Friday, July 18, 2025
78.7 F
Murray
Home Blog Page 34

Gay Poems for Red States ‘should be read by everyone’

Constance Alexander
-
0
Gay Poems for Red States ‘should be read by everyone’

By Constance Alexander

MURRAY – This year, April 7–13 is National Library Week, with April 8 “Right to Read Day.” In 2023, the American Library Association (ALA) documented efforts to censor 4,240 unique book titles in schools and public libraries, an increase from 2,571 the year before. 

According to the ALA website, “Organized pressure groups have used their power – and long lists of titles – to wage an aggressive campaign to empty library shelves of all books they deem inappropriate instead of allowing people to decide for themselves what they and their children read…Nearly half of the titles impacted were by or about LGBTQIA+ individuals and people of color.”

This year’s catch phrase for National Library Week is, ‘Don’t let censorship eclipse your freedom to read.” 

In the spirit of that slogan, Murray State University’s Pride Center, with support from the Department of English and Philosophy, is hosting a presentation by poet Willie Carver, on April 18, at 6 p.m., in the Freed Curd Auditorium in the Collins Center for Industry and Technology on the MSU campus. Admission is free.

Carver, author of “Gay Poems for Red States,” begins this stunning collection with his own backstory and chronicles his fall from grace as a public high school teacher in Mount Sterling, Ky.

Shortly before his first day, he is pulled aside by a Montgomery County administrator who asks if the new teacher is “openly gay.” 

When Carver says yes, the administrator replies, “I just want you to understand. In this community, you will be crucified. No one will protect you, including me.”

Carver interprets the warning as a kindness, “an attempt to protect me, as if every Southern queer person isn’t already perpetually awaiting crucifixion.”

Despite the implied threat, Carver taught successfully for more than a decade, inspired by the awesome potential of the students in his classroom. In fact, he credits his students’ energy and commitment to excellence for his designation as Kentucky Teacher of the Year in 2022.

Ironically, this distinction ended Carver’s high school teaching career when a small contingent in the community began attending board meetings and accusing him of grooming, inappropriateness, and sexuality, in regard to his students. The group even resorted to doxing the teacher and some of his former students, publishing private information with apparent malicious intent. 

As a result, Carver concluded, “There was no longer a place for me as a teacher.” 

His poems rose from the ashes.

The first one is set in familiar territory, a McDonald’s drive-thru window. When asked, “Would you like a Hot Wheel or a Barbie?” Carver’s choice caused the clerk to give the boy a onceover. 

“You know you’re gonna ruin him?” she said to his mother, handing over the boxed meal. 

Another recovered memory is Carver’s poem, “First Crush,” and a boy named Brandon with “toasted-colored hair” and shoes white as “…the blank page of a coloring book.”

One after another, Carver replays his childhood, one scene at a time. In “Clean Room,” he recalls the tumult of his brother’s lair as that of “a middle-aged trucker,” while his own was “slender and agile, a dancer quick to pose for cameras.” 

His genius for biscuit making was discovered early: “Before I even learned to sing the alphabet,” he declares. 

The secret ingredient?

“Butter transforms everything into love between your teeth and your tongue,” Carver says, adding that the “sea of butter” changes homemade batter into “carbohydrate continents…” 

As the poems move toward adolescent recollections, he recognizes himself as “a jigsaw piece from an entirely different puzzle box.” 

Watching an episode of “Jerry Springer” with his father, featuring a gay man from California seeking his father’s acceptance, was a milestone. Carver was amazed by his parent’s reaction:

“You know, if I ever had a kid who felt comfortable telling me something like that, I hope they’d/ Know that it would be okay with me.”

With that remark, time slowed down. “The clock stabbed forward,” the poet says, pausing before he could come up with an apt reply: 

“Well if you ever have a kid like that, I hope they do,” he finally says.

Published by University Press of Kentucky, “Gay Poems for Red States” is more than a collection of poetry. Another esteemed Kentucky writer, Chris Offutt, sees the work like this: 

“Willie Carver is a humane and necessary voice from the hills of Kentucky. He writes with stunning insight, vivid imagery, and enormous courage. This is a powerful book that should be read by everyone.”

