Request By:
Mr. Mark S. Snell
Legal Aide
Commonwealth of Kentucky Labor Cabinet
U.S. 127 Building, South
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Cicely D. Jaracz, Assistant Attorney General
Mr. Buckner Hinkle, attorney, has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your partial denial of his request to inspect certain records in your custody. Specifically, Mr. Hinkle requested to inspect the Cabinet's case file on the May 23, 1983 non-fatal injury accident which occurred at the Elizabethtown Wastewater Treatment Plant. He most particularly requested to inspect the Occupational Safety and Health or Accident report made on May 26, 1983. You complied with Mr. Hinkle's request in part but denied inspection of the OSHA compliance officer's worknotes under KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h).
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that your denial was proper under the Open Records law.
This Office has consistently held that compliance officer's worknotes are exempt from public inspection under KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h) which exclude (except upon court order) those public records containing:
(g) Preliminary drafts, notes, correspondence with private individuals, other than correspondence which is intended to give notice of final action of a public agency.
(h) Preliminary recommendations, and preliminary memoranda in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended.
A compliance officer's worknotes are strictly preliminary in nature. As such, they are exempt from public inspection. See OAG 83-140 and 83-335.
It is therefore the opinion of the Attorney General that the compliance officer's worknotes in regard to the Labor Cabinet's occupational safety and health investigation file on the May 23, 1983 accident at the Elizabethtown Wastewater Treatment Plant are exempt from public inspection under KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h).
As directed by statute, a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requestor, who may initiate further proceedings pursuant to KRS 61.880(5).