WDRB reports that, in response to allegations advanced by attorneys for the family of Breonna Taylor, eight Metro Council members have issued a letter to Mayor Greg Fischer in which they demand the immediate release of all records related to the case.

https://www.wdrb.com/watch-live-metro-council-members-demand-release-of…

Attorneys for the family allege that "the raid that resulted in [Breonna Taylor's] death was the result of a 'reckless city' plan to revitalize west Louisville."

In their July 8 letter, the eight council members demand release of "all documents that relate to the Breonna Taylor case as well as any records between any depar of Louisville Metro Government, including the Mayor's Office and the Louisville Metro Police Police Department over the course of the past two years involving Elliott Avenue, between 24th and 28th Streets."

Additionally, the council members demand release of "any and all information related to communications between any person or entity associated with the Mayor's Office, Economic Development, Planning, or Louisville Forward and members of the LMPD Command Staff and/or persons working within the any [sic] place-basedinvestigations of the Louisville Metro Police Department."

Declaring that Louisville demands "absolute and complete transparency, the council members impose a deadline of July 23 for production of the records and threaten "clear and decisive action" for refusal to comply.

Although not a request submitted under the open records law, the law envisions such requests. KRS 61.878(5) states:

"The [open records exceptions] shall in no way prohibit or limit the exchange of public records or the sharing of information between public agencies when the exchange is serving a legitimate governmental need or is necessary in the performance of a legitimate government function."

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=48230

This statute "is aimed at avoiding duplication of public agency efforts, and is grounded in the notion that the recipient agency will responsibly and appropriately use the information. As a precondition to its invocation, a public agency seeking access to another agency's records must demonstrate that those records are 'serving a legitimate governmental need or [are] necessary in the performance of a legitimate government function.'"

https://ag.ky.gov/Priorities/Government-Transparency/orom/1996/96ORD164…

Were this an open records request, for which enforcement mechanisms exist, there can be little doubt that the records "are necessary to [the Metro Council members] in the performance of a legitimate government function."

Whatever the impediments to the council members' access to the records they demand, none of the exceptions to the open records law provide legal shelter from disclosure of the records to the council members.

Invocation of the any exception authorizing nondisclosure would be pointless.