Request By:
Mr. Edward W. Boone
Executive Director
ALPHA
233 W. Broadway
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter of July 11, 1980 you state that ALPHA (Action League for Physically Handicapped Adults) is funded by the City of Louisville Community Development Block Grant Program; that since ALPHA received more than 25 percent of its funding from a state or local authority it is a public agency under the Kentucky Open Records Law, KRS 61.870(1). You request an opinion of the Attorney General as to whether ALPHA is required by the Kentucky Open Records Law to make its membership list, including the home addresses of its members, available to another organization known as Disability Rights Organization. You state that many of your members have asked upon joining that their names not be given to other organizations since they do not want to have their names placed on mailing lists or to be contacted by surveyers.
In OAG 76-716 we said that a state employee's home address is exempt from the mandatory requirement of public disclosure by KRS 61.878(1)(a): "Public records containing information of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." We believe that under the circumstances you state the home addresses of your members may be withheld from the public. In balancing the privacy rights of the individuals against the public's right to be informed on public business, we believe that the right of privacy prevails in this case.
We are not saying that a person's home address is invariably exempted from the requirements of the Open Records Law. In some cases, such as pertaining to drivers' licenses and automobile registration, the purpose of the record is to make available to the public the identity of the licensee or the registered owner of a vehicle, and the public clearly has an overwhelming interest in their home address. Also, the public is entitled to the business address of any person who is licensed in a business or profession.
It is our opinion that the public is not entitled mandatorily to access to the home addresses of voluntary members of an organization such as ALPHA.
You ask our opinion as to whether on a one-time basis in order to accommodate the Disability Rights organization your organization could distribute to your membership a letter from Disability Rights Organization if said organization paid the postage. We think that this is a matter of policy for your organization board to decide. There is no legal reason why you cannot make such an accommodation.