Request By:
Sarah Berkshire
Staff Writer
The News-Enterprise
408 West Dixie Avenue
Elizabethtown, KY 42701Richard Hughes, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Hardin County Schools
65 W.A. Jenkins Road
Elizabethtown, KY 42701-8452Michael A. Pike
SKEETERS, BENNETT & WILSON
Attorneys at Law
550 W. Lincoln Trail Blvd.
Radcliff, KY 40160
Opinion
Opinion By: Gregory D. Stumbo, Attorney General; Michelle D. Harrison, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
At issue in this appeal is whether the Hardin County Schools violated the Kentucky Open Records Act in denying the request submitted by Sarah Berkshire, Staff Writer for The News-Enterprise , to inspect the "job performance evaluation, including any written recommendations for improvement" of Paul Connelly, former principal at East Hardin Middle School. In keeping with a line of decisions dating back to 1977, this office affirms the denial of Ms. Berkshire's request by the Hardin County Schools based upon KRS 61.878(1)(a).
By letter directed to Superintendent Richard Hughes, Ed.D, on November 22, 2005, Ms. Berkshire requested access to the following:
1. Mr. Connelly's last job performance evaluation, including any written recommendations for improvement.
2. Any survey or written feedback from employees of East Hardin Middle School or the Hardin County School[s] central office concerning Mr. Connelly's performance as a supervisor.
3. Any correspondence from the superintendent to Mr. Connelly concerning his employment as principal of East Hardin Middle School.
4. Any correspondence from the superintendent to cabinet members concerning Mr. Connelly's employment as principal at East Hardin Middle School.
In a timely written response, Superintendent Hughes characterized the request for Mr. Connelly's performance evaluation as "a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy as defined under KRS 61.878(1)(a)." As further observed by Superintendent Hughes, items "related to job performance or evaluation are exempt." According to Superintendent Hughes, there "is not any survey or written feedback. " 1 In conclusion, Superintendent Hughes advised Ms. Berkshire that copies of the "letter of transfer with personal information redacted in accordance with KRS 61.878(1)(a)" and responsive e-mails were enclosed for review.
By letter directed to this office on November 29, 2005, Ms. Berkshire initiated this appeal from Superintendent Hughes' "refusal" to disclose the requested performance evaluation, arguing that "inspection of the records is warranted" because Mr. Connelly was "transferred to a position he did not want." Ms. Berkshire believes the performance evaluation "will reveal the reason for the transfer." In her view, Mr. Connelly's job performance is not a personal matter since he was "the leader of a public school." Because Ms. Berkshire does not otherwise challenge Superintendent Hughes' response, this office assumes that she is satisfied with the records provided; any issues related to those records are therefore moot. 2 Accordingly, the sole issue on appeal is whether the Hardin County Schools properly relied upon KRS 61.878(1)(a) in denying The News-Enterprise access to Mr. Connelly's performance evaluation.
Upon receiving notification of Ms. Berkshire's appeal from this office, Michael A. Pike, attorney, responded on behalf of the Hardin County Schools. To begin, Mr. Pike contends the evaluations at issue "are in the nature of preliminary memoranda in which opinions are expressed and recommendations made, and thus qualify for exclusion pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(j)." Citing 00 ORD-177, Mr. Pike characterizes the evaluations as "'tools which a public employee or officer uses in hammering out official action within the function of his office.'" Id., citing OAG 78-626, p. 2. 3
As correctly observed by Mr. Pike, in a line of decisions "dating back nearly thirty years" the Attorney General has held that the privacy rights of public employees "in information of a personal nature appearing in a performance evaluation outweigh the public's interest in disclosure of the evaluation. See 96-ORD-51; 96-ORD-275; 99-ORD-14; and 99-ORD-42." Relying upon 92-ORD-1145, in which the Attorney General declared that the performance evaluation of a school system superintendent was subject to disclosure, and 00-ORD-177, in which this office found the performance evaluation of the Henderson City Manager to be nonexempt, Mr. Pike notes the commonality among those decisions was that both individuals were "ultimately responsible for the management" of the agencies they served. Accordingly, the interest of the public in viewing their performance evaluations outweighed "the individual privacy rights of the particular managers. " Distinguishing this case, Mr. Pike correctly argues that Mr. Connelly, as the former principal of East Hardin Middle School, does not fall within this category. To the contrary, the evaluation at issue contains information "'of a uniquely sensitive or personal character as to implicate privacy considerations'" for the employee, Mr. Connelly. See 00-ORD-177.
