Request By:
H. G. Sargent, M.D.
Health Officer
Paducah-McCracken County Health Department
P.O. Box 2597
Paducah, Kentucky 42001
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether the Paducah-McCracken County Board of Health may properly deny a newspaper reporter access to records kept by that agency of restaurant inspections. You state that you have agreed to allow inspection under certain restrictions to the effect that the reporter could not name names or give scores of specific establishments in any article published in his newspaper. You base your position upon KRS 194.060.
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that there is no legal authority for the Health Department to deny access to restaurant inspection records or to attempt to place restrictions on their use.
First, KRS 194.060 has no application to the question because that statute authorizes the Secretary of the Department or Human Resources to make regulations to protect the confidential nature of records which directly or indirectly identify a client or patient or former client or patient.
The statutes governing the responsibility of a health department to inspect food establishments is KRS 217.280-217.390. There is nothing in these statutes which provides that the records shall be confidential and therefore the general law as to Open Records, KRS 61.870-61.884, applies. Any person, including representatives of the news media, is entitled to inspect public records. The use made by a newspaper of information gathered from restaurant inspection records can be decided by the discretion and policies of the publisher. A public agency is not authorized to make any restrictions on said use or to deny access to a public record unless specifically authorized by statute.
The exceptions provided in the Open Records Law do not include a provision which would apply to restaurant inspection records. KRS 61.878.