Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; James M. Herrick, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
The question presented in this appeal is whether the Office of the Jefferson County Attorney violated the Open Records Act in connection with Steven Skees' September 1, 2009, request for information and copies of records. For the following reasons, we find no substantive violation of the Act.
Mr. Skees explains in his appeal initiated on December 15, 2009, that he wrote to the Office of the Jefferson County Attorney "requesting the following information":
[1.] A list of all offices connected to the Office of the Jefferson County Attorney doing business in the Louis D. Brandeis Hall of Justice as of August 7, 2009.
[2.] A list of all offices connected to the Office of the Jefferson County Attorney maintaining a visitor sign-in log as of August 7, 2009.
[3.] Photocopied records of all visitors signing in to the Criminal Complaint Division office in the Office of the Jefferson County Attorney on August 7, 2009 from 10:00 AM through 2:00 PM.
[4.] Signature records from any office connected to the Office of the Jefferson County Attorney from August 7, 2009 that can prove that Steven Skees visited any office.
No response to the request was received. Mr. Skees states that "[t]hese open records are necessary to provide an opportunity for post-conviction relief to the appellant, as they provide evidence that the Office of the Jefferson County Attorney was dishonest and deceptive in proceedings regarding a criminal matter. "
The first and second items, by all appearances, are requests for information rather than records, and Mr. Skees also characterizes his request as for "information." As noted in previous decisions of this office, requests for information are outside the scope of open records law and an agency is not obligated under the law to honor a request for information. 02-ORD-88; KRS 61.870 et seq. The Kentucky Open Records Act addresses requests for records, not requests for information. 03-ORD-028. In 02-ORD-165, the Attorney General recognized that the Act "was not intended to provide a requester with particular 'information,' or to require public agencies to compile information, to conform to the parameters of a given request." Id., p. 4 (quoting 96-ORD-251). The Office of the Jefferson County Attorney was therefore not required to compile lists of the information sought by Mr. Skees about other agencies occupying the same building.
As to the third and fourth items, Mr. Skees expressly represents that the records he requested relate to "proceedings regarding a criminal matter. " We believe that 00-ORD-116, a copy of which is attached hereto and incorporated by reference, is dispositive of the issue on appeal. As records compiled and maintained by the county attorney that pertain to criminal litigation, the requested records are forever excluded from public inspection by operation of KRS 61.878(1)(h).
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.
Steven SkeesWilliam P. O'Brien, Esq.