Request By:
Maude Holbrook
Secretary
Kentucky Railroad Commission
212 State Office Building
Frankfort, Kentucky 40622
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl T. Miller, Jr., Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion as to whether the public may acquire a copy of pages from the minute book of the Railroad Commission of Kentucky "where not only the results of the monthly meetings are posted, but which also contain the results of the Commission's executive sessions. "
Any member of the public is entitled to inspect and purchase a copy of the minutes of a public agency. The minutes are to be recorded and handled as stated in KRS 61.835 which reads:
"The minutes of action taken at every meeting of any public agency, setting forth an accurate record of votes and actions at such meetings, shall be promptly recorded and such records shall be open to public inspection at reasonable times not later than immediately following the next meeting of the body."
As we said in OAG 81-387 the minutes of the body when a closed session is held should show that the statutory formality provided by KRS 61.815 was observed before going into a closed session, the general subject of the closed session, ie., personnel matter, litigation, purchase or sale of real estate, collective bargaining and discussions with industrial prospects, but need not show information which would defeat the purpose of holding a closed session on an authorized subject. Both the Open Meetings Statute, KRS 61.805 to 61.850, and the Open Records Statute, KRS 61.870 to 61.884, mandate public access to the minutes of a public body. Since the Open Meetings Statute allows closed or executive sessions on the discussion of five subjects listed in KRS 61.810 the minutes of an agency may omit matters decided in such discussions if the relevation of such matters would damage personal reputation, affect the price of real estate to be purchased or sold by the public agency, reveal trade secrets or business matters of a private business or reveal litigation strategy. Otherwise, no final action is to be taken in a closed session and action taken in an open session after a closed session should be recorded in the minutes and made available to the public.
The term "executive session" does not appear in the statute and we interpret it to mean the same as "closed session. " No public agency is authorized to hold an executive session except on an authorized subject.