Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway,Attorney General;James M. Herrick,Assistant Attorney General
Open Meetings Decision
The question presented in this appeal is whether the Board of Regents of Eastern Kentucky University violated the Open Meetings Act by scheduling its October 2014 meeting to be held on the campus of Hazard Community and Technical College. For the reasons stated below, we find no violation of the Act.
By letter dated September 12, 2014, Jacob Blair, Editor-in-Chief of the EKU student newspaper The Eastern Progress , submitted a written complaint to Board of Regents Chairman Craig Turner in which he alleged that holding the October meeting of the Board in Hazard would violate KRS 61.820, which provides that "[a]ll meetings of all public agencies of this state? shall be held at specific times and places which are convenient to the public." He argued that "it is important for the university community to have the opportunity to attend these meetings in-person and I do not believe Hazard is convenient to the relevant public, which are the faculty, staff and students at the main campus as well as the city of Richmond." He proposed as a remedy that all regular meetings of the Board be held on the main EKU campus in Richmond.
The Board's response to the complaint was issued on September 17, 2014, by University Counsel Judith W. Spain. She pointed out that "[t]he Hazard region is relevant to the University and to its mission of serving a designated twenty-two (22) county region which includes Hazard and Perry County. It is relevant to the students and University employees in the region and to the prospective students in the area." She went on to describe EKU's "extensive presence in the Hazard region, which includes offering classes on the campus of Hazard Community and Technical College ("HCTC"), maintaining a regional campus at the Manchester Center 45 miles from Hazard, and being a member of the University Center of the Mountains, which offers educational opportunities to people in an eight-county region and has its physical location on the campus of HCTC.
Ms. Spain also offered the following concrete reason for the choice of location:
As you probably know, the University owns and maintains Lilley Cornett Woods in Letcher County, next to Perry County. Currently, no facilities are available at Lilley Cornett Woods to accommodate a Board meeting. One of the reasons that the meeting has been planned for Hazard, is to have a ribbon cutting ceremony for a research facility/ bunkhouse under construction at Lilley Cornett Woods. Given the difficulty in gathering all members of the Board and the importance of Lilley Cornett Woods to the region and to the Commonwealth as an old-growth forest and research facility, it is appropriate for the University to hold its Board meeting within the facility of one of our University owned assets.
She also cited relatively recent occasions when the Board had met in Manchester (June 2009) and Frankfort (a February 2014 retreat).
Mr. Blair initiated an appeal to the Attorney General on September 25, 2014, maintaining that the Richmond campus is the only location "convenient to the public." Ms. Spain responded to the appeal on September 30, 2014. In addition to the matters already presented, she points out that KRS 164.340 allows the governing board of a state university to hold its meetings "at the institution or at such other place as is agreed upon."
"The intent of the open meetings act is to ensure that government business is not conducted in secret, that the public is adequately notified of the time and nature of government proceedings, and that interested citizens be afforded the opportunity to participate in such proceedings." Knox County v. Hammons, 129 S.W.3d 839, 845 (Ky. 2004). "In short, the open meetings statutes are designed to prevent government bodies from conducting [their] business at such inconvenient times or locations as to effectively render public knowledge or participation impossible, not to require such agencies to seek out the most convenient time or location." Id . There is nothing in the record to suggest that the Board is attempting to avoid public scrutiny of its actions or to prevent public participation. EKU is a state university which serves a large region of Kentucky, and in this case has more than established the convenience of holding this Board meeting in Hazard.
EKU is distinguishable from local government bodies, which generally must hold their meetings within the jurisdictional boundaries of the city or county of which they are an extension. That "interpretation of KRS 61.820 cannot be applied to public agencies with statewide authority. Because such agencies do not serve discrete local areas, the citizenry directly concerned with their activities is the citizenry of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and their meetings may properly be held anywhere within the Commonwealth." 02-OMD-78. Furthermore, the EKU Board of Regents has specific authority under KRS 164.340 to hold its meetings at any place "agreed upon."
Without more specific allegations calling into question the precise location or conditions of the meeting site, there is nothing to indicate that this meeting is in violation of KRS 61.820. Therefore, under the facts presented here, we find that the Board did not violate the Open Meetings Act by scheduling its meeting in Hazard.
A party aggrieved by this decision may appeal it by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.846(4)(a). 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.