HB 509 is still a threat to transparency (OPINION)

Guest Contributor
-
0
HB 509 is still a threat to transparency (OPINION)

Column by Jon Fleischaker and Michael Abate

Repeatedly in recent weeks, Governor Andy Beshear has come out in favor of HB 509, a bill that would dramatically weaken Kentucky’s Open Records laws. The Governor has tried to assure citizens the bill would result in more transparency, not less. The Governor is wrong; this bill will inevitably lead to the public’s business being done in private.

The Governor’s argument that the bill does more good than harm doesn’t hold water. HB 509 may not be as bad as it once was – thanks to public outcry over the havoc the original version of the bill would have wrought – but it still would create a glaring loophole allowing public officials and employees (like the Governor and those who work in his administration) to easily hide their work from the public. 

You don’t need to be a lawyer to see why this bill is so dangerous. HB 509 requires public agencies to create email accounts for all public officials and employees. That’s a good step that closes a relatively small loophole that exists in the law today. Also laudable is the bill’s requirement that officials and employees only use their public email accounts, and not personal emails. 

But HB 509 then does an abrupt about-face that renders these modest improvements hollow gestures. For the first time ever, the law would limit where an agency needs to search for responsive records. An agency that creates these new email accounts only needs to search those accounts, or other publicly owned devices, for responsive electronic records. All other communication channels may be ignored by public agencies responding to records requests. 

Do you know anyone who communicates only by email in 2024? Of course not. Public employees, like all people, use a variety of platforms to do the public’s business—texts, other messaging apps, collaboration tools, private social media messages, and more. Even though all records belong to the public under current law if they are discussing public business – as Attorney General Andy Beshear repeatedly ruled – they will become effectively off limits if the bill is passed and signed into law. What do you think public officials and employees are going to do if they would prefer not to have their decisions second-guessed? You got it; they will simply communicate by means other than their work email. And contrary to what some of HB 509’s proponents have said, nothing in the bill prohibits that. 

What is the Governor’s response to this criticism? At a recent press conference, he began by appealing to his own reputation for transparency. Sorry, Governor – “trust me” does not explain away a loophole so glaring any middle schooler could exploit it. Nor will it prevent the public from justifiably considering you the one who destroyed Kentucky’s long tradition of openness if this bill becomes law.

Next, the Governor points out that someone intent on shielding communications won’t turn over their texts or direct messages anyway. But that’s why we have an Attorney General appeal process and judicial oversight. We don’t repeal our criminal laws because criminals are likely to break them, do we? 

Finally, the Governor accuses the authors of this piece (one of whom helped write the law) of not understanding how the Open Records Act really works. That ad hominem attack is a tell that the Governor knows his position doesn’t [add] up for the public. And it should force us to ask some necessary, though uncomfortable, questions: Why does Governor Beshear disagree with Attorney General Beshear? What text messages are the Governor and his administration trying to hide? Is he selling out Kentucky’s transparency laws to make it easier to seek a national platform? 

The brilliance of Kentucky’s Open Records Act is that it never made the public’s right to access its records dependent on the technology used to create a record or the place where it is stored. Rather, the Act’s drafters made all records available so long as they concern the public’s business. Now is the wrong time to reverse course and use a technology increasingly shunned by future generations to limit the public’s right to access its records. The inevitable outcome of such a law is that the public’s business will be done through “private” channels. The public must speak out against this bill, or it will forever lose the right to supervise its public servants.

Jon Fleischaker and Michael Abate are media law and First Amendment experts who serve as General Counsel to the Kentucky Press Association. They practice at the law firm of Kaplan Johnson Abate & Bird LLP, where they regularly litigate Open Records and First Amendment disputes across the Commonwealth. Fleischaker was among the original authors of the state’s Open Records and Open Meetings Acts. 

