News Release: Bluegrass Institute report stresses the need to modernize Kentucky’s sunshine laws — The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions

COG LOGO

For Immediate Release: Monday, June 5, 2017

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – A report released today by the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky’s first and only free-market think tank, urges policymakers to revise and update the commonwealth’s open meetings and open records laws considering “rapid changes in the dynamics of communication and information transmission” and an increasing number of legal challenges.

“Shining the Light on Kentucky’s Sunshine Laws” is written by Amye Bensenhaver, who retired in 2016 after a 25-year career in the commonwealth’s Office of Attorney General in which she authored around 2,000 legal opinions related to the open meetings and open records laws and recently agreed to join the Bluegrass Institute team as the director of its Center for Open Government.

An online copy of the full report, including its executive summary, is available here.

Bensenhaver was a recipient of a 2017 Bluegrass Institute Liberty Award.

“We are committed to preserving what is best in the open meetings and open records law while at the same time eliminating their ambiguities, conflicts and outdated elements,” Bensenhaver said. “We offer recommendations that will ease the burden on public agencies while also reducing the likelihood of legal challenges, preserving valuable administrative and judicial resources and, most importantly, promoting the goal of open, transparent and accountable government at all levels and in all places across the commonwealth.”

Along with highlighting conflicts between open meetings and open records exemptions, which frequently cause confusion and inconsistencies related to government bodies meeting in closed session, the report also calls for more meaningful penalties as a deterrence for not complying with these laws.

“This report offers thoughtful recommendations for updating the commonwealth’s sunshine laws to reflect rapid advances in communication technology while carefully protecting against diluting the entrenched principles of transparency and accountability,” Bluegrass Institute President and CEO Jim Waters said. “We consider events in the evolution of the open records and meetings laws and make the case for closing loopholes exploited by agencies who receive a significant amount of taxpayer funding while firmly defending citizens’ access to their government’s records.

Please contact the Bluegrass Institute at 859.444.5630 or info@freedomkentucky.com to obtain a hard copy of the report. For more information or comment, please contact Amye Bensenhaver at abensenhaver@freedomkentucky.com or 502.330.1816 (cell), or Jim Waters at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com, 859.444.5630 ext. 102 (office) or 270.320.4376 (cell).