Request By:
Mr. William J. Morrison
Director
University Archives & Records Center
University of Louisville
Belknap Campus
Louisville, Kentucky 40292
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
The Courier Journal and Louisville Times Company has appealed to the Attorney General under KRS 61.880 your denial of the request of one of its reporters, Eleanor Flagler, to inspect certain records in possession of the University of Louisville. The records are described as "detailed expenditures of the University of Louisville Foundation for the past five years - beginning 74-75 through 1979-80", and records relating to a breakdown of unrestricted Foundation expenditures - for example, the discretionary, non-budgeted money given to the president (of the University.)'" You denied the request to inspect said records by letter dated November 26, 1980 and gave as the reason for the denial that the University of Louisville Foundation, Inc. is not a public agency under state law.
We note that it has been judicially determined that the University of Louisville Foundation, Inc. was created as a private nonprofit corporation under KRS Chapter 273 and is not a public agency under the Kentucky Open Meetings Law, KRS 61.805(2). Courier Journal and Louisville Times Company v. University of Louisville Board of Trustees, Ky.App. 596 S.W.2d 374 (1979). But this would not necessarily mean that the University of Louisville Foundation, Inc. is not a public agency under the Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884, since there is a difference in the definition of a public agency in the two statutes. However, the status of the Foundation is not an issue on this appeal because the request for records, and the response thereto, was not made to or by the Foundation.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is our opinion that your response to the request to inspect the records is inadequate to support the denial of the inspection because the University of Louisville is a public agency subject to the Open Records Law. Courier Journal and Louisville Times Company v. University of Louisville Board of Trustees, supra. Since the only reason given for denying inspection of the records is, in our opinion, erroneous, we believe that the inspection was improperly denied under the Open Records Law.
A copy of this opinion is being sent to the requester.