Annotations for Statute

Where a school district employee settled her lawsuit against one school district for sexual harassment by a district official and a second lawsuit against another district for allegedly wrongfully failing to hire her, the lower courts erred in denying a newspaper’s request for access to the settlement agreements under the Kentucky Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 to 61.884, because the settlement of litigation between a government agency and one of its employees and a private citizen and a governmental entity were matters of legitimate public concern that the public is entitled to scrutinize. A confidentiality clause in such agreements was not entitled to protection. Cent. Ky. News-Journal v. George, 306 S.W.3d 41, 2010 Ky. LEXIS 72 (Ky. 2010).

Winnowing process required of the Department of Corrections by the General Assembly under KRS 197.025 did not rise to the level of an unreasonable burden under KRS 61.872(6), especially in light of the fact that the General Assembly had already mandated that all public agencies had to separate materials exempted from disclosure in a document from materials that were subject to disclosure. The obvious fact that complying with an open records request would have consumed both time and manpower was, standing alone, not sufficiently clear and convincing evidence of an unreasonable burden. Commonwealth v. Chestnut, 250 S.W.3d 655, 2008 Ky. LEXIS 116 (Ky. 2008).