Opinion
Opinion By: Gregory D. Stumbo, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
The question presented in this appeal is whether the Daviess County Public Schools violated the Open Records Act in the disposition of Randy A. Bivin's March 1, 2007, request for "[t]he name and address of the registered agent for the Daviess County Public Schools or any other name that entity uses." For the reasons that follow, we find that the Daviess County Public Schools' actions did not violate the Act. 1
The Kentucky Open Records Act addresses requests for records, not requests for information. 03-ORD-028. At page 2 of 95-ORD-131, the Attorney General observed.
Requests for information, as distinguished from records, are outside of the scope of the open records provisions. See, e.g., OAG 89-77. Our position is premised on the notion that "[o]pen records provisions address only inspection of records . . . [and] do not require public agencies or officials to provide or compile specific information to conform to the parameters of a given request.
Mr. Bivin requested "[t]he name and address of the registered agent for the Daviess County Public Schools or any other name that entity uses." His request was clearly one for information, rather than one for a precisely described record. Accordingly, we find no error in the response, as a public agency is not required to honor a request for information under the Open Records Act and that the agency could properly denied the request on that ground. If he has not already done so, Mr. Bivin should amend his request to provide a reasonably particular description of the records containing the information he wants to access. 2
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 In his letter of appeal, Mr. Bivin states that he received some records from Daviess County Public Schools as the result of an October 9, 2006 request, but did not receive the requested information, that is the subject matter of this appeal. He indicates that he renewed the request on March 1, 2007, but had received no response to the renewed request. Failure of a public agency to respond to an open records request, as required by KRS 61.880(1), is a procedural violation of the Open Records Act.
2 In his letter of appeal, Mr. Bivin also asserts that Daviess County Public Schools are in violation of the Open Records Act because they do not have posted who the custodian of records is. A requester cannot expand the parameters of his original request retrospectively since Daviess County Public Schools must necessarily be given an opportunity to respond to the revised request before we can review the newly raised issue. 04-ORD-059. In short, the issue is not ripe for review.