AG Coleman Supports Openness; Gaunce’s Charities are in Violation
By Jeff Jobe, Community Publisher/JPI
Kentucky’s Attorney General responds to requests for opinions as it relates to the Open Records laws with both Bridge KY and Glasgow-Barren Boys & Girls Club. Photo logos from Facebook
The Office of Kentucky Attorney General (OAG) has responded to opinion requests by the legal counsel for Glasgow City Councilman Patrick Gaunce.
Gaunce believes since his local charities are no longer in partnership with the Barren County School’s afterschool program, Beyond the Bell, that Bridge KY shouldn’t have to disclose where they spent their funding or share more documents. Funding in which more than $3.2M passed through the organization allowed the Barren County Schools to avoid paying federally-mandated overtime and costs associated with Kentucky pensions for their employees.
Gaunce issued the same position for the Boys & Girls Club and relating to more than $1.7M taxpayer funds announced during press conferences. His position is he believes the Boys and Girls Club doesn’t anticipate having the legal defining aspect for openness for the year ahead. He doesn’t anticipate having 25% of funding coming from government for the next fiscal year ending next July.
In the official response to 24-ORD-197, Jeffrey Jobe/Boys & Girls Club of Glasgow/Barren County, the OAG determined that the Boys & Girls Club is a public agency subject to the Open Records Act. As such, it must produce records created and used in the fiscal years that meet the definition of a public agency (that is, years that it received at least 25% of its funds from state sources).
The OAG confirmed that non-profit organizations meeting the 25% threshold are required to answer open records requests not only during the fiscal years they meet the threshold, but they also have an ongoing duty to respond to requests that were created or used in those fiscal years. The response specifically states, “If the records sought are for a fiscal year in which the 25% threshold is met, there is an obligation to produce.” 24-ORD-197 (citing Util. Mgmt Grp., LLC v. Pike Cnty. Fiscal Ct., 531 S.W.3d 3, 11 (Ky. 2017)).
The OAG also determined the Boys & Girls Club violated the act when it did not respond to the open records request within five days. They are not allotted extra time to “research” whether they must respond to a request. This was the position of the Barren County Progress/Jobe Publishing.
It is not uncommon for requests to be made in which there are no records and the OAG confirmed that the Boys & Girls Club did not have to produce certain requested records. For example, it held the Boys & Girls Club did not need to produce its bylaws because they were created before the agency received any state funds. It also allowed the Boys & Girls Club to redact portions of meeting minutes that refer to matters not related to activities funded by state money.
In regards to communications, board minutes, names and tenure of board members, and audit communications, if they do not exist, the Boys & Girls Club is not required to produce them. Yet, if this is the case, the law would require them to indicate they do not exist. Often a news entity will secure documents off the record and ask through official open record requests for copies of what they already have. An indication of not having such a record would be a blatant disregard for the law and this fact becomes part of the story.
In the official response for 24-ORD-198, Jeffrey Jobe/Bridge Kentucky, Inc., the OAG determined that Bridge is a public agency subject to the Open Records Act and violated the Act when it refused to respond to the request.
The OAG determined that Bridge must respond to open record requests seeking records created between 2020-2024. The OAG applied the same analysis as the Boys & Girls Club opinion and determined that public agencies must produce public records created or used in the fiscal years it meets the 25% threshold. Again, the OAG held that Bridge’s bylaws are not public records because they were created before it received state funds.
The BCP is pleased to have these questions resolved and will devote the needed space in upcoming issues to how Gaunce, his charities, and the boards he established have used both Barren County School funds at Bridge KY and tax-funded grants given to the Boys & Girls Club.
