Request By:
Betty A. Springate, Esq.
General Counsel
Kentucky Labor Cabinet
The 127 Building
U. S. Hwy. 127 South
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
William M. Harvin, Esq., has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your denial of his request to inspect certain public records in your custody. He described the records in question as " . . . reports and field notes made as a result of your investigation of this unfortunate event." (The death of Albert H. Lysinger, a crane operator at the Borden, Inc., plant.)
In your letter of August 22, 1985 to Mr. Harvin, you stated in part that the file requested contains the compliance officer's preliminary worknotes which are exempt from public inspection pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h). You, therefore, declined to release copies of these preliminary worknotes. Copies of all other documents and forms in the file were made available.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that you acted in conformity with the Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 to KRS 61.884, in denying access to those records in the occupational safety and health investigative file relative to Albert H. Lysinger and Borden, Inc., consisting of the compliance officer's preliminary worknotes.
KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h) exempt the following public records from public inspection in the absence of a court order allowing inspection:
"(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;"
In OAG 85-58, copy enclosed, we considered a request to inspect all materials contained in an occupational safety and health investigative file of the state Labor Cabinet with respect to incidents at a particular place of employment. In connection with the compliance officer's worknotes we said that when those worknotes are compiled in the ordinary course of an investigation of an employer's worksite, and contain preliminary handwritten drafts of possible citations and correspondence with private persons which are not intended to give notice of final action, the material is preliminary and the exception set forth in KRS 61.878(1)(g) is applicable. Furthermore, work papers and intraoffice memoranda are exempt from public inspection pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(h). Thus, worknotes containing a compliance officer's hand-drawn diagrams of the worksite or work operations and his observations, opinions and preliminary drafts of possible violations are exempt from public inspection by KRS 61.878(1)(h). See also OAG 85-92, OAG 84-361 and OAG 83-335, copies of which are enclosed.
It is, therefore, the opinion of the Attorney General that your denial of the request to inspect those records in the file of the Labor Cabinet's investigative officer consisting of that officer's worknotes was proper under the Open Records Act as such material, in the absence of a court order to the contrary, is exempt from public inspection pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h).
As required by statute, a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requesting party who has the right to challenge it in circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) .