WPSD, MSU agree to postpone hearing on sanctions

Jessica Paine
-
0
WPSD, MSU agree to postpone hearing on sanctions

MURRAY – Attorneys for WPSD-TV filed a notice of remand in Calloway Circuit Court this morning, advising that an agreement had been reached with counsel for Murray State University to postpone, indefinitely, the hearing previously scheduled for this afternoon on the station’s motion for more than $415,000 in sanctions in its longstanding dispute with the university over open records requests. 

“Our attorneys and those for Murray State have been discussing an equitable resolution of the matter,” wrote WPSD News Director Perry Boxx in an emailed statement. 

“Pursuant to the Court’s direction in its February 16, 2024 summary judgment order,” today’s filing states, “the parties have been conferring on a resolution of the remaining issues in this case. Additional time is needed to allow the parties to attempt to finalize an agreement on the remaining issues in dispute.”

WPSD filed its motion for over $40,000 in attorneys’ fees and $374,850 in statutory penalties, after Special Judge John Atkins ruled last month that MSU violated the Kentucky Open Records Act by “misus(ing) or misappl(ying)” attorney-client privilege and other exemptions to redact records and by “adopting a near categorical redaction scheme ‘at odds with existing law.’”  

“MSU’s initial categorical redaction and its year-long, stubborn refusal to abandon many of those redactions,” WPSD argued in its motion for fees, “‘reveals a culture of secrecy’ within MSU reflecting a ‘misguided belief that the Open Records Act is merely an ideal—a suggestion to be taken when it is convenient and flagrantly disregarded when it is not.’ 

“Only ‘meaningful’ statutory penalties can pierce that culture of secrecy and put MSU on notice that its willful defiance of the Open Records Act will not be countenanced by Kentucky’s courts.”

In its response to the motion, MSU argued that Atkins’ ruling did not include a finding of willfulness, and therefore, WPSD was not entitled to fees and penalties. In its reply, filed Tuesday, WPSD asserted that the judge granted its motion for summary judgment in full, adopting the station’s arguments in his findings. 

Today, instead of appearing before the judge for oral arguments, the parties announced they are negotiating a resolution.

“When Judge Atkins ruled that Murray State University President Bob Jackson’s administration willfully violated the open records act in a scheme ‘at odds with existing law,’” Boxx’s statement continued, “he expressed the ‘court’s hope that counsel and clients for both sides will use their best efforts to resolve all remaining issues amicably.’ 

“We have been doing that and will continue those discussions. The issues are penalties and our attorneys’ fees. If we are unable to resolve those issues, we look forward to standing before Judge Atkins at a later date.”  

WPSD stands by request for fees and penalties

Jessica Paine
-
0
WPSD stands by request for fees and penalties

MURRAY – In a pleading filed yesterday, WPSD-TV stood by its motion for an award of fees and penalties totaling more than $415,000 filed last month in the civil suit it brought against Murray State University more than a year ago over open records requests, calling such substantial sanctions “necessary” to “send a clear message to MSU that this kind of willful stonewalling is not acceptable from an educational institution in this Commonwealth.” 

The reply was filed two days before counsel for the respective parties will appear before Calloway Circuit Special Judge John Atkins for the hearing on the Paducah television station’s motion, which requests $40,428.45 in attorneys’ fees and $374,850 in statutory penalties.  

“MSU ignored its obligations under the Act from the beginning,” penned MSU’s lead counsel Michael Abate in yesterday’s filing, “going so far as to invoke the First Amendment to hide from journalists records that documented the University’s attempt to silence its own public radio station; failed to faithfully comply with the basic requirements of the Act following the adverse Attorney General Opinion; dragged this case out for months, only giving up additional information as WPSD and its counsel demanded it; and continued to invoke invalid exemptions even as the records in dispute winnowed down to a final few.

“And as if that weren’t enough, after this Court granted WPSD summary judgment and invited this fee motion, MSU officials issued statements portraying itself as the victim and accusing WPSD (and, by implication, this Court) of unfairly suggesting it did something wrong.” 

