The Kentucky Attorney General today issued this advisory concerning legislative changes to the open records law and the status of 20RS SB150. The advisory deviates from statements made by OAG staffers to us relating to strict enforcement of the residency requirement.

In discussions with Coalition co-directors Scott Horn and Amye Bensenhaver, an AG staffer advised that the Attorney would urge agency leniency in enforcement of the new residency requirement. He urged us to share this information broadly.

This advisory suggests otherwise.

Nevertheless, the new residency requirement that will take effect on June 29 does not prohibit public agencies from accepting and honoring nonresident requests, though nonresidents will have no legally enforceable right to access Kentucky's public records.

The advisory includes a copy of the proposed standardized records request form & reflects some recommendations made by the Kentucky Open Government Coalition: https://ag.ky.gov/Documents/2021_Standardized_Open_Records_Request_Form…

The Attorney General advisory makes no reference to the three new exceptions to the open records law. Nor does it explain the legislative changes that effectively eliminate access to records of the General Assembly and Legislative Research Commission and make denials of their records requests final and unappealable.