A follow-up to our post concerning the Lexington Fire Department's refusal to disclose the racially offensive comments made by Capt. Robert Forehand in a recruit training class that lead to his suspension.

This article from WCPO Cincinnati confirms that Ohio city officials do not interpret that state's open records law so narrowly. The unredacted disciplinary recommendations for two Cincinnati police officers who used racially offensive language were released to WCPO. The redactions that appear in the article were made by the WCPO staff before publication.

Kentucky's open records law does not support the Lexington Fire Department's position that Forehand's comments "are not subject to open records."

Consistent with the notion that the "punishment should fit the crime," Kentucky's law requires public officials to disclose the underlying charges against a public employee in their entirety "even though [the charges] may cause inconvenience or embarrassment to [those officials/employees] or others."