Here is a final bit of good news for the open government community.

Last week we reported on an open records dispute involving the efforts of a private nonprofit group, Kentucky PTA, to block Jefferson County Public Schools' release of PTA financial reports to public school advocate Gay Adelmann.

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These reports must be filed with school districts under state law.

JCPS agreed to release the reports to Adelmann, just as it had released them to the Courier Journal on three occasions in the past, but Kentucky PTA objected. The group sought injunctive relief in Jefferson Circuit Court, naming JCPS as the defendant and Adelmann as a real party in interest. It claimed that disclosure of the financial reports would permit an unfair commercial advantage to competitors.

A veteran open records requester, Adelmann was shocked to find herself on the receiving end of a lawsuit involving access to public records.

Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Charles Cunningham, Jr., conducted a hearing in the case on August 15. The parties, with the exception of Adelmann, lawyered up.

Adelmann became the unintended voice of the public's right to know.

If subsequent events are any indicator, she ably represented the public's rights under the open records law.

On August 27, Judge Cunningham issued an order denying Kentucky PTA's request to enjoin release of the financial reports.

He rejected Kentucky PTA's argument that the reports would provide a commercial advantage to competitors, observing:

"It is essentially impossible to make plum and level an argument that it's okay if our records are obtained by the newspaper with the largest circulation in Kentucky, but it poses a threat to us if a single individual obtains them."

Further, the Judge rejected Kentucky PTA's claim that the reports are confidential or proprietary. The records, he noted, are available to members and others, and there is "no evidence of insider dope lurking within the lines of [Kentucky PTA's] balance sheet."

Finally, Judge Cunningham rejected the notion of an unfair advantage that would be gained by disclosure of the records, again emphasizing that they contain little more than the information that could be acquired by attending a PTA meeting. If Adelmann established a competing PTA, he theorized, Kentucky PTA would have the same entitlement to records of her organization as she has to records of Kentucky PTA. Hence, no unfair advantage.

There is, he opined, "no reason to think the information could be monetized and exploited for profit."

Given these hurdles, Judge Cunningham concluded that Kentucky PTA "must fail in its quest to have this court exempt its financial records from disclosure by the [JCPS]."

He ordered JCPS to release the requested PTA financial reports to Adelmann by September 16, leaving the door ajar for Kentucky PTA to initiate an appeal in the interim to establish a precedent on the legal question presented.

A just, fair, and speedy resolution communicated in a colorful and "dope" way.