Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway,Attorney General;Amye L. Bensenhaver,Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
Buster Chandler appeals Kentucky State Reformatory's denial of three requests he submitted on November 17, 2014, for:
.a list of the names of staff in the KSR mailroom and Internal Affairs who rejected his mail and a copy of the rejection notice 1;
. memoranda/court orders authorizing the mailroom to hold rejected mail until the Oldham Circuit Court rules on the propriety of the rejection; and
. all court orders/memoranda authorizing the warden and Internal Affairs to violate Corrections Policy and Procedure 16.2 by rejecting mail, based on personal opinion, that is not a threat to security.
KRS promptly denied each of Mr. Chandler's requests referencing a single attached memorandum in which the facility explained that it maintained no responsive records. Alternatively, KSR advised Mr. Chandler that if responsive records existed they would not contain a specific reference to him and would therefore be exempt pursuant to KRS 197.025(2) and KRS 61.878(1)(l). We affirm KSR's denial of Mr. Chandler's requests.
The Open Records Act governs access to "documentation, regardless of physical form or characteristics, which [is] prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by a public agency. " KRS 61.870(2). It is well-established that the Act "governs access to existing public records" and does not "require the creation of records." See, e.g., 02-ORD-112, p. 4, and authorities cited therein (recognizing that a public agency was not obligated to create a document containing an explanation for its actions). KSR does not maintain a list of mailroom and Internal Affairs employees who rejected Mr. Chandler's mail, court orders/memoranda authorizing the mailroom to hold rejected mail until the Oldham Circuit Court rules on the propriety of the rejection, or court orders/memoranda authorizing the warden and Internal Affairs to violate Corrections Policy and Procedure 16.2 by rejecting mail that is not a threat to security. Consistent with the referenced line of open records decisions, KSR is not legally obligated to create these records to satisfy Mr. Chandler's request. Its refusal to do so did not constitute a violation of the Open Records Act.
Having affirmed KSR's denial of Mr. Chandler's request for information on the basis of the nonexistence of records containing that information, we do not address the facility's alternative argument.
Either party may appeal this decision 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:Buster ChandlerSamantha RashAmy V. Barker
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 In supplemental correspondence, KSR affirms that a copy of the rejection notice was sent to Mr. Chandler as an attachment to its November 21 response to his November 17 requests. Under 40 KAR 1:030 Section 6 issues relating to the notice are moot.