The statement referenced was signed by MSU Board of Regents Chair Leon Owens and released by the university shortly after the last board meeting on March 1. Quoting the statement, the pleading reads, “The University has taken no actions in willful disregard of the law with respect to WPSD’s requests. As such, WPSD is not entitled to fees and penalties under the Act.” 

“(MSU’s) consistent course of conduct evinces a ‘culture of secrecy’ that continues to this day within MSU – i.e., ‘an obvious and misguided belief that the Open Records Act is merely an ideal – a suggestion to be taken when it is convenient and flagrantly disregarded when it is not,’” the reply states. “… Even being mindful that any award will ultimately be born by the taxpayers, this Court should reaffirm that ‘the nominal punishment of an egregious harm to the public’s right to know would come at an even greater price.’”

Atkins entered a summary judgment in favor of WPSD on Feb. 16, adopting the station’s argument that MSU “misused or misapplied” attorney-client privilege and the personal privacy and preliminary records exemptions allowed under the Kentucky Open Records Act in its application of “a near categorical redaction scheme ‘at odds with existing law.’” 

The judge ordered MSU to produce unredacted versions of the remaining contested records and also granted the station’s request to file a motion for fees and penalties, which it did 10 days later. 

MSU filed its response to the motion two weeks ago and, in it, called the station’s request “gluttonous,” drawing into question both the reasonableness of the fees charged and the way the penalty amount was calculated. 

MSU’s response argued that Atkins would be erroneous to award WPSD any fees or penalties because his summary judgment did not include a finding of willfulness, which is requisite to award statutory penalties, and further that such an award would be unjust because the redactions, although ultimately deemed improper, were made in good faith and it “undertook efforts at every juncture” to comply with WPSD’s requests.  

But WPSD’s reply contends that MSU’s response “begins from a false premise that the willfulness of its violations of the Open Records Act is still up for debate.”

“This Court already granted WPSD’s motion for summary judgment – which included a request for a finding of willfulness – in full,” the reply states. “And it invited WPSD to submit its motion for fees and penalties. All that is left is for this Court to decide how much those should be.” 

Regarding the reasonableness of the fees requested, Abate stated that over the last 10 years, he has “repeatedly” won fee and penalty awards for clients in open records disputes “without a single court ever” reducing his rates or otherwise suggesting his fees were unreasonable. 

Citing nearly 20 years of experience in trial and appellate litigation, “including more than a decade of litigating cases under the Open Records Act for individuals, organizations, and media clients across the Commonwealth,” Abate said MSU’s suggestion that his hourly rate of $425 is unreasonable is without merit.  

The reply also cites one of MSU co-counsel Suzanne Marino’s cases – Kentucky State University Foundation v. Frankfort Newsmedia, LLC – where the Franklin Circuit Court deemed the $300-per-hour rate she requested as reasonable. 

At the time, according to the pleading, Marino had been practicing law “just over two years,” adding WPSD co-counsel Rick Adams’ hourly rate of $290 “easily passes muster under this measuring stick,” given his six years of experience, with his practice largely focused on litigating open records disputes. 

“Finally, the suggestion that WPSD’s bills are littered with irrelevant work is plain false,” yesterday’s filing states. “MSU takes issue with counsel reviewing MSU’s many inadequate productions to determine which of MSU’s redactions were improper. This is not a ‘bizarre cyclical framework.’ 

“Rather, Counsel’s review of MSU’s ever-changing redactions was an integral part of this litigation process, and the repeated back-and-forth proved necessary to slowly whittle away at MSU’s improper redactions. Is MSU seriously suggesting that counsel should not have checked to see whether MSU really did what the law required? This argument should be seen for what it is: more willful behavior from a public agency that refuses to take its open records obligations seriously.”

Out of 135.6 billable hours, MSU’s response specifically called out one time entry on the three-page invoice that was submitted with WPSD’s motion for fees, asserting the entry for two-tenths of an hour for “Research Title IX Due Process Bill and Vote History” was seemingly unrelated to the case. According to yesterday’s filing, that research was, “in fact,” related.

