Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; Amye L. Bensenhaver, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
This matter having been presented to the Attorney General in an open records appeal, and the Attorney General being sufficiently advised, we find that the Adair County Hospital District violated the provisions of KRS 61.870 to 61.884 by failing to respond to Edward Pipalski Jr.'s November 9, 2013, request for the district's:
. annual profit and loss statements from 1979 to 2013;
. executive summary of the annual audit reports from 1979 to 2013;
. minutes for the October 4, 2013, Hospital Board meeting; [and]
. minutes for the March 16, 2007, Hospital Board meeting[.]
Mr. Pipalski received no response to his request prompting him to initiate this open records appeal. Upon receipt of his appeal, this office issued notification to the District and its Board, through its Acting Interim Administrator, affording the District an opportunity to respond to Mr. Pipalski's allegations. 1 We received no response to that notification from the District.
As a special district formed under statute, 2 the Hospital District is subject to the requirements of the Open Records Act pursuant to KRS 61.870(1)(d) and (1)(f). The Adair County Hospital District did not dispute its status as a public agency for open meetings 3 or open records 4 purposes in two appeals filed in 2011 and has advanced no such legal argument in the instant appeal. Its financial records are, therefore, "open for inspection by any person" under KRS 61.872(1) and the minutes of its meetings are "open to public inspection at reasonable times no later than immediately following the next meeting of the body" under KRS 61.835 as well as KRS 61.872(1) . Recent legislation aimed at ensuring transparency among special purpose governmental entities, including special districts, supports the public's right of access to financial and administrative records of those entities. 5 The Hospital District was afforded two opportunities to produce the requested records, but failed to do so. This failure constituted a violation of the Open Records Act. It is incumbent on the Hospital District that it make immediate arrangements for Mr. Pipalski to inspect and/or obtain copies of the records identified in 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 proceeding.
# 467
Distributed to:
Edward Pipalski Jr.Neal Gold
Footnotes
Footnotes