Unless the Courier Journal receives a happy surprise in the next 13 days, it appears that Louisville Metro Government will run out the clock on appealing the attorney general's May 29 open records decision before releasing records relating to a Microsoft licensing audit.

On May 29, the attorney general's staff found that Louisville Metro violated the open records law when it denied the CJ access to the findings and recommendations in the most recent software licensing audit conducted by Microsoft. The audit landed the city in serious financial hot water.

https://ag.ky.gov/orom/2019/19ORD098.doc

Louisville Metro argued that the findings and recommendations were protected from disclosure by the preliminary documents exceptions to the open records law since it had not yet reached a "final agreement" with Microsoft.

The attorney general's staff disagreed. The staff determined that the audit findings were final because they were used as the basis for the execution of the compliance purchase settlement and master installment payment agreement.

Louisville Metro's application of the exception to public inspection, the attorney general's staff reasoned, would render the document "perpetually" preliminary and inaccessible to the public.

The agency has indicated it will not appeal the decision issued by the attorney general's staff, but the clock is ticking on production of the records.

Public agencies can, and often do, run out the clock before releasing records which the attorney general's staff determine to be nonexempt. The law affords them 30 days to decide whether to produce the records or appeal to the courts.

For now, it's a waiting game.

On a somewhat related note, the Kentucky Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on July 12 in the open records appeal filed by Louisville Metro against the Courier Journal.

That case involves access to the ultimately unsuccessful bid package the city offered to Amazon to build its headquarters in Louisville. While multiple other cities posted their bid packages online or otherwise made them readily accessible, Louisville Metro maintains that disclosure will competitively disadvantaged them in vying for future projects.

One section of a bill introduced in the 2019 legislative session would have created an exception to the open records law for unsuccessful bid packages. It appears to have been prompted by the Amazon bid package controversy in Louisville.

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/19RS/hb387.html

The bill failed.