“It pertained to research attempting to establish whether there might be a connection between the University pressuring WKMS (MSU’s NPR-affiliate radio station) to kill stories unflattering to powerful politicians at the same time that many public universities were working to kill (or change) a bill designed to give more rights to students during misconduct investigations,” the reply explains. “Nevertheless, WPSD is willing to voluntarily reduce its original fee request by $58 dollars to remove that entry.”

While WPSD did amend the fee request to down $40,370.45 in the reply, it also requested to submit a supplemental affidavit to capture the time spent by counsel on the matter since filing the original motion for fees on Feb. 26. 

“It is clear that MSU remains defiantly committed to its culture of secrecy and coverup,” yesterday’s filing concludes. “Unfortunately, only a serious monetary sanction will signal to the University and its leadership—including the Board of Regents—that something must change.”

When asked for comment on yesterday’s filing, MSU Executive Director of Marketing and Communications Shawn Touney replied that the university does not comment on pending litigation.

Tomorrow’s hearing on WPSD’s motion for attorneys’ fees and statutory penalties is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the Christian County Justice Center in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Editor’s note: This story was written without input or review from our Board of Directors

CFSB Center to host home, garden and farm show

Sentinel Staff
-
0
CFSB Center to host home, garden and farm show

By Kacie Lawrence | March 19, 2024

MURRAY – Western Kentucky has a reputation for being a great place to be outdoors, and as spring approaches, it’s easy to find our minds wandering to plans for all the things that one can do out of our winter cocoons. For those who have big ideas or are looking for inspiration, the West Kentucky Home, Garden and Farm Show at the CFSB Center this Friday and Saturday might be a good place to start. 

The man behind the show, Daniel Walker of DW Enterprises, wants the public to know that this is an event that promises to have a “little something” for everyone. Exhibitors’ offerings range from roofing to plumbing, from financing to furniture, plants to pest control, renovations to recreation, interior and exterior.

“We will have landscape and lawn care vendors there,” Walker said, “all kinds of equipment dealers from tractors and farming equipment, lawnmowers and yard equipment, all-purpose utility vehicles and golf carts; (and) plenty of different contractors and suppliers of all needs.” 

Walker, a Murray native who has long worked in event management, said the idea for the show came while having coffee with a friend. 

“The idea for the show isn’t technically mine,” Walker admitted, “The show was once an annual event here in Murray and was run by Froggy (103.7) for a number of years in the 2000s. They let the show go around the 2010s and it hasn’t happened since. That is until last year.”

The renewed event is in its second year running. Last year, the show hosted 51 vendors and was attended by over 2,500 people, and this year, the show promises to be even bigger. 

“We have already signed roughly 75 vendors and are still communicating with more daily.” Walker said last week.

In addition to outdoor style vendors, the event will play host to vendors of the home sales variety such as Scentsy, Tupperware, Norwex, and Pampered Chef. There will also be several boutiques, homemade fudge, roasted nuts and more.

Walker also wants the public to know that they don’t have to leave the kids at home. 

“We will have a kids’ area provided by Bluegrass Academy of Dance and an antique tractor show put on by the Purchase Area Antique Tractor Club,” he said.

The event takes place this weekend, March 22-23, at the CFSB Center in Murray from 4-8 p.m. on Friday and from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free. For a full list of exhibitors visit www.wkhgf.com.

University calls request for $415K in sanctions ‘gluttonous’

Jessica Paine
-
0
University calls request for $415K in sanctions ‘gluttonous’

MURRAY – In a pleading filed yesterday in Calloway Circuit Court, Murray State University asked Special Judge John Atkins to reject the request for sanctions made by Paducah television station WPSD-TV after he ruled last month that the university violated the Kentucky Open Records Act (KORA), characterizing the request for over $415,000 in attorneys’ fees and statutory penalties as “gluttonous,” questioning the reasonableness of the fees and disputing how the penalty amount was calculated. 

