Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; James M. Herrick, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
At issue in this appeal is whether the University of Louisville School of Medicine violated the Kentucky Open Records Act in the disposition of Bruce M. Tyler's request for information of May 20, 2013. We find no violation of the Act.
Mr. Tyler sent his May 20 request by electronic mail. Addressed to the Dean of the School of Medicine, Mr. Tyler's e-mail stated:
Hello Dean:
In 2010, I was in my doctor's office in Shelbyville, KY. and a U of L medical student was assigned there. He remembered me from U of L because we happened to encounter each other there and we both were surprised at our happenstance to meet at Dr. Ronald Waldridge's, II, "Shelby Family Medicine," P.S.C, 60 Mack Walters Rd., Shelbyville, KY 40065. Will you forward to the appropriate unit to check for the name of the medical student. I simply need to get his name and I don't need to contact him. I simply need his name for a writing project I am working on. Thanks in advance.
On May 23, 2013, Program Assistant Debbie Habberfield in the Office of the Dean replied:
The University of Louisville School of Medicine has received your email communication. I have forwarded your request to our Office of Medical Student Affairs for their review. Thank you for contacting the University of Louisville.
Mr. Tyler forwarded this communication to the Attorney General with the complaint that the University would not "follow the law." We have construed this communication, which we received on July 2, 2013, as an open records appeal.
We do not find that anything in Mr. Tyler's correspondence with the University of Louisville comes under the purview of open records. Requests for information are outside the scope of open records law and an agency is not obligated to honor a request for information under the law. 02-ORD-88; KRS 61.870 et seq. The Kentucky Open Records Act addresses requests for records, not requests for information. 03-ORD-028. At page 2 of 95-ORD-131, the Attorney General observed:
Requests for information, as distinguished from records, are outside of the scope of the open records provisions. See, e.g., OAG 89-77. Our position is premised on the notion that "[o]pen records provisions address only inspection of records . . . [and] do not require public agencies or officials to provide or compile specific information to conform to the parameters of a given request.
Accordingly, we find no violation of the Open Records Act.
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 proceeding.
Distributed to:
Mr. Bruce M. TylerMs. Debbie HabberfieldAngela Koshewa, Esq.