In short, the position taken by the Hardin County Schools is consistent with a long line of decisions issued by this office. OAG 77-394; OAG 79-348; OAG 80-58; OAG 82-204; OAG 86-15; OAG 89-90; 92-ORD-1375; 94-ORD-54; 94-ORD-132; 96-ORD-51; 96-ORD-256; 96-ORD-275; 99-ORD-14; 99-ORD-41; 02ORD-197; 04-ORD-045. As noted by Mr. Pike, the Attorney General departed from this position in 92-ORD-1145, declaring that the performance evaluation of a school system superintendent was subject to disclosure; this decision was premised upon the notion that the interest of the public in reviewing those portions of the superintendent's evaluation which "have a direct bearing on the management of the school system is superior to the reduced expectation of privacy" the superintendent might have with respect to the record. 00-ORD-177, p. 6.
In expressly declining to extend this reasoning to rank and file employees, this office observed:
We do not, in so holding, establish a rule of general application vis-a-vis performance evaluations. Nor do we depart from any opinion previously issued by this Office. [Footnote omitted.] Because the Superintendent is ultimately responsible for the management of the school system, his performance is of far greater interest to the public, and his expectation of privacy in the evaluation of that performance is correspondingly reduced. The same cannot be said of the other employees of a school system or any other public agency, since disclosure of their evaluations may spur unhealthy comparisons, breeding discord in the [workplace], and result in injury and embarrassment to the employee. We continue to ascribe to the view that an employee's right of privacy in his evaluation is superior to the public's interest in inspecting that evaluation. Our decision is limited to the facts presented in this case.
92-ORD-1145, p. 4. See 99-ORD-128 (recognizing that "both the evaluator and the person being evaluated have a substantial privacy interest in the evaluation that generally outweighs the public interest" in disclosure of the record for this reason); 04-ORD-045. Of particular relevance here, the Attorney General later adopted the reasoning of 92-ORD-1145 in upholding the denial by the Barren County Schools Superintendent of a request for the evaluations of each principal in the school district. 96-ORD-256, p. 1. Because the instant appeal presents no reason to depart from this approach, the same outcome necessarily follows. In our view, 02-ORD-197, a copy of which is attached hereto and incorporated by reference, is controlling on the facts presented. Although Mr. Connelly was not a "rank and file employee," he was not " the individual[] who [was] 'ultimately responsible' for the management of the [agency he served]." 99-ORD-137, p. 8. Accordingly, the Hardin County Schools did not violate the Open Records Act in denying Ms. Berkshire's request for Mr. Connelly's performance evaluation and related documentation on the basis of KRS 61.878(1)(a).
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.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 As long recognized by the Attorney General, a public agency cannot produce for inspection or copying records which do not exist; the agency discharges its duty under the Open Records Act by affirmatively indicating as much in a timely written response like the Hardin County Schools did here. See 04-ORD-069.
2 40 KAR 1:030 Section 6 provides: "Moot complaints. If requested documents are made available to the complaining party after a complaint is made, the Attorney General shall decline to issue a decision in the matter." In applying this mandate, the Attorney General has consistently held that when access to public records is initially denied but subsequently granted, "the propriety of the initial denial becomes moot. " 04-ORD-046, p. 5, citing OAG 91-140.
3 Given our resolution of the issue relative to KRS 61.878(1)(a), consideration of this argument is unnecessary.
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