Request By:
Ms. Pauline Smith
Director
Martin County Housing Agency
Route 40
Warfield, Kentucky 41267
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
In your letters of October 28 and 31, 1980 you requested an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884, applies to the Martin County Housing Agency, Inc. which you state is a private, non-profit, charitable and educational corporation organized under KRS Chapter 273. You state that the corporation receives funds from the Community Development Block Grant Program through the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and that it receives no funds from state or local authority. Your contention is that under these circumstances the corporation is not covered by the Open Records Law. You further state that you, as Director of the Martin County Housing Agency, Inc., have been harassed by the news media seeking to inspect the records of the agency. You ask what rights or recourse does the agency have against what you feel to be undue harassment by the news media.
In considering our opinion on your questions we have checked the Articles of Incorporation of the Martin County Housing Agency, Inc. in the Office of the Secretary of State. In the light of the Articles of Incorporation we believe that your agency is a public agency within the meaning of the law and its records are open to public inspection.
The incorporators of the Corporation are listed in Article IX as Larry Disney, Martin County Planning Commission and Martin County Fiscal Court. It is also provided that the directors of the corporation shall be appointed by the county judge. It, therefore, appears that the corporation has been created by local authority to carry out a public function.
A "public agency" under the Open Records Law is defined in KRS 61.870(1). Included in the definition is "any other body which is created by state or local authority in any branch of government or which derives at least 25 percent of its funds from state or local authority. " Although your agency does not receive funds from state or local authority, the Articles of Incorproation show that it was created by local authority, to wit: the Planning Commission and the Fiscal Court. Even though it is a private, non-profit corporation it is, therefore, nevertheless a public agency under the Open Records Law.
In OAG 80-288 we gave our opinion that the records of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Housing Authority which also administers a block grant program under HUD were subject to the Open Records Law. It was not contended that it was not a public agency.
In the recent case
Courier Journal v. University of Louisville Board of Trustees, Ky.App. 596 S.W.2d 374 (1980), it was held that the University of Louisville Foundation, Inc., a private, non-profit corporation, was subject to the Kentucky Open Meetings Law, KRS 61.805-61.850, because its Board of Directors included the members of the Board of Trustees of the University of Louisville. This case makes it clear that a private, non-profit corporation can be considered a public agency under the Open Meetings Law and under the Open Records Law even if it receives no state or local funding if it was created by state or local authority. The fact that the Martin County Housing Agency, Inc. was created by the Martin County Planning Commission and the Martin County Fiscal Court and that its directors shall be appointed by the County Judge brings it under the Open Records Law. You ask, "Does the Agency have to provide copies of its minutes, employees' salaries, family data such as income, and etc.?"
The minutes of a public agency are open to public inspection. KRS 61.835. The salary of an employee of a public agency is not a private matter and the public has the right to know the salary, the position and work station of the employee. OAG 76-717. However, a public employee is entitled to privacy as to his personal life and about such matters as other income, marital status and his home address.
A request by any person, including a member of the news media, to inspect the records of a public agency during business hours is not harassment. The custodian of the records should make them available for inspection unless they are exempted by law, in which case the custodian should give a written answer to the requester stating the reason why the record is exempt. KRS 61.880.
In summary, it is the opinion of the Attorney General that the Martin County Housing Agency, Inc. is a public agency under the Open Records Law and it should make its records available for inspection by any person who makes a request to inspect records according to KRS 61.870-61.884