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 Spencer County Sheriff violated the Kentucky Open Records Act in the disposition of Lawrence Trageser's September 7, 2012, request for a copy of the policies and procedures of the Sheriff's office. For the reasons that follow, we find that the Sheriff's response failed to comply with the Act.
In his September 7 request, Mr. Trageser stated as follows:
Comes the petitioner requesting and document, record, CD, or electronic file, reflecting the sheriff's standard operating procedures, A.K.A. administrative codes.
Petitioner is seeking copy in the form of transfer via jump key. Petitioner will provide jump key when called to receive file.
On September 11, 2012, the Spencer County Sheriff, Colonel Donald "Buddy" Stump, responded as follows: "Some parts of the Spencer County Sheriff's Office Policy and Procedure Manual are not subject to public records. Therefore your request is denied." No exception listed in KRS 61.878 was cited in support of this denial.
Mr. Trageser initiated an appeal to the Attorney General on September 18, 2012. This office has received no response to the appeal from the Sheriff or anyone on his behalf.
KRS 61.880(1) declares that "[a]n agency response denying, in whole or in part, inspection of any record shall include a statement of the specific exception authorizing the withholding of the record and a brief explanation of how the exception applies to the record withheld." This language "requires the custodian of records to provide particular and detailed information in response to a request for documents." Edmondson v. Alig, 926 S.W.2d 856, 858 (Ky.App. 1996). In this instance, the Sheriff violated the Act by withholding documents without citing an applicable statutory exception under KRS 61.878.
Moreover, KRS 61.878(4) requires that "[i]f any public record contains material which is not excepted under this section, the public agency shall separate the excepted and make the nonexcepted material available for examination." Therefore, even if the Sheriff had cited an exception under KRS 61.878(1) and explained its applicability, he would have had the duty to provide those portions of the policy and procedure manual to which the exception did not apply. We accordingly find that the Sheriff's response failed to comply with the Open Records Act.
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 proceedings.
Distributed to:
Mr. Lawrence TrageserCol. Donald "Buddy" StumpRuth Hollon, Esq.