Request By:
Harry N. Ball
Brenda James
Jana Sanchez
Todd Shipp
Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
The question presented in this appeal is whether the actions of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (Cabinet) relative to the request of Harry N. Ball for information relative to the Cabinet's placing of his name on the National Driver Register violated the Open Records Act. Because Mr. Ball's request was for information, rather than for specifically described records, we find that the Cabinet's actions did not violate the Act.
By letter dated January 29, 2008, Mr. Ball submitted an open records request to the Cabinet's Division of Driver Licensing, stating that his request was specific to the State of Kentucky's posting of his name to the National Register. In his request, he posed the following questions:
a. State the name of person or persons responsible for posting my name to the National Register.
b. State the citation, violation, or act that justifies posting my name to the National Register.
c. State the statute, citation, or order that serves as the authority for posting my name to the National Register.
d. State the date my name was posted to the National Register.
e. State the date my name is to be removed from the National Register.
f. State the act, action, or procedure required and necessary to be taken by me or any other person or authority to remove my name from the National Register.
g. State the Cabinet, Division, Department, Branch, or Agency responsible for the supervision of postings to the National Register.
h. State the street, street number, city, zip code of the office identified in (g) above.
i. State the phone number and fax number of the office identified in (g) above.
j. State the authority, statute or order implementing procedures for posting individual names to the National Register.
k. State the names of persons and office identified in (g) above authorized to rectify this issue.
Please take what ever action available to you to remove my name from the National Register, should your office, in the process of answering this KORA request, determine that my name does not belong on the National Register.
In a letter dated January 30, 2008, Jana Sanchez, Supervisor, Hearings/Reinstatement/Fraud Unit, with the Cabinet responded to Mr. Ball's request, advising:
Your driving privilege here in Kentucky has been suspended and placed on the National Driver Register due to failing to enroll and/or complete Fayette County's court ordered State Traffic School for a citation you received on August 31, 2003. If you have completed a State Traffic School course please fax that to 502-564-0839. If you have not completed please contact Fayette County at 859-246-2228 to find out how much the citation is to pay it in full. Your case number in Fayette County is 03-T-036677A.
On May 1, 2008, Mr. Ball initiated the instant appeal asking this office to determine whether the actions of the Cabinet were consistent with the Open Records Act. For the reasons that follow, we find that the actions of the Cabinet did not violate the Act.
After receipt of notification of the appeal, Todd Shipp, Assistant General Counsel, Office of Legal Services, on behalf of the Cabinet, provided this office and Mr. Ball, with a response to the issues raised in the appeal. In his response, Mr. Shipp advised that, for the purposes of the Open Records Act, the Cabinet was not obligated to answer questions. Nevertheless, to the Cabinet's credit, Mr. Shipp, although not statutorily required to do so under the Act, addressed Mr. Ball's complaint and provided answers to his questions. In several reply letters provided to this office, Mr. Ball indicated that he did not agree with some of the answers provided by the Cabinet. Under the facts and circumstances presented in this appeal, we find no violation of the Open Records Act.
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. Ball's request was clearly one for information, rather than one for precisely described records. Accordingly, we find no error in the Cabinet's actions relative to a request for information under the Open Records Act.
Finally, we cannot address, in the context of an open records appeal, a complaint by Mr. Ball as to the actions of the Cabinet or the courts relative to the placement or removal of his name on the National Driver Registry. The Attorney General "is not empowered to resolve . . . non-open records related issues in an appeal initiated under KRS 61.880(1)." 99-ORD-121, p. 17. Our review is confined to the issue of whether the Cabinet violated the Open Records Act in its handling of Mr. Ball's request, which, as noted above, we concluded it did not.
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.