Request By:
Mr. Willard J. McLean
Deputy Warden, Support Services
Kentucky State Penitentiary
Post Office Box 128
Eddyville, Kentucky 42038
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
Keith D. Phillips 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 describes the material in question as the log kept by the clerk of the business office of the Kentucky State Penitentiary relative to meal tickets sold to the employees of the institution. He maintains that such tickets are sold pursuant to policies and procedures of the Corrections Cabinet.
In your memorandum of May 9, 1985 to Keith Phillips you advised him that to furnish him with a list of staff members who have purchased meal tickets at the Kentucky State Penitentiary would not be in the best interests of the institution, the employees or the inmate population. It was determined that these records would not be available for his inspection although no specific reason was given for the decision.
Opinion of the Attorney General
KRS 61.880(1) states in part that an agency response denying, in whole or in part, the inspection of any record shall include a statement of the specific exception authorizing the withholding of the record and a brief explanation of how the exception applies to the record withheld. The limitations and exclusions relative to the right right to inspect public records are set forth in KRS 61.872 and KRS 61.878. Thus your response denying the right to inspect public records was legally insufficient as it did not state what exception to the right to inspect you were relying upon and how the exception applied to the records withheld.
We have been furnished with a copy of "Corrections Policies and Procedures," Policy Number 11.1, effective March 1, 1983, concerning "Staff/ Visitor Meals and Special Functions." That document deals with procedures for providing staff and visitor meals at the institutional food service departments. It provides in part that employees and visitors shall be required to purchase a meal ticket from the Business Office, Security Office or Food Service Department for each meal eaten in the Cabinet facilities. It also states that each institution shall maintain a signature log of employees and visitors eating meals in the Cabinet facilities.
The Corrections Cabinet is obviously a "public agency" pursuant to KRS 61.870(1). The definition of "public records" is set forth in KRS 61.870(2):
"'Public records' means all books, papers, maps, photographs, cards, tapes, discs, recordings or other documentary materials regardless of physical form or characteristics, which are prepared, owned, used, in the possession of or retained by a public agency. 'Public record' shall not include any records owned by a private person or corporation that are not related to functions, activities, programs or operations funded by state or local authority."
The signature log of employees and visitors eating meals in the Cabinet facilities, which the Cabinet's policies and procedures document requires each institution to maintain, is a public record. Furthermore, the list of meal tickets sold is a public record as the Cabinet's policies and procedures document requires employees and visitors to purchase a meal ticket for each meal eaten in the Cabinet facilities.
It is, therefore, the opinion of the Attorney General that your denial of the request to inspect the list of meal tickets sold to employees and visitors for meals eaten in the institution's eating facilities was improper and in violation of the Open Records Act.
As required by statute a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requesting party. If you decide not to comply with this opinion, you may initiate further proceedings pursuant to KRS 61.880(5).