Opinion
Opinion By: Andy Beshear, Attorney General; Gordon Slone, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
At issue in this appeal is whether Northpoint Training Center ("NTC") violated the Open Records Act in denying inmate Kurt Lowe's request for record(s) by notifying him of the custodian for the record requested. For the reasons stated below, we find no violation of the Act.
By request dated January 30, 2018, Kurt Lowe ("Appellant"), an inmate housed at Northpoint Training Center in Burgin, Kentucky, asked to inspect:
All records supporting NTC's deduction of $ 3.00 from my inmate cash account for an alleged 'prescription' on October 25th 2017, which is reflected in my inmate cash account statement posted on the Kiosk, for a prescription that I never received here at NTC and did not owe at any other institution.
The request was stamped as received by NTC on February 1, 2018. NTC has five calendar days, excepting Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays pursuant to KRS 197.025(7) to issue a response. 1 A timely response was sent to Appellant from NTC staff on February 5, 2018. The response stated that NTC did not have custody or control of the public record (s) requested and that the "10/25/17 payment was for a lien that occurred at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex on 07/25/17." The response explained that Appellant would have to mail his request to:
Luther Luckett Correctional Complex
Open Records Coordinator
1612 Dawkins Road
LaGrange, KY 40031
Appellant then filed his appeal with this Office.
Amy V. Barker, Assistant General Counsel, Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, responded to the appeal on behalf of NTC. Ms. Barker provided an affidavit from Kimberly Huddleston, Fiscal Manager, NTC. Ms. Huddleston's affidavit explained that the lien was placed on July 25, 2017 while the inmate was incarcerated at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex ("LLCC") and that the lien payment is automatically generated in the inmate account portion of KOMS when a deposit is made. The record used to create the lien would be physically located at LLCC and that such records cannot be seen in KOMS (Kentucky Offender Management System) by staff, such as Ms. Huddleston, at another institution. The record from KOMS, showing the payment, was attached to the affidavit.
Ms. Barker argued that, if the record in KOMS was the record that Appellant was requesting, then his appeal was moot, as it was provided to him with the affidavit in this appeal. Ms. Barker argued in the alternative, that if Appellant wanted the originating record for the lien on his account, the response to his request gave him the custodian's information as required by the Act.
We concur with Mr. Barker's argument that, if Appellant was requesting the record in KOMS, then his appeal is moot as a copy of that record was attached as part of Ms. Barker's response to this appeal. 40 KAR 1:030, Section 6, provides: "Moot complaints. If requested documents are made available to the complaining party after a complaint is made, the Attorney General shall decline to issue a decision in the matter." Ms. Barker cited a number of open records decisions supporting this position, and those decisions are dispositive of the matter, to the extent that Appellant was requesting the record from KOMS. See 14-ORD-175, 14-ORD-058, 08-ORD-246, 04-ORD-046; 03-ORD-087.
We also concur with Ms. Barker's alternative argument that, if Appellant was requesting the originating record, then he must contact the custodian of that record at LLCC. KRS 61.872(4) provides: "If the person to whom the application is directed does not have custody or control of the public record requested, that person shall notify the applicant and shall furnish the name and location of the official custodian of the agency's public records. " NTC complied with the Act by providing the contact information for the custodian of the record at LLCC to Appellant.
As these two alternative arguments dispose of the appeal in its entirety, we will not further be labor this decision with analyses of Ms. Barker's other arguments as to why this Office should not find a violation of the Act in NTC's disposition of Appellant's request for records.
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 shall be notified of any action in circuit court, but shall not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceeding.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 KRS 197.025(7) states: "KRS 61.870 to 61.884 to the contrary notwithstanding, upon receipt of a request for any record, the department shall respond to the request within five (5) days after receipt of the request, excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, and state whether the record may be inspected or may not be inspected, or that the record is unavailable and when the record is expected to be available."