Kentucky Gets an "A" in Online Transparency for Government Spending Info

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group gave Kentucky top marks for effectiveness in providing online access to government spending information. Kentucky was the only state to earn an "A" in the category. Kentucky updates information twice daily on state agency budgets, salary information for state employees, and databases for grants, contracts, and line-item expenditures.

At least 32 states currently provide online access to government expenditures.

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Open Records Victory in Kentucky

The Kentucky Open Government Blog reports on the victory of Kentucky New Era reporter Sarah Hogsed who had filed a records request for restaurant inspection reports with the Pennyrile District Health Department.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said the health department subverted the intent of the Open Records Act and took the opportunity to clarify Kentucky law on open records, as reported by the blog:

The opinion said the district's excuse for the delay – absence of staff – was not sufficient. The opinion added “in the interest of absolute clarity,” that those who ask for public records cannot be required to submit their requests on preprinted forms, or sign forms in the presence of an agency employee; that receipt of records no longer requires on-site inspection; that agencies may recover only their actual costs of reproducing public records, not including staff time, if the records are to be used for a noncommercial purpose, including use by a newspaper or periodical. The department had indicated that it considered the paper a commercial interest. "We suppose the notion that the news media act in the public interest had escaped the health department," the opinion said.

A Kentucky Bill Would Make State Retirement Benefits Trigger Open Records Compliance

From the Kentucky Open Government Blog comes this report about Kentucky Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, who has pre-filed a bill that would make any organization whose employees get state retirement benefits subject to the Kentucky Open Records Act.

The bill stems from two organizations who claimed they were exempt from the open records act even though they receive more than 25 percent of their budgets from public funds, the law's threshold for public inspection.

Judge halts release of road builder's records

A Franklin County Circuit judge in Kentucky halted the release of statements that Leonard Lawson, a prominent road builder, made to investigators in a 1983 antitrust case, the AP reported. Lawson is now facing unrelated federal charges of conspiring to steer $130 million in state road contracts to his companies. The Courier-Journal of Louisville, the Lexington Herald-Leader and The AP asked for the 1983 statements, but Lawson asked for the records to be kept from the public so that they wouldn't hurt his chances of getting a fair trial.

A judge issued a temporary injunction Wednesday to halt the release of statements a prominent Kentucky road builder made to investigators years ago.

Franklin County Circuit Judge Thomas D. Wingate cited the privacy interests of the road builder, Leonard Lawson of Lexington, in his ruling. Wingate said if the statements were made public, Lawson could face irreparable harm.

Not releasing them would preserve the status quo, Wingate said in a 16-page ruling.

More here.

NFOIC Summit: FOI & Infrastructure

James Shiffer, reporter and editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune; Tisha Thompson, investigative reporter at WTTG Fox 5 in Washington, D.C.; and Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director and former computer-assisted reporting editor at St. Louis Post-Dispatch, discussed how to use FOI to inform the public about infrastructure issues. Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, moderated. Here are some notes from their session at the 2009 NFOIC Summit:

Lessons from the Minneapolis I-35W Bridge collapse:

• The Minneapolis I-35W Bridge collapsed at 6:05 p.m. a couple blocks from the Star Tribune office. James Shiffer said the Star Tribune had a suspicion that there was something in the bridge's history that would explain why the collapse occurred. Reporters used the National Bridge Inventory database as the basis for a front-page story. The bridge had been declared structurally deficient as recently as 2005.
  
• On Aug. 2, the paper filed its two first formal requests related to inspection and maintenance records. Reporters followed up with four additional requests that month about contractors who worked on the bridge. Minnesota Government Data Practices Act requires that relevant corporate records of government contractors are public.
• The conclusion was that the bridge had a design defect dated back 40 years. However, the paper did get Missouri Department of Transportation to acknowledge that part of it was bent. This was visible in photos, and at least one inspection noted the bending. You didn't have to be an engineer to notice.
• This was the most studied bridge in Minnesota. A Star Tribune columnist pointed out that when it was announced that a bridge had collapsed, a lot of people probably didn't have to ask which one.
• The Minnesota Department of Transportation was bombarded with records requests from journalists, lawyers, construction companies and victims. The organization did a good job early on in putting the inspection reports online. They couldn't argue that the information was protected because of homeland security. The bridge was gone.
• Shiffer said MDOT was not good at providing notes, photos and internal documents. The newspaper gave MDOT a draft lawsuit, which got them going. The excuse was that the inspectors were too busy making sure other bridges were safe to answer questions or find records. You want us to do our jobs, right? they asked. Four months later, MDOT dumped data online, but the system was difficult to use. The newspaper reporters were not allowed into the office to view the files.
• The National Transportation Safety Board completed its report, which included citations of documents and memos that MDOT hadn't turned over to the Star Tribune via FOIA and hadn't released on its database.
  
