“You could be a thin-skinned public official who shows resistance or expresses outrage when your office is expected to produce records, but it tends to 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, who has previously clashed with the Beshear administration over her office’s investigations, issued a statement Monday that said the day after she announced the investigation into OMC earlier this month, Kentucky Democrats “sent five Open Records Act requests to my office in what can only be described as an attempt to intimidate me from continuing the investigation.” However, the Kentucky Democratic Party (KDP) denied that the requests were related to Ball’s investigation.
Ball said a Finance and Administration Cabinet official sent similar open records requests after her office announced investigations into the Cabinet for Health and Family Services in recent months.
“It is a shame that parties would seek to weaponize the Open Records Act, an important transparency tool, as a political weapon,” Ball said. “Because I believe in the importance of transparency, I have responded to the KDP’s requests in full, just as I did to the Finance Cabinet requests.
“Kentucky should rest assured that these intimidation tactics will not work. I will continue to carry out the job that Kentuckians elected me to do.”
Under the Kentucky Open Records Act, members of the public may request records from public agencies within the state.
Kentucky Democratic Party spokesperson Nat Turner said in a statement to the Kentucky Lantern that Ball “is trying to manufacture partisan drama, and what she is alleging is not true.”
“The requests in question were not related to her audit; they were for records related to grievances, personal appeals, travel records and her use of taxpayer money to attend a religious leadership conference,” Turner said. “Transparency is important and Auditor Ball has a responsibility to be accountable to Kentuckians.”
Joy Markland, a spokesperson for Ball, shared copies of the requests made by the Democrats and responses of the auditor’s office. The records, dated April 18, match the requests Turner described. In a search for the records, the auditor’s office found no records of grievances from staff members filed this year and provided records related to travel, personal appeals and contracts entered by the office.
Amye Bensenhaver, a retired Kentucky assistant attorney general and co-founder and co-director of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition, said “all is fair in love and open records.” The state law is “intended to be almost blind to who is asking and why they’re asking,” with some limitations on requests made for commercial reasons, she added.
Ball’s accusation against the state Democratic party is also “weaponizing the law,” Bensenhaver said.
“Ultimately, you could be a thin-skinned public official who shows resistance or expresses outrage when your office is expected to produce records, but it tends to undermine your credibility when you’re seeking records from another public agency,” Bensenhaver said.
Some political staffers look for information to use in campaign messaging through open record requests. Ahead of the 2023 governor’s race, the office of then Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron ruled Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration violated the Kentucky Open Records Act when denying part of a request from the Republican Party of Kentucky. Cameron later became the Republican nominee and was defeated by Beshear that fall.
This story was first published by Kentucky Lantern.
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