Request By:
Larry Tyus
400 South Sixth Street
Louisville, KY 40202Suzanne Cordery, General Counsel
Jefferson County Corrections
400 South Sixth Street
Louisville, KY 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Albert B. Chandler III, Attorney General; Amye L. Bensenhaver, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
This matter having been presented to the Attorney General in an appeal of the Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections' disposition of Larry Tyus's January 13, 2003, request for access to his medical records and grievances filed against medical personnel, and the Attorney General being sufficiently advised, we find that the Department did not violate the Open Records Act in failing to respond to the apparently misdirected request.
Mr. Tyus indicates that he submitted his request to Ann Hall, whom he identifies as Medical Administrator. The Department responds that Ann Hall "is not a public officer or employee" of the Department and that the Department "has no record of this Open Records request." Upon further inquiry, we have learned that Ann Hall is an employee of Correctional Medical Services, Inc., a corporation operating under contract with the Department to provide medical services. Her failure to respond to Mr. Tyus's request cannot be imputed to the Department.
Nevertheless, we believe it is incumbent on Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections to notify the public where open records requests should be directed. KRS 61.876(1) requires public agencies to adopt written rules and regulations aimed at providing full access to public records that include the title and address of the official custodian of the public agency's records, and to "display a copy of its rules and regulations pertaining to public records in a prominent location accessible to the public." KRS 61.876(2). If the official custodian of inmate medical records is different than the official custodian of other inmate records, the rules and regulations should specifically so state, identifying both custodians by name, title, and address. In addition, it is incumbent on the Department to make reasonable efforts to insure that an employee who receives a misdirected open records request immediately forwards that request to the agency's official custodian for timely processing, or at a minimum notifies the requester and "furnish[es] the name and location of the custodian of the public record." KRS 61.872(4). We urge the Department to review the cited provisions to insure that similar problems do not arise in the future. Nothing in this decision should be construed as precluding Mr. Tyus from submitting his request to the official custodian of records for the Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections.
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.