Request By:
Mr. Jerry Hardt
P.O. Box 697
Salyersville, KY 41465Mr. Charles Allen
Magoffin County Judge-Executive
P.O. Box 430
Salyersville, KY 41465
Opinion
Opinion By: Chris Gorman, Attorney General; Amye B. Majors, Assistant Attorney General
OPEN RECORDS DECISION
This matter comes to the Attorney General on appeal from the actions of the Magoffin County Fiscal Court in responding to Mr. Jerry Hardt's June 23, 1992, request to inspect various documents in the Court's possession. Those records are identified as:
1. A list of all county employees, their date of employment and their current wage or salary;
2. The 1991-1992 fiscal year budget, as originally approved in June, 1991;
3. The monthly and quarterly financial reports for the 1991-1992 and the 1990-1991 fiscal years.
In his letter of appeal to this Office, Mr. Hardt indicates that he was not afforded access to the requested records until July 13, 1992, and was then advised that he would be assessed a copying charge of $ 1.00 per page. He asked that this Office review the actions of the Magoffin Fiscal Court to determine if those actions violated the Open Records Act. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that the Court violated the Act by failing to provide Mr. Hardt with timely access to the requested records, and by assessing an unreasonable copying charge.
With respect to the question of timely access, we believe that the Fiscal Court's response was improper under the reasoning announced in OAG 91-200 and OAG 92-35, copies of which are attached. Those opinions stand for the proposition that although a determination of what is a "reasonable time" for inspection turns on the particular facts presented, i.e., the breadth of the request and the number of documents it encompasses, public agencies must work in a spirit of cooperation with individuals who request to inspect their records to insure that those individuals are afforded timely access to the records they wish to inspect. We believe that under the facts presented in the present appeal, a delay of some twelve working days is clearly unreasonable.
Turning to the second issue raised in this appeal, we find that the $ 1.00 per page copying charge assessed by the Magoffin County Fiscal Court was excessive, and that OAG 92-79 is dispositive, a copy of which is attached. 1 Unless the Magoffin County Fiscal Court can establish that its actual cost for providing copies is $ 1.00 per page, it must recalculate its fees to conform to KRS 61.874(2).
The Magoffin County Fiscal Court may challenge this decision by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and 61.882.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 Please note that KRS 61.874(2) was amended by the 1992 General Assembly and the term "thereof" was deleted.