Request By:
Honorable James R. Allen
Mayor
City of Indian Hills
Cherokee Section
5403 Apache Road
Louisville, Kentucky 40207
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
Mrs. Mary Werle has appealed to the Attorney General under KRS 61.880 your failure to respond to her request to inspect and copy certain public records of the City of Indian Hills, Cherokee Section. She states that she made several oral requests without results and made a written request by letter dated May 27, 1982, a copy of which was sent to this office, but has received no response from you as official custodian of the city records.
The Kentucky Open Records Law provides that any person who is denied access to a public record by a public agency may appeal to the Attorney General who is required to issue an opinion stating whether or not the public agency has complied with the Open Records Law. KRS 61.880(2).
"If the Attorney General upholds, in whole or in part, the request for inspection, the public agency involved may institute proceedings within 30 days for injunctive or declaratory relief in the circuit court of the district where the public record is maintained. If the Attorney General disallows the request or if the public agency continues to withhold the record notwithstanding the opinion of the Attorney General, the person seeking disclosure may institute such proceedings." KRS 61.880(5).
The statute further provides that any person who prevails against an agency in an action in court, upon a finding that the records were willfully withheld in violation of the statute may be awarded all costs, including reasonable attorney's fees incurred in connection with such legal action, and may be awarded not to exceed $25 a day for each day that he was denied the right to inspect or copy said public record. KRS 61.882(5).
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that you have failed to comply with the Open Records Law, KRS 61.870-61.884, by making no response to Mary Werle's request to inspect and copy public records in your custody. (We will not list the records requested in this opinion because a description of the records is not relevant to the fact that you violated the Open Records Law by failing to make any response to the request.)
As directed by statute, we are sending a copy of this opinion to the requester who has the right to take further action in court if she is not allowed inspection or givenan appropriate response within 30 days.