Request By:
Mr. Al Brodbent
The American Way
Williamsburg, Kentucky 40769
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether the Whitley County Water District is subject to the requirements of the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884. You do not state that you have been denied access to a record of the water district so we will have to answer your letter in a general way.
A water district created under KRS Chapter 74 is a public agency within the meaning of the Open Records Law and the definition contained therein, KRS 61.870(1). As a public agency, a water district has no exemption of a general nature. Some of the records of a water district may be exempted because of subject matter as provided by KRS 61.878. Some examples of subject matter exemptions are employment applications containing personal data, the contents of real estate appraisals, engineering or feasibility estimates and evaluations made relative to the acquisition of property and preliminary drafts, notes, and correspondence with private individuals.
When a public agency denies access to a record it is required under the law to give the reason the access is denied and why it believes the record is exempt.
We repeat, a water district has no general exemption from the provisions of the Open Records Law.