Request By:
Ms. Barbara M. Nash
Executive Director
Mayfield Human Rights Commission
211 East Broadway
Mayfield, Kentucky 42066
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 Mayfield Human Rights Commission should hold a public hearing on a complaint of sex discrimination against the City of Mayfield. The complaint has been filed by three women not hired by the City Council as fire fighters for the Mayfield Fire Department. You state that the Commission has written a letter to each member of the City Council inviting them to appear and discuss the question. You ask whether the meeting would have to be a public meeting under the Kentucky Open Meetings Law, KRS 61.805-61.850.
The Open Meetings Law does not apply to the question you present because the procedure for handling complaints of discrimination is set forth in KRS Chapter 344 pertaining to civil rights. KRS 344.200(2) provides that the Commission shall determine within 30 days after the complaint has been filed whether there is probable cause to believe the respondent has engaged in an unlawful practice. Subsection (4) of said statute provides that if the Commission determines, after investigation, that there is probable cause to believe that the respondent has engaged in an unlawful practice, the Commission Staff shall endeavor to eliminate the alleged unlawful practice by conference, conciliation and persuasion. If possible, a conciliation agreement should be reached between the respondent employer and the complaintant. Subsection (4) also provides as follows:
"Except for the terms of the conciliation agreement, neither the commission nor any officer or employee thereof shall make public, without the written consent of the complaintant and the respondent, information concerning efforts in a particular case to eliminate an unlawful practice by conference, conciliation, or persuasion whether or not there is a determination of probable cause or a conciliation agreement."
Since the above quoted portion of the statute is controlling, the meeting between the Commission and the members of the City Council is not required to be open to the public.