Request By:
Mr. J. Chase Forrester
Executive Director
Housing Authority of Jefferson County
300 York Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40203
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
The Courier Journal Times Company has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your denial of inspection of certain public records in your custody as Secretary of the Jefferson County Community Development Agency. The records in question are described as follows:
"Records identifying recipients of loand or grants under housing rehabilitation programs administered by your agency. The records should detail the amount, terms and status of loans or grants and the nature of work to be performed with the funds. I am not requesting access to records revealing the specific income of individuals who have applied for loans or grants.
"The request specifically includes but is not limited to records of loans or grants made to Elbert Agee, a member of your agency's citizens advisory group, and records of loans or grants made to other present or former members of the citizens' advisory group and their relatives."
You made a written reply to Courier Journal reporter Jay Lawrence denying in full the request to inspect the described records and stating your reasons for the denial. As provided by KRS 61.880(2) it is the duty of the Attorney General to issue a formal opinion as to whether inspection of the records was properly denied under the Kentucky Open Records Law.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is our opinion that records identifying recipients of loans or grants under housing rehabilitation programs administered by the Jefferson County Community Development Agency are not exempt from public inspection by any of the exemptions provided in KRS 61.878. Making a loan or a grant constitutes final action of an agency and the records identifying to whom the loan or grant is made are not preliminary in nature and are therefore not exempt under KRS 61.878(1)(g) or (h). We, therefore, do not support your reliance upon those exemptions in denying access to records which reveal the identity of loan and grant recipients. Nor do we agree with you that disclosing the described records would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy as exempted by KRS 61.878(1)(a). Your agency is conducting the public's business and the public has a right to know the identity of the recipients of the benefits of the agency's program which outweighs any privacy interest of the recipients.
The exemption provided by KRS 61.878(1)(b) does not apply to the described records because they do not include any records confidentially disclosed to the agency in connection with the application for a loan.
It is also our opinion that 5 USC § 552, the Federal Freedom of Information Act, has no bearing on the records of your agency, and the disclosure of the described records is not prohibited by federal law or regulation.
We would point out that the exemptions you have claimed under the statute, if valid, would give your agency the privilege of confidentiality as to its primary function of making loans and grants to qualified recipients. Such a conclusion would defeat the purpose of the Open Records Law which provides, inter alia, as follows:
"Courts shall take into consideration a basic policy of KRS 61.870-61.884 that free and open examination of public records is in the public interest and the exceptions provided for by KRS 61.870-61.884 or otherwise provided for by law shall be strictly construed, even though such examination may cause inconvenience or embarrassment to public officials or others." KRS 61.882(4).
As provided by KRS 61.880, we are sending a copy of this opinion to the requester. The Attorney General upholds the request for inspection of the described records and as provided by statute the agency may institute proceedings within 30 days for injunctive or declaratory relief in the circuit court. KRS 61.880(5).