Request By:
Mr. James M. Todd
Vice Mayor
Lexington-Fayette Urban
County Government
The Municipal Building
136 Walnut Street
Lexington, Kentucky 40507
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 disclosure to the media or other persons by a member of a public agency of any matter discussed in an executive session of the agency constitutes a violation of any state statute. You ask that we assume, in answering the question, that the matter being discussed in executive session was done in accordance with one of the exceptions outlined in KRS 61.805-61.825.
It is our opinion that there is no Kentucky statute making the disclosure of information or matter originating in a properly held closed session of a public agency a violation.
In answering this question we have considered Chapter 522 which creates the misdemeanor offenses of official misconduct in the first and second degree and the felony of misuse of confidential information. It is our conclusion, however, that nothing in this chapter proscribes merely divulging information about a closed meeting of a public agency. KRS 522.020 reads as follows:
"(1) A public servant is guilty of official misconduct in the first degree when, with intent to obtain or confer a benefit or to injure another person or to deprive another person of a benefit, he knowingly:
(a) Commits an act relating to his office which constitutes an unauthorized exercise of his official functions; or
(b) Refrains from performing a duty imposed upon him by law or clearly inherent in the nature of his office; or
(c) Violates any statute or lawfully adopted rule or regulation relating to his office.
(2) Official misconduct in the first degree is a Class A misdemeanor. "
There is nothing in the Open Meetings Law, KRS 61.805-61.850, which proscribes divulging information about a closed meeting. We are not aware of any other statute proscribing such an act and therefore cannot say that revealing matters from a closed session constitutes a misconduct. Of course, if an agency has a provision in its bylaws or has adopted a rule to that effect, a person violating a bylaw or rule would be guilty of official misconduct in the first degree under KRS 522.020 (1)(c) providing he divulged information with the intent to obtain or confer a benefit or to injure another person.