Request By:
Mrs. Suzanne Darland
Assistant Editor
Scripps-Howard Press Company
3818 Shelbyville Road
P.O. Box 7432
Louisville, Kentucky 40207
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether the St Matthews Volunteer Fire Department is a public agency which is required to comply with the Open Meetings Law, KRS 61.805-61.850.
We have checked the records of the office of the Secretary of State and found that a private nonprofit corporation with the official name of St. Matthews Volunteer Fire Association, Inc. has been in existence since 1939. It appears that this is the same corporation you refer to as the St. Matthews Volunteer Fire Department. Such a corporation is not the same as a fire protection district organized under KRS Chapter 75. A fire protection district can, under KRS 75.040(1), levy a tax on the property owners of the district for the purpose of fire protection. KRS 75.050 provides that a fire protection district or municipal corporation may contract through its governing body for fire protection to be provided by another district, municipal corporation or volunteer fire department. Effinger v. Fern Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Inc., Ky.App. 564 S.W.2d 847 (1978).
A private nonprofit corporation is not subject to the Open Meetings Law under the definition of a "public agency" in KRS 65.805(2). A private corporation does not have the power to levy taxes, and even though it makes a contract with a tax levying authority, it is not a public agency. The fact that a public agency received a portion of its funds from a state or local authority does not bring it under the Open Meetings Law. (A private agency which receives as much as 25 percent of its operating funds from state or local authority is brought under the Open Records Law by KRS 61.870(1).)
It is therefore our opinion that the St. Matthews Volunteer Fire Association, Inc., is not required to hold open meetings under the Kentucky Open Meetings Law, KRS 61.805-61.850.