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Monday, October 25, 2010

Courts - "Effort to open Kentucky judicial records falls flat"

Andrew Wolfson of the Louisville Courier Journal has a lengthy story this morning on the transparency of Kentucky judicial records. Here are some quotes that begin at the bottom of p. 2 of the online version:

In Indiana, the state Supreme Court has a rule spelling out access to court and administrative records in the judicial branch, and it says they are open unless there is a specific law or rule exempting them, said public information officer Kathryn Dolan.

Although Supreme Courts in several states, including Kentucky, have ruled that open-records acts don't apply to the courts, Florida's high court has adopted a rule specifically saying the same principles apply to every judicial branch, including those entities that regulate lawyers and judges.

In Kentucky, the state's OpenDoor site (http://opendoor.ky.gov) details spending by the executive and judicial branch. It shows, for example, that last year the judiciary spent $146,744,173 on salaries, $9,137 to repair its copy machines and $30,989 on robes for judges.

But while the site lists specific executive-branch salaries, none are listed for the judicial branch. A news release issued by the Administrative Office of the Courts on Dec. 21, 2009, said those salaries would be added in the “upcoming months,” but Hiatt said that has been delayed because of a computer-programming issue.

A test of openness

To test the court officials contention that Kentucky's court systems operates “in an open, transparent manner, the newspaper last week requested minutes of the monthly meetings of Jefferson Circuit Court judges; staff salaries for the Kentucky Bar Association and the Kentucky office of Bar Admissions; and records showing how much the KBA had paid an outside lawyer in 2008 to investigate allegations against one of its former presidents, as well as a copy of the lawyer's report.

Denying the newspaper's request for the minutes, chief Jefferson court administrator Carla Kreitman said in an e-mail that the judges discuss legal and personnel issues during the sessions and consider “this deliberative process so critical to the integrity of judicial operations that it demands protection from public disclosure.”

KBA director John Meyers cited the Supreme Court's 1978 decision exempting judicial branch agencies from the Open Records Act in denying the request for KBA payroll information, as well as how much it paid Lexington lawyer Robert F. Houlihan Jr., to investigate allegations against then-bar president Barbara Bonar, as well as a copy of his report.

It looks like some of the Kentucky courts setup is not comparable to the Indiana model. But the new Indiana Transparency Portal allows you to look up state employee salaries. I'll have more on this in a later post.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 25, 2010 09:05 AM
Posted to Courts in general