In the response, MSU’s co-counsel in the case, Suzanne Marino, disputed WPSD’s assertion that Atkins’ ruling included a finding that MSU willfully defied KORA. While MSU’s response does acknowledge “the Court held that MSU ‘misused or misapplied the attorney client privilege, the personal privacy privilege, the preliminary records exemption and (used) a near categorical redaction scheme ‘at odds with existing law’,” it maintains that Atkins made no findings on the issue of willfulness. 

“The Court simply disagreed with the exemptions MSU invoked, in good faith, in its responses to WPSD’s Open Records requests,” the pleading states. “Much more is required under the Act to support an award of costs, fees, and penalties.” 

MSU further claimed there is no evidence of willfulness in the case, noting that it “undertook efforts at every juncture of WPSD’s requests and this resulting dispute to provide WPSD with nonexempt records responsive to its requests.” 

The issue of willfulness is key at this point in the case, which was initially filed last March over open records requests WPSD submitted in the fall of 2022. On Feb. 16, Atkins entered his summary judgment in favor of WPSD; and under KORA, the court may, at its discretion, award a requester attorneys’ fees and court costs in addition to statutory penalties “not to exceed twenty-five dollars ($25) for each day that he (or she) was denied the right to inspect or copy said public record” but only “upon a finding that the records were willfully withheld.”

Citing case law, Marino identified several factors that should be considered when determining whether an agency’s actions were willful – the extent of the agency’s withholding; the egregiousness of the withholding; if the withholding inflicted harm, including the costs of litigation, on the requester; and the extent to which the request serves an important public purpose – and concluded that none of them indicate that an award of penalties and fees would appropriate in the case.  

“The Court should reject any characterization of MSU’s minor-at-issue redactions as ‘egregious’ and, instead, focus on the volume of records that MSU produced,” the response states, noting that, out of more 1,000 pages of records, the contested redactions upon which Atkins’ ruling was based constituted approximately 2% of the total. 

“Further,” the pleading continues, “WPSD has not been harmed by MSU’s redactions; such a suggestion is ludicrous and disingenuous.” 

In the complaint, WPSD produced unredacted versions of two records that reporters obtained “from another source” to illustrate why it questioned the propriety of MSU redactions. Drawing on that admission, MSU’s response concludes that it is not possible for WPSD to be harmed by “MSU’s redactions to emails which WPSD already possessed in an unredacted format.”

In WPSD’s motion for attorneys’ fees and statutory penalties, co-counsel Rick Adams noted that some of the unredacted records MSU produced after Atkins’ ruling revealed redactions of “clearly unexempt, benign material.” In the response, Marino argued that was itself evidence that the station was not harmed.

Regarding the requested $40,428.45 in attorneys’ fees and costs, MSU contested the rates charged by WPSD’s attorneys, lead counsel Michael Abate ($425) and Adams ($290), calling them unreasonable. 

Citing the affidavit Abate submitted with the motion for fees wherein he stated he discounted his hourly rate “because of the nature of the case and the important public issues involved,” MSU’s response states that, “while respective rates of $425 and $290 per hour may represent top market rates in Kentucky’s largest cities, they certainly do not reflect discounted rates in a dispute between a local media publication and a public agency,” noting that KORA allows for an award of “reasonable attorney’s fees, not top market rates.”

Abate and Adams cited four cases in their motion where courts deemed their hourly rates to be reasonable. In total, Abate’s charges, at $3,400, comprised less than 10% of WPSD’s final bill, while Adams, who did not discount his rates, billed $36,293 for his time on the case. 

The Sentinel contacted several attorneys in Murray to inquire about their hourly rates and found that most charge $250-$350 per hour; of the nine who responded, rates ranged from $180 to $350, and the average was $259 per hour. 

The response calls out one $58-charge on the invoice submitted with WPSD’s motion for researching a seemingly unrelated topic. It also criticizes WPSD’s counsel for charging their client to review the records MSU has produced, saying that practice “cyclically increased” WPSD’s attorneys’ fees and that “every effort MSU made to supplement its production obviously resulted in more attorney’s fees to both parties.”  

