You could have a thin skin as a public official if you show resistance and express outrage when asked to provide records by your office. This will undermine your credibility.
By McKenna Horsley, Kentucky Lantern
Republican State Auditor Allison Ball is calling five open records requests from a Kentucky Democratic Party official “an attempt to intimidate me” from investigating how the state’s Office of Medical Cannabis (OMC) processed license applications.
Ball has clashed before with Beshear’s administration about her investigations. In a Monday statement, she said that the Kentucky Democrats sent five Open Records Act Requests to Ball’s office the day after the announcement of the OMC investigation earlier in the month. This can only be described by Kentucky Democrats as an intimidation attempt against Ball to stop the investigation. The Kentucky Democratic Party, however, denied the claims that these requests had anything to do with Ball’s investigations.
Ball told the audience that an official from Finance and Administration Cabinet sent a similar request for public records in response to her recent announcements of investigations conducted by her office into Cabinet Health and Family Services.
Ball commented: “It’s unfortunate that some parties want to use the Open Records Act – an important transparency tool – as a means of political attack. Because I am a firm believer in transparency, I’ve responded fully to KDP and Finance Cabinet requests.
Kentuckians can rest assured these tactics of intimidation will not succeed. Kentuckians elected to me the position of doing my job.
Kentucky Open Records Act: Members of the public can request public records in the state.
Nat Turner, spokesperson of the Kentucky Democratic Party Nat Turner told The Kentucky Lantern: “Ball is trying to fabricate partisan controversy and that what she claims is false.”
Turner stated that the requests were unrelated to her audit. They were records relating to personal grievances and appeals, her travel records, as well as her use of tax payer money for attending a conference on religious leadership. “Transparency matters and Auditor Ball is accountable to Kentuckians.”
Joy Markland shared copies of requests from Democrats, and responses by the Auditors’ Office. These records are dated 18 April and match Turner’s requests. The office of the auditor found that no staff grievances were filed in this fiscal year. Records related to travels, personal appeals or contracts made by the office, however, did appear.
Amye Bensenhaver is a retired Kentucky Assistant Attorney General and the co-founder of and director of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She said, “All’s fair in love, and all records are open.” State law was “designed to be nearly blind” to the requester and their reason for asking, with certain limitations on requests that are made commercially.
Bensenhaver stated that Ball’s accusations against the Democratic Party of the State also amounts to “weaponizing” the law.
Bensenhaver explained that “you could end up being a public official with thin skin who expresses anger or resistance when asked to provide records by your own office, but this undermines your credibility when you are asking for records from another agency.”
Open record requests are used by some political staffers to gather information for campaign messages. The office of former Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who was then running for governor in 2023, ruled that Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration broke the Kentucky Open Records Act by denying a part of the request of the Republican Party of Kentucky. Cameron became the Republican nomination and lost to Beshear.
This article was originally published in Kentucky Lantern.
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