Request By:
Mr. John R. Cox
Attorney at Law
P.O. Box 9
Morehead, Kentucky 40351
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether the Rowan Water, Inc., a nonprofit corporation organized under KRS Chapter 273, is subject to the provisions of the Kentucky Open Meetings Law, KRS 61.805-61.850. You state that the corporation is not a water district organized under KRS Chapter 74. We have checked in the office of the Secretary of State and confirmed that Rowan Water, Inc. is in fact a nonprofit corporation and nothing in its Articles indicates that it is invested with the rights and liabilities of a water district.
It is our opinion that a nonprofit corporation, such as Rowan Water, Inc., is not a "public agency" under the Open Meetings Law as defined in KRS 61.805(2). We reached the same conclusion in regard to the Taylor County RECC in OAG 79-560 (copy enclosed).
The conduct of the meetings of a nonprofit corporation, which is not a public agency, as to who will be allowed to attend the meetings is governed by its bylaws, not by the Open Meetings Law.
In this opinion we are assuming, of course, that Rowan Water, Inc. does not exercise the powers granted to water districts by KRS Chapter 74, such as condemnation, the levying of assessments, the establishment of a fire protection district and the issuance of bonds. A water district organized under KRS Chapter 74 is a public agency.