Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman says Louisville Metro Government violated state law by missing a deadline to respond to a request for public records on the now-canceled tennis and pickleball complex at Joe Creason Park.
But his office also found the city ultimately did not break the law when it eventually denied that same request.
Coleman’s decision came in response to an open records appeal brought by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. KyCIR sought correspondence between city officials and members of the nonprofit that pitched the controversial sports facility, among other records.
The proposed pickleball facility galvanized the neighborhoods surrounding the park and sparked a wave of pushback that ultimately led Mayor Craig Greenberg to publicly abandon the project.
KyCIR requested correspondence about the project on April 30, amid the controversy. KyCIR also asked for city correspondence with Bellarmine University officials because other public records showed the college was envisioned as a partner in early plans for the tennis complex.
In responses sent May 5 and May 6, Louisville Metro staff told KyCIR to provide the email addresses for non-city employees, saying this was necessary to locate relevant documents. KyCIR appealed that month to Coleman, who handles public records disputes.
Metro Government fulfilled the Bellarmine-related request after KyCIR appealed. As a result, the attorney general said that part of the dispute was moot.
For KyCIR, the core reason for appealing to the attorney general concerned whether Kentuckians can be required, under the state’s Open Records Act, to provide private individuals’ email addresses when requesting correspondence records from a government agency.
In the city’s response to KyCIR’s appeal, a Jefferson County attorney acknowledged this isn’t a valid requirement. City officials went on to deny KyCIR’s request on different grounds, arguing it was “an extremely broadly-worded request for voluminous records” covering a 16-month timespan and multiple city departments that collectively employ nearly 450 people.
But the city’s attorney said they searched the emails of 11 key employees using two of KyCIR’s supplied keywords – ‘Joe Creason’ and ‘pickleball’ – and turned up 7,593 hits. Staff estimated it could take 379 hours to evaluate the documents, not counting however many other emails would be flagged to meet the full scope of KyCIR’s request.
The city’s attorney said such a review likely would result in blacking out parts of the correspondence from public disclosure because of exemptions allowed under Kentucky law.
“Further, because Metro ultimately decided not to pursue the KYTPC [Kentucky Tennis & Pickleball Center] project at Joe Creason Park, many of the responsive emails are very likely to contain confidential and proprietary business plans … thus requiring careful redactions,” the attorney wrote. “Many other records would likely be exempt as preliminary recommendations …”
This statement indicates a lot of documents and details about one of the most controversial projects proposed in recent years probably will remain secret and out of view of the public.
In a June 10 decision, Coleman’s office concluded the city failed to either grant or deny KyCIR’s records request within five business days, as mandated by Kentucky’s Open Records Act. Instead, the city, “without citing any provision” of the law, told KyCIR it had to provide email addresses of non-city employees.
However, Coleman’s office agreed that KyCIR’s request posed “an unreasonable burden” for the city and allowed its denial to stand.
In a statement, Greenberg’s spokesperson, Kevin Trager, told KyCIR: “We agree with the Attorney General’s determination that the open records request was unreasonably burdensome.”
KyCIR filed a new, narrower request for records on the Joe Creason project Wednesday.
