public if they aren't for persons, attorney general rules in Danville case

Individual billing data at a city utility is public if it doesn't reveal information about individual persons, the state attorney general's office has ruled.

The open records decision, which has the force of law but could be appealed, was requested by Clay Moore of Danville, who often requests records from public agencies in Boyle County but has never fild an appeal with the attorney general, for whcih there is no charge. He asked the city water and sewer department for bills of Centre College,Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center and Central Kentucky Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC.

The agency declined to release the records, citing a 1996 attorney general's decision. The latest decision overturned that one, saying it was “erroneously postulated on the notion that equal privacy interests could be attributed to aggregate information contained in a water bill for a customer with multiple unidentified users. . . . The interest of the public in ensuring that the department has, and fairly enforces, a uniform billing structure for all customers outweighs the nonexistent privacy interest implicated by the disclosure of the requested billing records.”

The 1996 decision was issued when Ben Chandler, now 6th District U.S. representative, was attorney general. The latest decision, which said the office has the right to change its mind, was written by Assistant Attorney General Amye Bensenhaver and approved by Attorney General Jack Conway. Moore "said Monday he is pleased with the ruling and wants to obtain the information to verify whether the large utility customers in question are being billed properly for their usage," reported David Brock of The Advocate-Messenger. (Read more)

Appeals court sides with newspaper, rejecting Lexington council's plan to close meeting

One of the more routinely abused exceptions to the Kentucky Open Meetings Act is the one that allows closed sessions for "proposed or pending litigation." Today the state Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling that kept the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council from using that as an excuse to close a meeting "to discuss the city's response to a request before the state Public Service Commission by Kentucky American Water to build a $162 million treatment plant and pipeline," reports Andy Mead of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The Herald-Leader objected to the closure, prompting a hearing in which Circuit Judge Sheila Isaac agreed with the newspaper and ordered the meeting to remain open. "The city later asked Isaac to reconsider, but the judge dismissed the case without ruling on the litigation exception' issue," Mead reports. "The city took the case to the appeals court, seeking a blanket ruling that the exception applies in all administrative proceedings."

The unanimous three-judge panel noted that the law requires its exceptions to be "strictly construed," and "said that the city failed to show that the same set of circumstances would occur again," Mead reports. (Read more)

AG slaps Nelson ethics board, says Murray economic-development entity isn't public

The state attorney general’s office has ruled for the second time in a month that the Joint Board of Ethics for Bardstown, Fairfield and Nelson County has violated the Open Records Act.

The latest ruling came in a follow-up to last month’s citation of the board for denying records requested by local resident Marge Brumley about an ethics complaint she filed with the board. Brumley’s husband, Kevin, then asked to see records regarding the disposition of that ethics complaint, which the board refused, citing a local ordinance about cases that had not been finally determined.

The attorney general’s ruling said such ordinances “are of no legal effect to the extent they purport to override the unambiguous legislative policy supported by the Open Records Act.” The ruling also said that “final action” in such cases included a decision to take no action, which the board had done.

Attorney General Jack Conway also ruled in No. 09-ORD-192 that the record does not support the conclusion that the Murray-Calloway County Economic Development Corp. is a public agency because it has received only 20.57 percent of the funds it has expended in the Commonwealth in the current fiscal year from state or local authority funds. The decision "said that the EDC would have met that definition in fiscal year 2008 because it received a $1.6 million from the state," Hawkins Teague of the Murray Ledger and Times reports. The threshold for being a public agency is 25 percent. Lexington attorney Matthew Malone had requested records relating to EDC President Mark Manning's arrest on a DUI charge he received while in Frankfort. "Manning pleaded guilty to the charge and paid a fine," Teague reports. "He also issued a statement in August apologizing for his actions." (Read more)

Conway also said the McCracken County Jail violated the Open Records Act by failing to respond to an inmate’s request for records, and to the attorney general’s inquiry in the case. The inaction “cannot be allowed to continue,” and the jail remains in violation of the act, the ruling said. Here are other recent attorney general’s rulings on open-government issues, including two involving Butler County government:

09-ORD-191: Butler County Fiscal Court violated procedural requirements of the Open Records Act in responding to request for records relating to a magistrate's expense reimbursement, health, insurance, retirement, and timesheets. Although paucity of records produced raises questions about recordkeeping practices, such practices are beyond the scope of the AG's review under KRS 61.880(2).

