Request By:
Mr. William L. Clark
Executive Director
The Housing Authority
P.O. Box 459
Newport, Kentucky 41072
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 Housing Authority of Newport, Kentucky is a public agency within the meaning of the Kentucky Open Records Law. You state that the Authority is created pursuant to the provisions of KRS Chapter 80.
The fact that the Housing Authority of Newport is created by statute is conclusive of the fact that it is a public agency subject to the provisions of the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884. The fact that it does not receive any state or local funds does not exclude it from the law.
You also ask our opinion as to whether you are required to comply with a request by the Kentucky Post for copies of 14 categories of records. In response to this question we are sending you a copy of OAG 76-375 in which we took the position that an agency does not have to supply by mail copies of records in response to a blanket request; that the right to have copies of records is ancillary to the right of inspection, and that if a citizen wants to make a fishing expedition through public records he must do it himself.
You also ask our opinion as to whether certain of the categories of records wanted by the Kentucky Post are confidential under the law.
We have said many times that the names and salaries of public officials and employees are not exempted from public inspection. We therefore think that category No. 5 of the Kentucky Post request is not exempt.
As to categories 12, 13 and 14, we do not have sufficient knowledge of the nature of the records and whether there may be some federal law as to their confidentiality. We do not know what is meant by Section Eight Landlords or the Section Eight program. Records concerning delinquent rent would appear to us to be confidential.
If access to certain records is disputed in the future, we will give an opinion when we have sufficient information and proper application according to the statute.