Louisville City Wire

Standing at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville on Thursday, Mayor Craig Greenberg invoked the school’s namesake as he announced major reforms and historic investments to Metro Government’s handling and processing of open records requests. Mayor Greenberg, echoing the late Supreme Court Justice and Louisville native’s calls for government transparency, announced the reorganization of the Metro Government Department of Records Compliance along with new initiatives to both quicken the processing of requests and help prevent future backlogs.

“Justice Louis Brandeis said, ‘Sunshine is said to be the best of disinfectants,’ and on this he and I agree; open governments are healthy governments. Kentucky has one of the nation’s strongest open records statutes, and Metro Government has, from time to time, fallen short of it,” said Mayor Greenberg. “The responsibility of Louisville Metro Government is to provide accurate and timely responses to open records requests, and that is exactly what we strive to do. Today we are announcing reforms and investments that will ensure our city is meeting our responsibility to the community and helping ensure our city’s government is transparent.”

Beginning in January 2023, Mayor Greenberg’s administration conducted a thorough examination of Metro Government’s open records response process and discovered a significant backlog along with several areas where reform and investment could greatly improve the process. Numerous reasons for the backlog were identified, including a sharp increase in requests, new technologies that greatly increased requestable materials, inadequate checks and balances to prevent non-compliance, a need for clearer standards across multiple departments, and inadequate staffing levels. Additionally, a greater need to prioritize and appreciate the importance of timely responses to requests was identified.

In order to address these issues, help ease the backlog of unfulfilled requests, and prevent future requests from taking longer than necessary, Mayor Greenberg announced on Thursday the reorganization of the Metro Government Department of Records Compliance as a new standalone division. Additionally, several key reforms will be implemented. Among them:

• All open records functions within Louisville Metro Government will now be independent from the Office of Management and Budget and under a director who will report directly to Deputy Mayor Dana Mayton.
• The new independent department will serve as a single point of contact and apply a uniform, streamlined process for all open records requests made of the Mayor’s Office and all Metro agencies, including the Louisville Metro Police Department.
• Metro will hire six new full-time staffers to help coordinate and support the open records response process and eliminate the backlog of unfulfilled requests.
• Metro will provide new uniform and up-to-date training government-wide to ensure employees are aware of and correctly adhere to Kentucky’s open records laws, especially with regard to emerging technologies.

“Let me be clear: Metro Government is full of incredible and hardworking people who have been doing all they can to keep up with open records requests, but they need assistance, support and funding,” said Mayor Greenberg. “Today we are announcing that support and, in doing so, hope this allows the men and women of Metro Government to deliver the level of transparency and service demanded of them by the community.”

The Kentucky General Assembly passed the Open Records Act in 1976, which called for public records, whether electronic or on paper, to be made available for public examination.

Original source can be found here.