09-ORD-187: Because the Butler County Sheriff's Department mailed a written response to a request within three business days, and the AG's office cannot resolve the related factual issue which prompted the appeal, the Attorney General has no basis upon which to find a violation of KRS 61.880(1). The Department violated KRS 61.872(4) in failing to provide requester with contact information for the official custodian of the agency in possession of certain records which are partially responsive.

09-OMD-188: The state Board of Chiropractic Examiners did not violate KRS 61.815 regarding required notice for a closed session when general notice of the nature of the business was given. Under 05-OMD-017, discussions of a quasi-judicial body at the charging stage are "deliberations" within the meaning of KRS 61.810(1)(j). One board member's whispering did not violate the Act unless it pertained to public business. KRS 61.840 does not guarantee that persons videotaping a public meeting may place cameras and microphones wherever they wish, or that the faces of all members be turned toward the public at all times when discussions are audible to those present.

Full texts of the decisions can be found through Links of Interest at the bottom of the KOG Blog.

Attorney general rules against city, county agencies

The Kentucky Attorney General’s office has cited several county and city agencies for holding closed sessions or meetings or refusing requests for public records in a batch of rulings.

The office ruled:

• A planning committee formed by Shelby County Fiscal Court and the cities of Shelbyville and Simpsonville violated the Open Meetings Act by conducting non-public meetings without notice or minutes. The committee had been created by official action.

• The Joint Board of Ethics for the cities of Bardstown and Fairfield and Nelson County failed to observe requirements for conducting closed sessions and failed to respond to an open meetings complaint.

• Laurel County Fiscal Court was late in responding to a request for public records and wrong in refusing records of a closed session on jail personnel.

• The Webster County Board of Education violated the Open Meetings Act in failing to strictly comply with legal requirements before going into closed session.

• The city of Raceland subverted the intent of the Open Records Act by representing that charges would be made for staff time spent on an open records request.

• Madison County Fiscal Court violated the Open Meetings Act in relation to a September 22 meeting of a quorum of its members or a series of less than quorum meetings where the members attending collectively constituted a quorum and where public business was discussed.

• Kentucky Community and Technical College System improperly relied on KRS 61.878(1)(a) and (i) in denying a request for evaluations and performance improvement plans relating to public officials whose conduct had been questioned. The ruling also said KCTCS's inability to produce correspondence exchanged by the chancellor and the president for a two-month period suggests record management issue, and referred the matter to the Department for Libraries and Archives.

The attorney general’s office also ruled in favor of the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 30th Judicial District, Campbell County Fiscal Court, Western Kentucky Correctional Complex, Kentucky State Reformatory, Pike County Circuit Court Clerk and Louisville Metro Department of Corrections in separate open records and open meetings complaints.

Full texts of the opinions can be found through the Links of Interest below.

Inspector fired after newspaper investigation

Todd County has fired its restaurant inspector after an investigation by the Kentucky New Era showed he had failed to make required inspections.

The Hopkinsville daily reported that county Health Director Leslie Daniels fired environmentalist Malcolm Rust for "insufficient performance" and because of an interview he gave the newspaper in which he said there was "too much work for one person." The newspaper's investigation showed that Rust had often failed to make required inspections. Several restaurants had gone 11 months without an inspection, which the law requires every six months.

Rust had worked for the county for 10 years, the New Era story by Julia Hunter said.

Attorney general rules against airport board, county officials

The state attorney general's office has ruled the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Airport Board and county officials in Whitley, Crittenden and Nelson counties violated Kentucky's Open Records Act.

The airport board ruling came in a case brought by Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Jennifer Hewlettas part of the newspaper's investigation of the board. Hewlett was seeking an unredacted copy of a $10,000 check issued to former airport executive director Michael Gobb. The board had blacked out the name on the check, claiming it included "confidential health information."

"In weighing the competing public and private interests in the redacted information, the balance tips in favor of disclosure," the attorney general's decision said.

Gobb resigned as executive director after the newspaper's investigation, which revealed a pattern of questionable and high spending of public money.

In Whitley County, the 911 Dispatch Office denied a request for a copy of a 911 tape by Clarence Hurst. The dispatch office refused, saying 911 tapes are exempt from the Kentucky Open Records Act. "We find no support in the law for Whitley County's position," the attorney general's ruling said, adding "an ever-growing body" of law and legal opinions hold that 911 recordings are clearly public.

Crittenden County Fiscal Court "violated both procedural and substantive provisions of the Open Records Act" when it failed to respond properly to a request by Robert Moore for records relating to its solid waste management plan, the attorney general's opinion said.

