Request By:
Hon. Barbara B. Sledd
Corporate Counsel
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government
Department of Law
200 East Main Street
Lexington, Kentucky 40507
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Nathan Goldman, Assistant Attorney General
Hon. Glen S. Bagby has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880(2) your denial of his request to inspect certain documents in your custody as Corporate Counsel, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, Lexington, Kentucky. Specifically, Hon. Glen Bagby requested to inspect the following:
(1) Documents concerning pollution from gasoline or other harmful substances escaping from gasoline tanks to other premises or the street.
(2) Reports, correspondence and memoranda by both Urban personnel and others concerning same.
You denied inspection of certain documents based on KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h) which you describe as internal memoranda. We have been informed that these documents are handwritten internal memoranda regarding site visits to certain real property by Urban County Government personnel.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h) exempt from the Open Records Act documents which are "[p]reliminary drafts, notes, correspondence with private individuals, other than correspondence which is intended to give notice of final action of a public agency" and "[p]reliminary recommendations, and preliminary memoranda in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended."
In OAG 84-19 we opined that reports of two fires prepared by a fire chief following his investigations were validly withheld from the public pursuant to KRS 227.370 and KRS 61.878(1)(h).
Similarly, in OAG 87-64 we opined that if departmental memoranda concerning a police officer constituted preliminary intraoffice communications setting forth opinions, observations, and recommendations of various departmental personnel and they did not represent the department's final decision or determination on any matter, then they could be withheld from public inspection pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(g) and (h).
As we understand the nature of the withheld documents, they constitute internal notes of government personnel who inspected certain real property in regards to pollution from substances at that location. We have been informed that these notes do, in fact, record opinions, observations and recommendations of government personnel. Consequently, we believe that you properly denied inspection of them pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(h).
As directed by Statute, a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requester who may initiate further proceedings pursuant to KRS 61.880(5).