The Herald-Leader reports on the Fayette Circuit Court's April 25 ruling on the "threshold issue" of whether Kentucky Medical Services Foundation is a public agency for open records purposes.

The Herald-Leader's report identifies an important corollary question relating to whether KMSF has a duty to comply with public procurement laws, raising the stakes even higher.

As the Herald-Leader reports, and we observed in our May 25 post, once final this case will no doubt join a companion case issued a few weeks earlier — in which the Fayette Circuit Court determined that the University's Healthcare Compensation Planning Committee is a public agency under the open records law — in the appellate courts.

The court's ruling is consistent with the broadly worded definition of the term "public agency" that appears in the statute. It is also consistent with earlier opinions issued by the courts, in particular, the 2003 Court of Appeals opinion declaring that the University of Louisville Foundation is a public agency for purposes of open records analysis.

Finally, it affirms a 2015 open records decision issued by the Office of the Attorney General resolving this particular issue against the university and in favor of the public's right to know.