Request By:
Mr. William B. Sturgill
Secretary of Energy
Iron Works Pike
P.O. Box 11888
Lexington, Kentucky 40578
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
Mr. Gary S. Webb, reporter for The Kentucky Post, has appealed to the Attorney General under KRS 61.880 your denial of his request to inspect certain categories of records of the Big Sandy Coal Producers Association, Inc., a non-profit Kentucky corporation, incorporated pursuant to KRS Chapter 272.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
A private corporation is not a public agency under the Open Records law. OAG 81-2;
The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times Company v. University of Louisville Board of Trustees, Ky.App. 596 S.W.2d 374 (1979). However, a private corporation comes under the strictures of the Open Records law if it derives at least 25% of its funds from state or local authority. KRS 61.870(1); OAG 80-633.
In response to a letter from the Attorney General inquiring as to whether the Big Sandy Coal Producers Association Inc. receives any funds from state or local authority, you replied by letter dated September 24, 1981, that the Association receives no grants or funds from state or local governments. Based upon this response, we must conclude that the request to inspect the described records was lawfully denied.
By sending a copy of this letter to Mr. Webb as directed by statute, we are advising him of our opinion. We are also advising him that he has the right to challenge this opinion and the factual assumptions on which it is based in court as provided by KRS 61.882.