In Nelson County, the judge/executive violated the law when he withheld "nonexempt portions of time sheets/time cards of a public employee, such as vacation leave and sick leave." The decision said, "In our view, the public's right to know is superior to the employees' privacy interest, real or imagined."

School board violated open meetings act

The Spencer County Board of Education violated Kentucky's Open Meetings Act by evaluating its superintendent in a closed-door session, Circuit Court Judge Charles Hickman has ruled.

The decision upheld an opinion by the attorney general's office that had been challenged by the school board.

The board conducted its mandatory annual evaluation of Superintendent Charles Adams in a closed session in June 2008. Board member Sandy Clevenger, who voted against the motion to adjourn to an executive session to discuss the evaluation, asked the attorney general whether the session complied with the state law. The opinion issued by the attorney general's office, which has the force of law unless overturned in circuit court, said the superintendent's personnel evaluation must be conducted in public. The school board challenged the ruling, supported by the state School Board Association, Board of Education, Department of Education and the Association of School Administrators.

"The exceptions to the Open Meetings Act are to be strictly construed in light of the decided preference that the public's business be performed before the eyes of the public," Judge Hickman wrote in his decision. "The Court finds no error in the AG's reasoning or conclusions."

Hickman turned down Clevenger's request for damages and attorney fees, saying the decision to hold a closed session was made in good faith and not in willful violation of the Open Meetings Act.

Attorney general rules in favor of Winchester Sun in open records case

Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet cannot withhold the addresses of people receiving benefits under the Soil Erosion and Water Quality Cost-Share program, the state’s attorney general has ruled.

The ruling came in a case filed by Winchester Sun reporter Mike Wynn. Wynn had asked for the names and addresses of “all individuals, businesses, farming operations or similar entities in Clark County that have received funding in the last five years” from the state program.
The cabinet, a part of the Division of Conservation, gave Wynn most of the information but refused to release the addresses, citing “privacy concerns.”

The ruling, while recognizing that such information can sometimes be withheld from public disclosure, said such a decision must be made on a case-by-case basis, and no agency can make an overall rule. In this case, the ruling said, the public’s right to know whether the benefits were being granted properly to properly qualified farmers outweighed the recipients’ right to privacy.

“As the Kentucky Supreme Court emphasized, the ‘unambiguous purpose of the Open Records Act is the disclosure of public records even though such disclosure may cause inconvenience or embarrassment to public officials or others’,” the ruling said.

The attorney general’s office also ruled on several other cases involving prisoner requests for information. A brief summary follows. For full details, see Links of Interest below.

1. 09-ORD-158 (Lyon County)
The Kentucky State Penitentiary did not violate the Open Records Act in denying request because sufficient indicia exist to establish an "identity of purpose" between the requester and her inmate boyfriend. Because requester admittedly made request on his behalf after the penitentiary properly denied his request for the same records on the bases of KRS 197.025(1) and (2), providing her with access would undermine the purpose for which those provisions were enacted.

2. 09-ORD-159 (Franklin County)
Private attorneys are not public agencies within the meaning of KRS 61.870(1) to whom the Open Records Act applies. Accordingly, actions of private attorney relative to responding to former client's request cannot be said to have violated the act.

3. 09-ORD-160 (Franklin County)
The Department of Corrections was not required to permit on-site inspection of Probation and Parole records by an inmate confined in another location.

4. 09-ORD-163 (Lincoln County)
The Lincoln County Jail is not statutorily required to honor a request for information as opposed to a request for existing public records. Although the jail would generally be required to make any nonexempt records that might contain the information being sought available for inspection, the requester is precluded from exercising this option by virtue of his confinement in a state correctional facility.

Inmate not allowed access to letters he wrote

Saying it would not overrule prison officials in judging whether releasing some records would pose a security threat, the state attorney general's office has ruled in favor of the Lee Adjustment Center, a medium-security facility operated by Corrections Corp. of America under contract with the state Department of Corrections, in a dispute with an inmate. The decision, 09-ORD-152, was one of two issued this week by the office.

In the other, 09-ORD-151, it said the Russell County Board of Education properly withheld education records under federal and state education privacy laws where applicant had not provided legal certification that he was the father of the pupils, although the board's initial response procedurally violated the law by not identifying the custodian of certain records.

For full texts of the ruling, see Links of Interest at the bottom of the KOG Blog.

National security issues snag shield-law bill

Questions about dealing with leaks of national-security information are holding up passage of a federal shield law for journalists, Walter Pincus reports for The Washington Post. The Justice Department wants to do away with the proposed "balancing test" in which judges would weigh the need to compel reporters to disclose sources against the public interest of revealing the information, in favor of a plan that would allow the department to subpoena reporters after convincing a judge that release of information could harm national security. For a Rural Blog item with a link to the story, go to http://irjci.blogspot.com/.

Journalists attending Sunshine Seminar today

Fifteen journalists gathered in Morehead this morning for the third Sunshine Seminar sponsored by the Kentucky Press Association, the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. The first presentation was given by Ashley Pack, above, partner in the Dinsmore & Shohl law firm and KPA attorney-lobbyist. The next speaker was Amye Bensenhaver, the assistant attorney general who handles open-government issues. This afternoon, Carrie Stambaugh of The Independent in Ashland will tell open-government war stories and Al Cross of the Institute will discuss using campaign-finance records and what sort of public records newspapers should publish.

After Pack noted that the legislative policy of the Open Records Act calls for it to be "strictly construed, even though such examination may cause inconvenience or embarassment to public officials or others," Cross said community journalists may be reluctant to cause discomfort or inconvenience to local officials they know and like, they "must put those personal relationships aside" and play the public-service role that news ouutlets and journalists are supposed to play.

Kentucky New Era wins open-records victory, follows up with story on health departments

The Rural Blog reports today on an open-records victory by the Kentucky New Era in Hopkinsville that resulted in a weekend story questioning the performance of health departments in southwestern Kentucky. For the full blog item and a link to the story, go here.

AG reiterates: Public officials are not required to create records that do not exist

The Kentucky attorney general's office released eight decisions today on open-records and open-meetings issues. Several dealt with requests for records that officials said did not exist; decisions reaffirmed past decisions saying records don't have to be created to fulfill a request. A brief summary of the six most significant decisions follows. Full text can be found via Links of Interest at the bottom of the KOG Blog.

09-ORD-143
Although Trigg County Emergency Services mischaracterized 911 tape and dispatch log entries relating to triple homicide as Kentucky State Police records, because they were requested and utilized by KSP in its investigation of the crime, it ultimately met its statutory burden of proof in withholding the records on the basis of KRS 61.878(1)(h) at KSP's request.

09-ORD-144
McCreary County sheriff violated the Open Records Act by failing to respond in writing to a request and failing without explanation to provide any records about wrecker service in response to some portions of the request.

09-ORD-145
Neither the McCreary County judge-executive nor the McCreary County 911 Emergency Dispatch Center is required to produce nonexistent records about wrecker service or "prove a negative" in order to refute a claim that a certain records exist under the rule, nor must either agency create a record or compile a list in order to honor the subject requests; however, the response provided on behalf of the agencies violated the Act insofar as the judge-executive failed to affirmatively indicate whether additional responsive documents exist.

09-ORD-148
Office of the Governor did not violate the Open Records Act when it did not possess records responsive to the request and provided what it did possess. Any funds received for copies in excess of 10 cents per page should have been returned.

09-ORD-149
Cabinet for Health and Family Services properly withheld records relating to a child fatality pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(l), incorporating confidentiality statutes KRS 194A.060 and KRS 620.050.

09-ORD-150
Pulaski County judge-executive is not expected to produce nonexistent reprimands nor must he "prove a negative" in order to refute a claim that such records exist in a specific personnel file; however, he violated KRS 61.880(1) in failing to affirmatively indicate whether any responsive complaints or commendations exist and in failing to cite the statutory exception relied upon as the basis for denying access to the requested job performance evaluation. The evaluation was properly withheld on the basis of KRS 61.878(1)(a), given the absence of any specific facts to justify disclosure.

Challenge to Texas open-meetings law dismissed

The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has dismissed a case in which two city council members in Texas claimed the state's open-meetings law violated their right to free speech.

The full court, in a one-sentence ruling Thursday, said the case, Rangra vs. Brown, was moot because both Alpine City Council members who filed it four years ago have left the council and are no longer in a position to be injured by the law.

The two had been threatened with prosecution by the Texas attorney general for discussing city business by e-mail. They argued that the open-meetings law's requirement that they not discuss public business in private violated their constitutional right to free speech. A federal judge had ruled against them, but a three-member panel of the Court of Appeals overturned that ruling. The full 17-member appeals court agreed to hear the appeal, a rare event. The vote was 16-1; the dissenter criticized the others for taking the easy way out.

