Request By:
Mr. Joe H. Weidemann
Property Valuation Administrator
Simpson County
Box 424
Franklin, Kentucky 42134
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
Jerry L. Moore, Esq., has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your denial of his request to inspect and copy a particular document in your custody.
In his letter to you, dated July 28, 1987, Mr. Moore asked you to permit him to inspect and copy what he described as a yellow property card [Commercial and Industrial Property Record Card - Kentucky Revenue Form 370-A (62A370-A) (1-65)] pertaining to the property of Willard Stone, deceased.
You replied to Mr. Moore in a letter dated August 3, 1987. You advised him that the document he sought to inspect and copy would not be made available to him as it is not a public record but a working paper of your office. In support of your decision you cited OAG 78-549.
In his letter of appeal to this office, Mr. Moore states that while he is not familiar with OAG 78-549, referred to by you, he has read OAG 78-473 to the effect that the records in the P.V.A.'s Office are subject to public inspection. He, therefore, asks this office to review your denial of his request to inspect the Commercial and Industrial Property Record Card relating to the real estate of J. Willard Stone, deceased.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
At the outset we direct your attention to KRS 61.880 (2) which provides in part that, "A copy of the written response denying inspection of a public record shall be forwarded immediately by the agency to the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Kentucky." Thus, a copy of your letter of August 3, 1987, to Mr. Moore should have been sent to this office. We trust that if the situation presents itself in the future you will comply with the statutory requirement set forth above.
This office did conclude in OAG 78-473, copy enclosed, that a requesting party should be permitted to inspect the tax records in the custody of the Property Valuation Administrator at such times and in such a manner as will not disrupt the function of the office or jeopardize the security of the records.
However, in OAG 78-549, copy enclosed, this office reconsidered the conclusion reached in OAG 78-473 relative to the right of a person to inspect all of the records in the P.V.A.'s Office. At page two of OAG 78-549 we said in part as follows:
"In OAG 78-473 we did not state with specificity the tax records which we thought should be made available to the public. Upon consideration of the question, we now conclude that only the tax rolls are required to be open to inspection. The maps and other papers which you designate as working papers we conclude to be preliminary drafts and notes and exempt from the mandatory provisions of the Open Records Act."
Preliminary drafts and notes and preliminary memoranda in which opinions are expressed may be excluded from public inspection, in the absence of a court order authorizing inspection, pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h).
This office in OAG 78-549 also considered the provisions of KRS 133.045. Although the statute has been amended since the opinion was issued, the amended statute expresses a legislative intent that the tax roll as finally prepared by the P.V.A. shall be open for public inspection at certain designated times. While the statute clearly provides that the tax roll itself is subject to public inspection, there is nothing in KRS 133.045 to indicate that the exceptions to public inspection set forth in KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h) relative to preliminary drafts, notes and memoranda are not applicable to preliminary materials involved in the preparation of the tax rolls. See also KRS 133.047, a 1980 enactment of the General Assembly.
We concluded in OAG 78-549 that the earlier opinion on the subject (OAG 78-473) needed to be modified and that the requesting party should be allowed to inspect the tax roll as finally published by the P.V.A. but need not be permitted to inspect preliminary drafts, notes and memoranda pertaining to the preparation of the tax roll.
It is, therefore, the opinion of the Attorney General that your denial of the request to inspect the Commercial and Industrial Property Record Card is supported by the provisions of KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h) and KRS 133.045 as such a document is a preliminary working paper pertaining to the tax rolls as finally prepared by the Property Valuation Administrator.
As required by statute a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requesting party, Jerry L. Moore, Esq., who has the right to challenge it in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5).