Request By:
[NO REQUESTBY IN ORIGINAL]
Opinion
Opinion By: Albert B. Chandler III, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
This matter comes to the Attorney General on appeal from the Cabinet for Public Protection and Regulation, Office of Petroleum Storage Tank Environmental Assurance Fund's (PSTEAF) response to Dennis Conniff's open records request to have made available for his inspection all claim forms submitted to the PSTEAF (except for those submitted by Advanced Technologies International, Inc. (ATI), between January 1, 1997 and September 30, 1998, containing a request for reimbursement of costs associated with four types of work done and related documentation.
Responding on behalf of PSTEAF, Joseph W. O'Reilly, General Counsel, Cabinet for Public Protection and Regulation, stated:
PSTEAF does not keep records based on the type of work done. To go into all its records to so segregate and produce the records requested would constitute an unreasonable burden. Your request is denied per KRS 61.872(6).
As an alternative you may want to arrange to have someone inspect each of the files at PSTEAF.
After receipt of Mr. Conniff's letter of appeal, we sent a "Notification to Agency of Receipt of Open Records Appeal" to the Cabinet. As authorized by KRS 61.880(2) and 40 KAR 1:030. Section 2, Mr. O'Reilly provided this office with a response to the issues raised in the appeal. Elaborating on the PSTEAF's original response, Mr. O'Reilly explained that its original response did not deny Mr. Conniff access to the requested claim forms. Instead, the Cabinet advised that the agency did not retain its records by category of type of work done and that to require the agency to inspect each file for the 7,724 claims submitted during the time period in question for the purpose of segregating them for his inspection would constitute an unreasonable burden within the meaning of KRS 61.872(6). Mr. O'Reilly further explained:
ATI has requested voluminous information in the past and received a great deal of information and cooperation from Appellant. The Appellant did not refuse ATI access to this information. The response indicated ATI could come over to review these files itself. This can be done in an orderly way. Appellant will need to have a representative present and the files will have to be provided over a reasonable period of time in view of the number of files involved.
We are asked to determine whether the Cabinet violated the Open Records Act by denying the request for inspection of public records. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the response of the Cabinet was consistent with the requirements of the Open Records Act and did not constitute a violation.
In the instant case, the Cabinet maintains that it did not deny or refuse to permit inspection of its public records. It states it denied, instead, Mr. Conniff's request to segregate the records into categories of information in a format in which the agency did not maintain its records because it would be unduly burdensome to search through 7,724 claim form files to find and separate such information.
KRS 61.872(6) provides:
If the application places an unreasonable burden in producing public records or if the custodian has reason to believe that repeated requests are intended to disrupt other essential functions of the public agency, the official custodian may refuse to permit inspection of the public records or mail copies thereof. However, refusal under this section shall be sustained by clear and convincing evidence.
In our view, the Cabinet has met its burden of establishing that compliance with this request would place an undue burden on it. Requiring an agency to search through 7,724 claim form files, in order to segregate them by categories of type of work, a format by which the agency does not retain its records, would constitute such a burden.
The Cabinet should not be required to search through 7,724 claim form files to retrieve the information Mr. Conniff seeks and segregate them for his inspection. Nevertheless, although a public agency is not required to research public records to provide information to meet the parameters of an open records request, it is required to make available for inspection, during regular business hours, records which might yield the information sought. OAG 90-19.
In OAG 76-375, we recognized that if a requester cannot identify the records he desires with sufficient specificity, or wishes to extract information which has not already been compiled, he "may make a fishing expedition through public records on his own time and under the restrictions and safeguards of the public agency. "
In this context, the Cabinet has agreed to make the relevant claim form files available for Mr. Conniff's inspection. In his response, Mr. O'Reilly advised Mr. Conniff that he was welcome to come over and inspect each of the PSTEAF files during regular office hours. Thus, we conclude this response was consistent with the requirements of the Open Records Act. Accordingly, Mr. Conniff should contact the Cabinet and make the necessary arrangements to inspect the records.
A party aggrieved by this decision may appeal it 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 should be notified of any action in circuit court, but should not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceeding.
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