Proponents of government transparency had feared that if the appeals court ruled in favor of the two councilmen, open-meetings laws in other states might come under attack. Other experts, including Jon Fleischaker of Louisville, the First Amendment lawyer who largely drafted Kentucky's law, had said the three-judge panel's ruling was illogical and would never stand.

Bill would apply records law to officials' groups

A bill making any organization whose employees get state retirement benefits will be subject to the Kentucky Open Records Act has been prefiled by Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, and the Lexingon Herald-Leader reported Thursday it seems likely to pass when the legislature convenes next year.

The newspaper said the bill stems from its recent investigations into lavish spending at the Kentucky League of Cities and the Kentucky Association of Counties that led to the resignations of the leaders of both organizations. Although both organizations had surrendered records to the paper, they had claimed they were not subject to the records law. Each agency receives more than 25 percent of its budgets from public funds, the law's threshold for public inspection. Employees of both agencies receive state retirement benefits.

Simpson said at a recent public hearing that any group that received even "an iota" of public funding should release such records. The Herald-Leader said that leaders in both houses of the legislature had indicated they favored the bill. For the full story on Simpson's proposal, click here.

AG: Public agencies' settlements are public

Public agencies cannot keep settlement agreements in court cases confidential, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway reminded officials in an opinion issued Sept. 1.

The opinion, which is legally binding unless appealed to circuit court, found the Regional Water Resource Agency in violation of the state's Open Records Act. The case involved a settlement with Ed Shelton of a lawsuit he filed after his sewer line collapsed. Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer reporter James Mayse had requested a copy of the agreement, but was denied by the agency, which cited a confidentiality clause in the settlement.

The attorney general's office cited a 1997 decision of the state Supreme Court and earlier attorney-general decisions in ruling that such a clause "does not create an inherent right to privacy superior to the significant public interest in disclosure of such a record."

The office also ruled against the Powell County School District, saying its refusal to supply records on a school activity fund was "procedurally deficient" and "substantively incorrect." The opinion said the district did not give reasons for failing to reply within the three days required by law to a request by Karen Rose, and that the district's claim that the records were "general correspondence" which could be destroyed in two years was wrong.

The decision said the records had to be kept for three years and an audit performed before they could be destroyed. However, it said the attorney general's office "cannot afford Ms. Rose the relief she seeks" because the records no longer exist. He did urge the school district to review open records authorities on "proper records management."

For a full text of the decisions, see Links of Interest at the bottom of the KOG Blog.

Conway says district health department made several mistakes regarding public records

A Western Kentucky health department “subverted the intent” of the state Open Records Act in dealing with the Hopkinsville newspaper's requests for records, Attorney General Jack Conway said in a recent ruling.

The opinion, which is called an "open records decision" because it has the force of law, came after Kentucky New Era reporter Sarah Hogsed filed a request for restaurant inspection reports with the Pennyrile District Health Department. The New Era, which is already reporting on restaurant inspections in Christian County, plans to expand that coverage to adjoining Trigg and Todd counties.

The health department violated the open records law in several ways, the opinion said. First, it disputed Hogsed’s request to have the records within three days, saying it was only required to notify her within that period if it would comply. The attorney general's opinion said that the office was required to turn over the records in three days. The department demanded that she show up in person, present a photo ID and sign a standard form in the presence of a health department employee. That's not the law, either, the opinion said.

Hogsed would then get the records “in a reasonable period of time,” the reply said, “keep[ing] in mind two years of information is quiet [sic] time consuming.” She would also have to pay “all costs associated with the recovery and photocopying.” When the department finally got around to fulfilling the request, it appeared to get the job done in about one day, and charged the paper only 10 cents a copy, the general maximum established by previous attorneys general.

The opinion said the district's excuse for the delay – absence of staff – was not sufficient. The opinion added “in the interest of absolute clarity,” that those who ask for public records cannot be required to submit their requests on preprinted forms, or sign forms in the presence of an agency employee; that receipt of records no longer requires on-site inspection; that agencies may recover only their actual costs of reproducing public records, not including staff time, if the records are to be used for a noncommercial purpose, including use by a newspaper or periodical. The department had indicated that it considered the paper a commercial interest. "We suppose the notion that the news media act in the public interest had escaped the health department," the opinion said.

In another opinion, the attorney general's office ruled that the Shively Police Department’s failure to respond in a timely manner to a request for a police car video in a non-DUI case violated the Open Records Act. The full text of the decisions can be found through the Links of Interest at the bottom of the KOG Blog.