Request By:
Mr. Bernard J. Schrembs
Director Internal Auditing
Jefferson County Public Schools
P.O. Box 18325
3332 Newburg Road
Louisville, Kentucky
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have appealed to the Attorney General, as provided by KRS 61.880, the denial of your request for the inspection of the records relative to the Transportation overpayments by the Jefferson County Public Schools. Your request was denied by the Auditor of Public Accounts. Your letter does not fully describe the documents you requested to inspect, however, the letter to you from Robert L. Warren, Assistant Auditor of Public Accounts, describes the documents as "all information" in the possession of the Auditor, including sworn affidavits relative to the overpayments to bus drivers. Mr. Warren based the denial upon an opinion of the Attorney General, OAG 78-816, that working papers are not public records and are thus exempt from the provisions of the Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884.
KRS 61.878, which sets forth the exemptions to the Open Records Law, does not use the term "work papers". However, we believe that two of the exemptions stated apply to such documents as affidavits and other investigative notes. KRS 61.878(1)(g)(h) exempt the following:
"Preliminary drafts, notes, correspondence with private individuals, other than correspondence which is intended to give notice of final action of a public agency; preliminary recommendations, and preliminary memoranda in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended."
Such documents may be withheld by a public agency subject to inspection only upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
It is therefore the opinion of the Attorney General that the Auditor of Public Accounts was within his authority under the Open Records Law when he withheld inspection of the described documents.
As directed by KRS 61.880 we are sending a copy of this opinion to the public agency. Said statute further provides that the requester may apply to the circuit court to overrule the Attorney General's opinion.