Request By:
Kentucky State Racing Commission
P.O. Box 1080
Lexington, Kentucky 40588
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Cicely D. Jaracz, Assistant Attorney General
This office is in receipt of a request from your former Executive Director for an opinion pursuant to the Open Records Law. Specifically you request answers to the following questions:
1. Must the Kentucky State Racing Commission (KSRC) release a licensee's social security number?
2. Must KSRC release a licensee's home address?
As you are aware, KRS 230.300(3) stipulates that every license issued under KRS 230.210 to 230.360 shall specify the licensee's name, the address and location of the track where the race meeting to which the license relates is to be held or conducted, and the days and hours of the day when the meeting is permitted.
Regarding your first question, social security numbers are not public records available for public inspection. They are exempted as ". . . information of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. " KRS 61.878(1)(a), OAG 76-717. Therefore, social security numbers are exempted from public disclosure under the Open Records Law.
Regarding your second question, it is the opinion of this office that a licensing agency must make available the work addresses of licensees. Home addresses are excluded from inspection under the KRS 61.878(1)(a) privacy exemption. However, due to the fact that the purpose of licensing is to protect the public, the home address of the licensee is available under the Open Records Law if no work address is listed. OAG 82-394.
It is therefore the opinion of the Attorney General that social security numbers and home addresses of KSRC licensees are excluded from public inspection under the privacy exemption, KRS 61.878(1)(a). However, a licensee's home address must be made available in the absence of a work address, since the purpose of the license is to protect the public.