Request By:
Mr. Ewell H. Balltrip
Associate Editor
The Harlan Daily Enterprise
P.O. Box E
Harlan, Kentucky 40831
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General relating to the application of the Kentucky Open Meetings Law to the county level Economic Aid Fund Boards. These boards were created by House Bill 674, 1976 Acts, codified KRS 42.330 to 42.360. Under the statutes and regulations adopted by the Executive Department for Finance and Administration, a Coal Severance Economic Board is charged with the responsibility of receiving applications for aid for capital projects within the county and determining the order of priority of projects applied for. Your question is whether the Aid Fund Board may meet in closed session to decide on the order of priority to be adopted?
It is the opinion of this office that under the provisions of the Kentucky Open Meetings Law, KRS 61.805 to 61.850, all of the meetings of the Aid Fund Board should be open to the public unless the subject matter of the meeting comes within one of the eleven exceptions listed in KRS 61.810. The only exception which could possibly apply to meetings of an Aid Fund Board would be in regard to the acquisition or sale of real property by a public agency.
KRS 42.330(6) reads as follows:
"Each board shall conduct meetings open to the general public for the purpose of soliciting recommendations for capital projects within the county. . . ."
Sub-section (7) of said statute provides:
"Within thirty (30) days after each such meeting, each board shall notify the commissioner of the executive department for finance and administration, of the capital project or projects, in the order of their respective priority, desired for the coal producing county."
Nothing is said in the statutes pertaining to Coal Severance Economic Aid Boards as to whether meetings for the deliberation of the Board on setting priorities shall be open meetings. Since the particular statute is silent on the subject the Kentucky Open Meetings Law is left controlling. It is therefore our opinion the meetings of the Board are required to be open to the public when the purpose of the meetings is to discuss and decide on the priority of projects.