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 City of Covington violated the Open Records Act in the disposition of Debbie Enneking's requests for records dated November 15 and 18, 2013, in which she sought copies of various e-mail messages. For the reasons that follow, we find no violation of the Act.
In her November 15 correspondence to City Solicitor Frank Warnock ("Request 1"), Ms. Enneking requested copies of the following:
all emails between Jerry Bamberger at jbamberger@mainstrasse.org and all city employees or administration. All city email addresses end in @covingtonky. gov (example: mlyons@covingtonky. gov. I am requesting documents dating from May, 2006 until August 2009.
On November 18, 2013, Ms. Enneking sent two letters to Mr. Warnock. One letter ("Request 2") requested copies of:
email correspondence between Debbie Enneking, Jay Fosset, City manager, Beth Robinson, Economic Development, and Charles Giuliano, Grow Fund America, Loan Officer, for the period of 2007 and 2008. These emails contain "One Covington" and were not included in the 210 references to "One Covington" emails that I did eventually receive after The Kentucky Attorney General, in a 9 page answer, required that the city provide me with them. 1
The other letter on that date ("Request 3") asked for:
any and all emails whose content and subject contain: "1st Friday Gallery Hop" "Gallery Hop". These emails would be for senders and recipients: city manager, Jay Fosset; Mary Lyons, Art District Manager; city commissioners (including Jerry Bamberger city commissioner and Jerry Bamberger MSVA, executive director); Craig Johnson, MSVA; Debbie Enneking, and Shawn Masters. I am requesting documents dating from August, 2006 through August 2009.
In a response to this appeal dated December 18, 2013, Assistant City Solicitor Bryce C. Rhoades indicates that the City did not respond to Request 1 because it was sent by e-mail. The Open Records Act, specifically KRS 61.872(2), does not require a public agency to recognize a request sent for records by e-mail alone. ( See 07-ORD-033 and decisions cited therein.) While Ms. Enneking claims to have made this request by certified mail also, she provides copies of only two certified mail receipts, both for items delivered November 21, 2013, which would appear more probably to correspond to the two November 18 letters than the November 15 letter. Although KRS 61.872(2) does not recognize e-mail as a proper mode of transmission for an open records request, public agencies are encouraged to immediately notify requesters utilizing e-mail that the agency does not accept e-mailed open records requests and that the requester should submit the request by hand delivery, U.S. Mail, or facsimile. See 12-ORD-036 and authorities cited therein.
With regard to Request 2, Mr. Rhoades, on behalf of the City's records custodian, responded on November 22, 2013, stating:
You have requested email correspondence between Debbie Enneking; former City Manager Jay Fossett; Beth Robinson, formerly of the City's Economic Development Department; and Grow Fund America Loan Officer Charles Giuliano that contain the phrase "One Covington."
With respect to email messages to and from Jay Fossett and Beth Robinson, the only two City employees named in your request, the City's information technology contractor reports that these records are no longer available due to their age. Mr. Fossett's and Ms. Robinson's email accounts have been deleted. Pursuant to the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives' Local Governments General Records Retention Schedule, routine correspondence is to be destroyed after two years.
With respect to email messages of non-City employees, these messages are not in the custody or control of the City. To the best of the City's knowledge, no other public agency has custody or control of these records. Because these records are not within the custody or control of the City, your request is denied pursuant to KRS 61.872(4). [Citations omitted.]
A public agency cannot afford a requester access to a record that it does not have or that does not exist. 99-ORD-98. The agency discharges its duty under the Open Records Act by affirmatively so stating. 99-ORD-150. When e-mails are deleted in accordance with a records retention schedule, there is no violation of the law. 12-ORD-148; 02-ORD-225. An exception, of course, would be "messages that are the subject of pending open records requests and/or litigation." 06-ORD-022. There is no indication in the record that this exception would have applied when these accounts were deleted.
Without evidence of "willful concealment or improper destruction of the requested records, we [do] not require the agency to conduct 'an exhaustive exhumation of records'" through a specialized restoration process. Id. (quoting 95-ORD-96). Absent proof that any of the deleted e-mails were not routine correspondence, and assuming proper procedures were used to ascertain that nothing was deleted in contravention of the records retention schedule, we find no violation of the Open Records Act in the City's disposition of this request.
In response to Request 3, Mr. Rhoades stated in a letter dated November 21, 2013:
The Legal Department of the City of Covington will forward your requests to the appropriate department(s) to obtain any applicable documents. We anticipate your request being fulfilled on or before December 13, 2013. This is due to the time required to obtain and review responsive email messages. We will notify you once the responsive documents have been obtained.
On December 11, 2013, Mr. Rhoades informed Ms. Enneking that 738 pages of responsive documents were available upon payment of copying and postage charges, or copying charges only if the records were picked up in person. He further stated:
With respect to your request for email messages to and from Jay Fosset, Mary Lyons, and former City Commissioners, the City's information technology contractor reports that these records are no longer available due to their age. The email accounts of Mr. Fosset, Ms. Lyons, and former Commissioners have been deleted. Pursuant to the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives' Local Governments General Records Retention Schedule, routine correspondence is to be destroyed after two years.
In his December 18 response to this appeal, Mr. Rhoades explained:
Because some of the individuals named ? are current City officials or employees, the City realized that there was a strong possibility that many of the emails Ms. Enneking requested had not been deleted, despite their age. Therefore, the City responded to Ms. Enneking and stated that her request would be fulfilled on or before December 13, 2013?
As the City had thought, some of the requested emails had not been deleted pursuant to the Local Governments General Records Retention Schedule. For example, former City Commissioner Sherry Carran is the current Mayor of Covington, and her emails from this time period remained available. On December 11, 2013, the City informed Ms. Enneking that 738 pages of documents responsive to her [request] were available. ? However, the City informed Ms. Enneking again that the email account of Jay Fossett had been deleted, along with that of former employee Mary Lyons and former city Commissioners.
The analysis employed above as to the deleted e-mail accounts of former employees applies equally to this request. As to the 738 pages of records that were found to be available, we consider this appeal moot with regard to those records inasmuch as they have been provided. 13-ORD-001; 04-ORD-046; 03-ORD-087; OAG 91-140. Accordingly, we find no violation of the Open Records Act by the City of Covington in its disposition of these three requests.
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.
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Distributed to:
Ms. Debbie EnnekingBryce C. Rhodes, Esq.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 Ms. Enneking's reference is to our decision in 10-ORD-084.