Request By:
[NO REQUESTBY IN ORIGINAL]
Opinion
Opinion By: CHRIS GORMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL; Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
OPEN RECORDS DECISION
This matter comes to the Attorney General as an appeal by Professor John D. Sammons in connection with his attempts to obtain materials and information from the University of Kentucky Community College System.
In a letter to the president of the Prestonsburg Community College, dated August 15, 1994, Professor Sammons made the following requests:
1. A listing of the number of full-time instructional personnel, excluding the president and deans, employed by P.C.C. during the academic years 1988-89, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, and 1993-94.
2. A listing of the number of full-time instructional personnel included in item 1 above, complete with names, who were eligible to return for employment the following year but resigned their position at P.C.C. prior to the beginning of the following academic year.
Deborah L. Floyd, President of the Prestonsburg Community College, in a letter to Mr. Sammons dated August 16, 1994, advised him in part that his request was being forwarded for a reply and decision to George DeBin, Official Records Custodian for the University of Kentucky.
Mr. DeBin, in a letter dated August 18, 1994, to Mr. Sammons, advised that a directory containing the information requested relative to full time instructional personnel employed during the years in question would be made available for inspection and copying. As to the second request, the listing of the full-time instructional personnel with the names of persons who were eligible to return for employment the following year but resigned prior to the beginning of that year, such a record as described does not exist.
In his letter of appeal to this office, received September 1, 1994, Mr. Sammons stated in part that, "I accept the fact that a list as such does not exist." He further said:
However, without my requesting access to personnel files which I have no desire to do, I am requesting that Dr. Floyd or her designee simply go through the files, only those who did not return the following year, and formulate a list of the requested data.
In interpreting and applying the Open Records Act (KRS 61.870 to KRS 61.884), this office has concluded on numerous occasions that a person does not have a right to require a list to be made from public records if the list described does not already exist. See, for example, OAG 90-100, copy enclosed, at page four. Also, agencies are not required to compile a listing to conform to a request made under the Open Records Act. OAG 90-26, copy enclosed. The primary purpose of the Open Records Act is not to provide "information" but to provide access to public records not exempted by statute from inspection and copying. OAG 89-61, copy enclosed.
Thus, it is our decision that the University of Kentucky properly handled the request for documents as it is not required under the Open Records Act to prepare a list which did not exist at the time the request was received.
The appealing party, John D. Sammons, may challenge this decision by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882. Pursuant to KRS 61.880(3), the Attorney General shall be notified of any action filed in the circuit court, but he shall not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceedings.