Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; Amye L. Bensenhaver, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
This matter having been presented to the Attorney General in an open records appeal, and the Attorney General being sufficiently advised, we find that Carlos Thurman's appeal from Northpoint Training Center's denial of his September 11, 2013, request for copies of "all reports, documents, evidence, [and] other material or information related to his May 13 and 14, 2013, Internal Affairs interview" is time-barred. NTC denied Mr. Thurman's request on September 17, 2013. His letter of appeal is dated November 29, 2013. KRS 197.025(3) states:
KRS 61.870 to 61.884 to the contrary notwithstanding, all persons confined in a penal facility shall challenge any denial of an open record with the Attorney General by mailing or otherwise sending the appropriate documents to the Attorney General within twenty (20) days of the denial pursuant to the procedures set out in KRS 61.880(2) before an appeal can be filed in a Circuit Court.
Mr. Thurman indicates that he submitted a second request for the same records "on November 7th or so," but does not include a copy of that request in his letter of appeal. 1 NTC has no record of a request submitted by Mr. Thurman on or about November 7, 2013. Our review is confined to his September 11 request and NTC's September 17 response. Mr. Thurman's November 29, 2013, appeal was not sent within twenty days of NTC's September 17, 2013, denial. We must, therefore, decline jurisdiction. Accord, 12-ORD-072; 02-ORD-054 (enclosed).
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.
Distributed to:
Charles Thurman, # 112192Kelly TyreeLinda M. Keeton
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 This is the crux of Mr. Thurman's appeal. It is his belief that NTC is obligated to respond to his open records requests by sending him a copy of his request along with its written response . Although we decline to comment on NTC's alleged violation of the Open Records Act, we note, in the interest of eliminating any confusion, neither KRS 61.880(2)(a) nor any other provision of the Kentucky Revised Statutes requires a public agency to return a copy of an open records request to the requester when it responds to that open records request. If the requester fails to keep a copy of his request and wishes to appeal an agency's denial of that request, he can submit a new open records request to the agency for a copy of his earlier request. If he has sufficient funds to pay for a copy, the agency is obligated to provide him with the copy after which he may initiate an appeal.