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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.

LLM Summary
The decision concludes that the Big Sandy Coal Producers Association, Inc., a private corporation, is not subject to the Open Records law as it does not receive at least 25% of its funds from state or local authorities. The denial of the request to inspect certain records by Mr. Gary S. Webb was deemed lawful based on the funding criteria outlined in the Open Records law.
Disclaimer:
The Sunshine Law Library is not exhaustive and may contain errors from source documents or the import process. Nothing on this website should be taken as legal advice. It is always best to consult with primary sources and appropriate counsel before taking any action.
Type:
Open Records Decision
Lexis Citation:
1981 Ky. AG LEXIS 52
Forward Citations:
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