Digging into government documents: How does the KY Open Records Act work?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky’s Open Records Act mandates public agencies share existing records on request.
- Agencies must respond within five business days, with limited legal exemptions allowed.
- Citizens can appeal denials or delays to the attorney general for binding decisions.
The Kentucky Open Records Act has been in the news a lot lately, with the state’s public universities and the Fayette County Public Schools all violating the law at different times.
What is the Open Records Act?
It’s a 50-year-old state law that requires public agencies to make their records available to Kentucky residents on request. That includes local and state governments, their boards and commissions, public schools and universities and entities that get at least 25% of their funding from a local or state government.
Public records include a lot of different things — budgets, spending records, employee directories, meeting minutes, email or written letters, travel reports, personnel files and internal investigations. Plus, most of the databases they have on hand, anything from police traffic citations to school test scores.
You can’t require a public agency to create a document for you, but if the document exists, you can ask for a copy of it.
Want to know how much your town pays its city manager? Ask for payroll records, including bonuses or other compensation.
Want to know why a sheriff’s deputy suddenly resigned without comment from anyone? Ask for the deputy’s personnel file, including any disciplinary actions.
Some public agencies helpfully provide an email and mailing address for open records requests on their websites. They might even post an official form they want you to use. Otherwise, call and ask them where to send your requests.
The request doesn’t have to be sound like a lawyer wrote it.
Simply type the date, the agency’s name and then: “Under the Kentucky Open Records Act, I request access to and copies of ...”
Be specific about which records you want and for what period of time. The more detail you provide, the better.
Don’t be ridiculously overwhelming. Public agencies don’t have to give you every email they’ve produced over the last five years. They likely will have to turn over that one email their deputy director sent about a particular project on June 2, 2023. Focus on what you’re looking for.
Ask for a copy of the records electronically, to be emailed to you, if the agency keeps them electronically, as it probably does. Otherwise, you could be required to pay (and possibly haggle) a fee for the copying costs, as well as postage unless you pick up the documents in person.
All public officials, from a rural school district to Gov. Andy Beshear, must reply to open records requests within five business days, although they can ask you for more time to supply the requested documents if they provide a reasonable explanation and a target date.
There are narrow, limited exceptions to the open records law.
Private data such as medical records, individual students’ educational information, Social Security numbers and home addresses will be redacted. Information about pending real-estate or business deals can be withheld until the deals are complete. Ditto for information about pending criminal investigations.
An oft-cited exemption, one that is frequently and sometimes successfully challenged, covers “preliminary drafts, notes (and) correspondence ... other than correspondence which is intended to give notice of final action of a public agency.” Public agencies try to use this to shield a wide variety of their internal documents.
If you’re not satisfied with a public agency’s response — if it doesn’t respond at all, or if it fails to produce the records by the promised date, or if the records are blacked out by redactions that you think are unjustified — citizens can appeal to the attorney general’s office by emailing oagappeals@ky.gov.
The attorney general’s decisions carry the weight of law on the Open Records Act, although aggrieved parties can appeal to circuit court.
