The University of Kentucky continues to position itself for election to the Kentucky Open Government Hall of Shame.
Frankfort attorney Anna Whites reports that her request to UK — for records relating to testimony by Professors Salamanca and Douglas during the 2021 impeachment hearings conducted by a legislative committee — resulted in unreasonable delays culminating in the production of pages of entirely redacted “responsive records.”
She explained:
“Had an ORR pending with UK. They informed me of several extensions while they ‘waited for University counsel to weigh in.’ Two months went by. I sent a threatening email. They replied with their six week earlier email, WITH records attached, and said, ‘We sent this to you six weeks ago.’ They did not. Six weeks ago I received JUST the email, no records attached.
“The ‘records’ are 45 completely black pages. Top to bottom. Nothing not redacted.”
Weeks before, we shared this November 2021 Kernel editorial with Anna who had expressed frustration with the university’s unjustified delays:
“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.”
https://kykernel.com/10279/opinion/closed-for-business-a-need-for-accou…
The editorial — entitled “Closed for business,”
— explained that just months after the Kentucky Supreme Court issued a strongly worded opinion admonishing UK’s handling of The Kernel’s request for investigative records relating to allegations of sexual harassment leveled against a named professor:
“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.”
The Kernel asked:
“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 Kentucky Open Government Coalition voiced strong support for The Kernel’s position, observing:
“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.”
Adding insult to injury in Anna Whites’ case was UK’s feigned postponement of access to records it had no intention of releasing, delaying her efforts to seek redress through the attorney general or the courts.
Knowing her as we do, we are confident that UK’s duplicity has only strengthened Anna Whites’ resolve.