• Jaimi Dowdell said the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used bridge databases to conduct its own analysis the first day after the collapse. Then, reporters began analyzing similar St. Louis bridges by requesting audit and inspection records.
• Tisha Thompson noted that agencies shut down records after the Minnesota bridge collapse. They realized that the records tattled on them.

Lessons from bridges and dams coverage:

• From FOIA documents, Tisha Thompson reported on a Kentucky bridge with rusted bolts and rotten pillars and rails, a Baltimore bridge with loose timber beginning to decay and a D.C. bridge with a tree growing out of its side. (The tree was slowly pulling the bridge apart.)
• Thompson says stories on bridges and dams are the easiest to do because there are federal inspection requirements.
  
• When a dam broke in St. Louis, Jaimi Dowdell's team did an immediate story based on the National Inventory of Dams database. They then requested reports from state studies. In doing so, they found a state clause that sets up an agricultural exemption for dams to be inspected. So many dams were not being inspected because they were under a certain height. It turned into a watchdog story. You never know where FOI paths can take you.
• The dam database has been shut down to the public. It doesn't have data after 2002 because of homeland security concerns.
• Access to records often depends on the agency and who's in charge. Thompson recalled that Virginia shut down records on all 13,000 of its bridges because of homeland security. She had no problems getting dam inspection reports from dams. It was the opposite in Maryland.
• Thompson couldn't get data on a small bridge in the middle of nowhere because of homeland security concerns. Only 72 people passed over the bridge in a day. She explained the ridiculousness of this excuse. The furthest she got was being allowed to view documents in the office. She was not allowed to photocopy them.
• Thompson said that although agencies fought her on the data on the bridges, they replaced every bridge she covered.
• James Shiffer described one of his reporters who talked to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers concern a dam that the Minnesota hoped to get stimulus money to rebuild. The reporter got full access to inspection reports because the state wanted it fixed. However, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers refused to speak with the reporter regarding another dam next to the Ford Plant that might have water seeping underneath it. The corp used the homeland security excuse. Eventually an interview was reluctantly arranged.
  

NFOIC Summit: Kentucky FOIA roundup

State-by-state updates at the 2009 NFOIC Summit: Terry Anderson of the University of Kentucky provided a summary of his state's FOI news.

• The state trying to revive the Kentucky Citizens for Open Government.
• The governor and attorney general are committed to open government. The chief justice just started a review of court rules on openness with the intention of opening them up more. Kentucky has a bigger problem with the legislature. The lawmakers don't seem committed.
• One legislator is determined to prevent the use of 911 calls in broadcasting.
• There is a legislative attempt to extend First Amendment rights to high school journalists.
• There also was a proposal to create a legislative investigative agency that would investigate other branches of government; however, its operations would have been exempted from public records.
  

Texas places first in 2009 Survey of State Government Information

See how your state measures up to others in terms of state government information available online:

Most Americans can easily find videos of water skiing squirrels on the Internet but they’ll have less luck finding out whether their children's school buses and classrooms are safe, or if neighborhood gas stations are overcharging.

The Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information online found that while more and more government records are being posted online, some of the most important information is being left offline. And in some cases governments are charging taxpayers to access records that they already paid for, such as death certificates.

More here.

More coverage:

Survey shows some Ky. records available online, Fort Mill Times

In Kentucky, which tied for 26th place, the easiest records to find online are death certificates; however, viewing them is not free. Citizens must order them online and pay processing and delivery fees.

Also easy to find are statewide school test data; disciplinary actions taken against physicians within the past decade; teacher certifications; political campaign contributions and expenses; and personal financial disclosure reports for members of the Kentucky legislature.

Mississippi last in survey of Internet records, Memphis Commercial Appeal.

The state has online data from only four of 20 categories examined by the Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information Online.

But the Mississippi agencies responsible for these records aren’t solely to blame in the lag of posting information online. Other culprits include a shortage of funding for developing and maintaining the Web sites; a shortage of broadband Internet access in this mostly rural state and lack of interest by residents who opt not to go online.

N.C. gets high marks for posting public info online, Times-News Online

The report found that North Carolina, which tied for third place, provides information on 17 out of 20 categories surveyed.

A visitor to the state's government Web site (www.nc.gov) can easily find links to state agencies on health, public education and transportation, but other links listed under "Online Services" and "State Agencies" can be confusing for a first-time user, the survey found.

Recordings of 911 calls may no longer be public records

A Kentucky bill that would ban the airing of 911 calls has garnered much support, The Associated Press reported. People would still be allowed to "listen to the call and take notes and to obtain written transcripts of calls." However, certain details, such as name and medical information, would be deleted. The measure is supposed to protect citizens from having their emotional 911 calls released.

