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. Peter J. McCarthy has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your partial denial of his request to inspect certain documents in your custody. Specifically, Mr. McCarthy requested to inspect the Labor Cabinet's occupational safety and health investigative file with respect to a construction accident which occurred on the Fourth Street bridge, Newport-Covington, Kentucky, on May 2, 1983.
You granted Mr. McCarthy's request in part and denied it in part. You specifically denied inspection of the compliance officer's worknotes pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h) and two employee interview statements pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(j) and 338.101(a).
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 officers' 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.
Also withheld from inspection were two employee statements. KRS 338.101(a) authorizes the Department of Labor to ". . . question privately any . . . employe . . . and investigate such facts, conditions, practices, or matters deemed appropriate to determine the cause of . . . any occupational injury or illness." These statements, much like the compliance officer's worknotes, are preliminary in nature and also exempt from public inspection pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h).
It is therefore the opinion of the Attorney General that the compliance officer's worknotes and the two employee statements are exempt from public inspection as "preliminary" 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).