This case raises numerous records management and access issues. First and foremost: Why were these public records — which belong to the Office of the Governor and not the former office holder or his staff — removed from the Office during the transition?
Other (arguably) attorney/client protected records from the Bevin administration remained in the Office of the Governor after the transition. Why not these? Does this constitute tampering with a public record? https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=19864
âFrom 07-ORD-020:
"KRS 171.680(1) is grounded in the widely held, if not axiomatic, view that "[a] written memorial of a transaction in a public office, when made by a public officer, becomes a public record belonging to the office, and not his private property." 76 C.J.S. Records § 2 (emphasis added). Stated alternatively, "[a]n officer who has public records in his or her charge is the mere custodian of those records . . ., the records are not the private property of the officer." 66 AmJur2d, Records and Recording Laws § 5 (emphasis added)."
