Request By:
Mr. Jack C. Blanton
Vice President
Business Affairs and Treasurer
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40506
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
Dr. R. Joyce B. Garrett has appealed to the Attorney General the denial of the inspection of two documents in your custody. The two documents in question are (1) the final report of the Equal Opportunity Office regarding Dr. Garrett's allegation of salary inequity, and (2) the final report of the Medical Center Appeals Committee chaired by Dr. Jacqueline Noonan. By letter of October 11, 1978, we requested that you send a copy of the disputed documents to this office. We received the documents on October 30, 1978. Thank you for your cooperation.
After consideration of the source and nature of the documents in question, it is the opinion of the Attorney General that you were legally authorized to deny Dr. Garrett inspection of the documents.
The first document, the report of the Equal Opportunity Office, is exempt under KRS 61.878(1)(h): "preliminary recommendations and preliminary memoranda in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended." We have found the title "Equal Opportunity Office" to be somewhat misleading. The office consists mainly of the director, Victor P. Gaines. It has no power to make a binding ruling and only investigates complaints and makes a recommendation to the University administration. Accordingly, the reports of the office are only preliminary recommendations.
The other document is a report on a performance review made by an ad hoc committee reviewing Dr. Garrett's faculty performance rating. We believe that this document also is exempt under KRS 61.878 (1)(h). In OAG 77-394 we said that a teacher is not entitled to inspect an evaluation of his work under the Open Records Law because the general public would not be entitled to inspect such a document.
Pursuant to KRS 61.880(2) we are sending a copy of this opinion to Dr. Garrett who has the right to challenge it in the circuit court.