The mystery of the disappearance of the “Open Records” link from the Kentucky Attorney General’s website earlier this week has been solved.
Last year, the link was rechristened “Open Records“ from the previous, and arguably more descriptive “Government Transparency,” insofar as it also encompasses open meetings. It was also demoted from a “Priority” that figured prominently as a direct link on the Attorney General’s homepage to a “Resource” on a pull down menu.
https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/975775779635811/?d=n
It is now a stand alone link in the pull down menu that is neither a “Priority” nor a “Resource.” Users of the website may draw their own conclusions from this restructuring.
Clearly, there is a value to ensuring the public’s ability to easily access the internal body of legal authority consisting of some 250 to 300 open records and meetings decisions issued by the attorney general’s office each year.
Those open records and open meetings decisions answer some of the questions that are not addressed in published opinions of Kentucky’s appellate courts.
Since the launch of the Attorney General’s website in the 90’s, regular users — and certainly the open records and open meetings staff — gauged the importance the latest Attorney General attached to his statutorily assigned open records and open meetings adjudicative function by its placement on the agency website.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=51394
It has enjoyed prominence on the homepage as an independent link, been relegated to the website’s inaptly named “Tool Kit,” and at times disappeared altogether (as it appeared to do earlier this week).
For some, this has been more than an academic exercise.
https://www.nkytribune.com/2016/09/john-nelson-sad-times-when-open-meetings-in-ag-beshears-office-cant-talk-openly-to-the-press/
The Kentucky Open Government Coalition’s Monday posting of open records and open meeting decisions issued by the office in the previous week was temporarily frustrated when the “Open Records” link was removed earlier this week. The decisions were still accessible, but only through a back door search of the Attorney General’s website.
As noted, the mystery was solved when, a few days ago, “Open Records” reappeared as a stand alone link directly accessible from the pull-down menu on the homepage.
It’s difficult to say what this imports, but let’s hope that “Open Records”— the link formerly known as “Government Transparency” — has found its permanent home on the Attorney General’s website.
