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 Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) violated the Open Records Act in the disposition of inmate Charon T. Anderson's request dated August 4, 2014. Because it is by no means clear that LFUCG ever received that request, we find no violation of the Act.
Ms. Anderson attaches to her appeal letter a handwritten original document bearing the date August 4, 2014, and purporting to be a request to LFUCG for "a copy of conefinement [ sic ] approval by the probation and parole district supervisor that will verify that I can be detained for more than 4 hours." She also attaches a copy of a response from records custodian James J. Kammer dated August 6, 2014, which denies her copies of certain policies and procedures. It is clear that this August 6 letter is in response to a completely different request.
On September 3, 2014, attorney Charles E. Edwards III, representing LFUCG, attested that LFUCG had no record of ever receiving the letter dated August 4. "As far as we are aware," he states in his response to this appeal, "that document is a fabrication." Mr. Edwards further advises that Ms. Anderson did eventually make a request for the document in question on August 28, 2014, after having initiated this appeal. He provides a courtesy copy of LFUCG's response to that request, dated September 2, 2014, in which Mr. Kammer informed Ms. Anderson that the custodian of that record was the local Probation and Parole office and provided her with the address pursuant to KRS 61.872(4).
We are limited in this appeal to considering the disposition of the request provided to us by Ms. Anderson. See KRS 61.880(2)(a); 40 KAR 1:030, Section 1. Since it is not clear that this request was ever received by LFUCG prior to the initiation of this appeal, we can find no violation of 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 proceeding.