Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; Michelle D. Harrison, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
At issue in this appeal is whether the Kenton County Detention Center violated the Kentucky Open Records Act in the disposition of Gary C. Gamble's two requests dated February 13, 2008. More specifically, Mr. Gamble asked for one copy each of the KCDC "yearly budget report," the "A.C.A. Audit Grade/Score" and records documenting "any and all supporting and contributing factor's [sic] to the jail [sic] state, federal or otherwise" in the first request, and one copy of the credentials of "any and all" women "working in the medical department" at KCDC who distribute mind-altering drugs and/or Schedule I narcotics in the second request. Upon receiving notification of Mr. Gamble's appeal from this office, Joe Shriver, Human Resource Director and Deputy Chief of Staff, responded on behalf of the Kenton County Fiscal Court under authority of the Judge/Executive. "First and foremost," Mr. Shriver asserts that none of the records requested contain a "specific reference" to Mr. Gamble as required by KRS 197.025(2). Because the KCDC is authorized to deny access on the basis of KRS 197.025(2), consideration of the remaining legal arguments raised by the parties is unwarranted. 1
In our view, 04-ORD-076 and 03-ORD-073 are controlling on the facts presented; a copy of each decision is attached hereto and incorporated by reference. As consistently recognized by the Attorney General, KRS 197.025(2) expressly authorizes the DOC and correctional facilities under its jurisdiction 2 to deny any request by any inmate unless the record(s) contains a specific reference to that inmate. Because the records at issue do not contain a specific reference to Mr. Gamble, as required by KRS 197.025(2), Mr. Gamble is not entitled to inspect or to receive a copy of any such records, notwithstanding his underlying concerns. Regardless of the hardship Mr. Gamble may believe that application of KRS 197.025(2) imposes upon him, Mr. Gamble is expressly precluded from gaining access to records which do not contain a specific reference to him by the mandatory language of this provision; accordingly, the KCDC properly relied upon KRS 197.025(2), incorporated into the Open Records Act by operation of KRS 61.878(1)(l) , in denying his request.
A party aggrieved by this decision may appeal it by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882. Pursuant to KRS 61.880(3), the Attorney General should be notified of any action in circuit court, but should not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceedings.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 From a procedural standpoint, Mr. Gamble challenges the refusal of the KCDC to provide him with a request form; however, KRS 61.872(2) does not require a public agency to provide a particular form or permit a public agency to require completion of a particular form before processing a request. On appeal, Mr. Shriver explains that "Kenton County Fiscal Court and thus the Kenton County Detention Center do not use any form when processing non-commercial purposes open records requests (see attached policy). Rather so long as any request is in writing and specifies the public records sought, no form is necessary or required under KRS 61.870 to 61.884." Accordingly, this office has no basis upon which to find a procedural violation. To the extent a factual issue has been presented, this office reminds the parties that such an issue cannot be resolved in the context of an Open Records appeal insofar as the role of the Attorney General in resolving disputes arising under the Open Records Act is narrowly defined by KRS 61.880(2)(a).
2 In 03-ORD-074, this office concluded that "an interpretation of KRS 197.025(2) that does not include jails is legally unsupportable in light of the underlying purpose of KRS 197.025 as a whole." Id., p. 4.