Opinion
Opinion By: Andy Beshear,Attorney General;James M. Herrick,Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
The question presented in this appeal is whether Community Transitional Services, LLC ("CTS"), violated the Open Records Act in the disposition of Luther Luckett Correctional Complex inmate Gerald Settles' request dated April 7, 2017, for records relating to an incident in which he fell while a resident at the CTS facility. For the reasons that follow, we cannot conclude that a violation of the Act occurred.
CTS is a private limited liability company 1 which operates a halfway house, described as a "re-entry center for parolees and inmates released to community custody," 2 located on West Jefferson Street in Louisville, Kentucky, under a contract with the Department of Corrections. On April 12, 2017, CTS Director Barbara Strahm replied to Mr. Settles: "We are in receipt of your request of [sic] your CTS records via the Open Records Act. CTS is not a public agency as defined in KRS 61.870; therefore, our records are not public as defined in the statute -- as advised by the Kentucky Department of Corrections Office of Legal Services."
Mr. Settles argues on appeal that CTS is "an agent of the Kentucky Department of Corrections" and therefore a "public agency" as defined in KRS 61.870(1). He contends specifically that CTS is a public agency within the meaning of KRS 61.870(1)(h):
Any body which, within any fiscal year, derives at least twenty-five percent (25%) of its funds expended by it in the Commonwealth of Kentucky from state or local authority funds. However, any funds derived from a state or local authority in compensation for goods or services that are provided by a contract obtained through a public competitive procurement process shall not be included in the determination of whether a body is a public agency under this subsection .
(Emphasis added.)
CTS has not submitted a written response to Mr. Settles' appeal, but has provided a string of e-mails in which Ms. Strahm was advised on March 21, 2017, by Brenn O. Combs, General Counsel, Kentucky Department of Corrections, that CTS is "not a 'public agency' as defined in KRS 61.870." This advice was premised upon information from William A. Knight III, State HWH Coordinator and State HNT Training Commander, Division of Probation and Parole, that the Department's contracts with halfway houses are "obtained through a public competitive procurement process" under KRS Chapter 45A.
Although it is possible that CTS might receive state or local funds from other contracts that are not competitively bid, the only information in the record is that its contract with the Department of Corrections was obtained through a competitive procurement process. Thus, there is no basis in the record upon which to conclude that CTS is a public agency within this definition or any other subsection of KRS 61.870(1). We must therefore conclude that it is not a public agency and accordingly is not required to comply with the provisions of the Open Records Act. 12-ORD-222; 96-ORD-197.
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 must 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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