Closed for business: A need for accountability in the University of Kentucky open records office

By Sarah Michels | Kernel Opinions

"Fair warning: if you need to file an open records request to get information from UK anytime soon, you may want to start thinking about a Plan B.

"The University of Kentucky's open records office is very, very behind, as in there was a backlog of 92 requests as of Oct. 7. Records requests filed by the Kernel in September and October remain unfulfilled, stuck in a seemingly endless delay."

On the heels of a six year open records battle with the University of Kentucky — culminating in success and a scathing Kentucky Supreme Court opinion admonishing the university for noncompliance with the law — The Kernel asks:

"If UK can use low staffing as an excuse to delay the release of records past the required five days, potentially until the news cycle moves on and thereby softening the blow of negative publicity, why would the university ever invest in adequate staffing or make an effort to move more quickly?"

The Office of the Kentucky Attorney General has long recognized that the absence of the public agency's records custodian does not extend the agency's response time.

Provision should be made for the uninterrupted processing of open records requests governed by state law and mandatory statutory deadlines.

The Kernel's question has been asked and answered on multiple occasions by the OAG. The position was reaffirmed in 2019.

The frustration lies in enforcing the public's rights and compelling agency compliance.