A measure that would prevent 911 calls from being aired on TV, radio and Web sites cleared its first legislative hurdle yesterday and now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill 30 despite the concerns of broadcasters who say it smacks of censorship.

"It certainly starts us down a very slippery slope," said Nancy Cox, a news anchor with WLEX-TV in Lexington.

More here.

Eastern Kentucky University reviews how it releases police reports

Update on the Eastern Kentucky student newspaper case: After the Kentucky attorney general agreed that the university was redacting too much information from police reports, the Eastern Progress editors are hoping university officials will put pressure on the police department to release full reports without requiring the paper to submit a formal request.

Editors of the Eastern Progress, student newspaper for Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, scored a victory for open records in an appeal to the Kentucky attorney general that challenged the university's redaction of information from campus police reports.

The Kentucky attorney general agreed with the Progress' argument that the university had overstepped the law in redacting — or removing — addresses and other personal information from campus police department reports obtained by the Progress through a Freedom of Information Act request.

More here.

Kentucky attorney general rules in favor of college newspaper

Another college newspaper fights against heavily redacted police reports. The attorney general ruled that "Eastern Kentucky University improperly relied on KRS 61.878(1)(a) in redacting the address of persons whose names appeared on incident reports." However, since The Progress receives its police reports directly from the police department as a courtesy, officers can still black out addresses and other information they deem necessary. The staff is working with the university counsel in hopes to begin receiving uncensored reports without having to file -- and wait -- for a formal request.

Near the end of last semester, the Progress staff got fed up with vast quantities of black ink clouding the police reports we received from the Eastern police department every week. The reports were so heavily redacted we couldn't list names in the police beat without running the risk of libeling someone.

Remedying the situation was tricky because the Progress wasn't formally requesting the reports from the university. Eastern police gave us the reports we used each week as a courtesy, which meant they could remove whatever information they desired before giving them to us. And since formal requests could take weeks to process, our only option was to take the readily available censored reports.

We had to figure out how to end the unnecessary redactions without delaying information to our readers.

In order to determine what the police department was redacting that couldn't be redacted when a formal request was made, we sent a pair of "Freedom Of Information Act" requests to the university, asking for copies of about a week's worth of police reports. When we got these reports, we were surprised to see just as much black ink on the formally requested reports as on the freebies we got from the police department. On some reports, even more information was redacted on the formally requested version.

More here.

Kentucky Law OKs E-Mail Notice

Local governments in Kentucky will now be able to notify news organizations about their special meetings by e-mail.

The new provision in Kentucky's open-meetings law took effect in July. Touted as a money- and time-saver, it allows local governments to send meeting notices electronically to any agency member or news organization that asks in writing for e-mail communications.

"It gives the media and the public more timely notification of the special meetings, as well," said Allison Martin, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office. "Because you never can ensure when a mailed letter is going to arrive by the postal service."

More here.

Kentucky Law OKs E-Mail Notice

Local governments in Kentucky will now be able to notify news organizations about their special meetings by e-mail.

The new provision in Kentucky's open-meetings law took effect in July. Touted as a money- and time-saver, it allows local governments to send meeting notices electronically to any agency member or news organization that asks in writing for e-mail communications.

"It gives the media and the public more timely notification of the special meetings, as well," said Allison Martin, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office. "Because you never can ensure when a mailed letter is going to arrive by the postal service."

More here.

Now HERE is a novel twist on FOI...

A man who suspected his wife of having an affair should be able to see messages exchanged through state government e-mail accounts by his wife and her co-worker, a judge ruled yesterday.

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip J. Shepherd ordered the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet to give Stephen Malmer e-mails written between his wife, Bobbie Malmer, and former state employee David Moss from Nov. 1, 2005, to June 1, 2006.

Stephen Malmer of Frankfort requested the e-mails in June 2006, saying they were public records covered by the Open Records Act.

Malmer said last night he wanted the e-mails because he suspected his wife was having an affair. Although his wife has since confessed to the affair, Stephen Malmer said, he still has questions and wants to see the case through for closure.

"It's been such a nightmare," Stephen Malmer said. "I was horrified by the amount of opposition I ran up against."

Malmer said his wife has been supportive in his fight for the e-mails. He said she no longer has access to the e-mails and can't provide them herself.

The Cabinet's general counsel said the e-mails were exempt from public disclosure for reasons including a personal privacy exception to the statute, and it denied the request.

The Office of the Attorney General later found the Cabinet violated the Open Records Act, and Shepherd agreed.

"In this case, the communications are by definition non-work-related, but that does not mean there is no public interest in the disclosure of such e-mails," Shepherd wrote in his ruling. "The fact that state employees are using state resources to exchange non-work-related messages during working hours is a matter of legitimate inquiry for the public."

More here.