Going back to February 2023, when the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General (OAG) issued its opinion on the appeal WPSD filed against MSU, time billed for reviewing records accounts for approximately $6,000 of the $40,000-plus invoice. 

With regard to WPSD’s request for statutory penalties in the amount of $374,850, the response questions both the number of records and the timeframe used in calculating the amount. 

According to WPSD’s motion for fees, that amount is based on 105 records being withheld for 357 days – from March 6, 2023, the day the complaint was filed, until the filing of the motion for fees on March 1.

“The 105 records represents the initial production of over-redacted records,” Adams explained in an email after the motion for fees and penalties was filed. “That was when MSU’s ‘willful’ behavior started, they had no basis to redact any of those records and Judge Atkins confirmed that in his summary judgment order. 

“After that initial production, we were able to negotiate with MSU to get them to remove most of the 105 redactions. By the time we filed our Motion for Summary Judgment, 21 records remained in dispute. Those negotiations were done at significant expense to WPSD and should never have occurred because we should have gotten the records at the outset. The removal of the redactions only confirmed that MSU never had any basis to withhold any of that information. The Open Records Act allows us to recover the fees and costs for obtaining all of the initially over-redacted records.”

MSU’s response takes note that the motion for summary judgment identified “about 20 redactions or withholdings with which WPSD took issue” and calls the court to “summarily reject WPSD’s confusing calculation that MSU improperly withheld … 105 records.”

According to the response, the records MSU “produced to the Court for its in camera review, comprised of each of the contested redactions listed in WPSD’s (motion), specifically contain 13 discrete email threads.” To that end, Marino argued that any potential penalty should be limited to 13 records. 

“The Court has not determined – nor has WPSD argued – that each and every single redaction MSU made across its voluminous productions to WPSD was improper,” the response states. “Thus, the Court should reject WPSD’s contention that MSU should be sanctioned for every single record it redacted. … More critically, WPSD appears to count each listed redaction as covering a distinct ‘record’ for purposes of a penalty calculation.”

In addition to decreasing the number of records, MSU asserted that WPSD’s timeframe for the penalty should be reduced as well, taking issue with the penalty period extending beyond Feb. 20, which is the day MSU produced the unredacted records pursuant to Atkins’ order. 

MSU also claimed that the duration of the litigation “was extended due to circumstances beyond MSU’s control,” citing a three-week period in June when “WPSD’s counsel had personal obligations” as an example. An email thread between counsel for the parties, which was filed as an exhibit with the response, shows that Adams took the time off for his wedding and honeymoon. 

“It would be unjust for MSU to face monetary penalties for periods of time during which MSU was prepared to work – and was working – in good faith to resolve this litigation with WPSD,” the response states. “It would defy logic to penalize MSU for a period of nearly one year where, during the entirety of that year, MSU has repeatedly provided WPSD with the records it has requested.

“If the Court ultimately decides to impose penalties in this case, which it should not do, the Court should measure such penalties in a manner that accounts for the realities of this case and takes into consideration MSU’s good faith efforts to comply with WPSD’s requests at every juncture.”

WPSD News Director Perry Boxx told the Sentinel in an email this morning that he thinks it is very important for people to fully understand why WPSD believes substantial penalties are warranted in this case. 

“The people responsible for this abuse of power are employed by the people of the Commonwealth,” Boxx wrote. “The documents they secreted away are the property of the people of the Commonwealth. Let’s all remember that. But someone hired them and is responsible, ultimately, for their actions. In this case, that someone, at least in terms of (MSU President) Bob Jackson, is the Board of Regents. The message to be sent is to them and to every public official contemplating willful violation of the laws of the Commonwealth that there are serious consequences. The Attorney General’s office said Jackson and his people violated the law. Now a veteran Circuit Judge said they not only violated the law they did it willfully. The judge used the word ‘scheme’ in his ruling.” 

Boxx continued, “If this Board of Regents, political appointees all, chooses to continue to ignore the actions of this president and his administration then we are justified in saying each and every member is complicit. Clearly, the Regents seem determined to turn a blind eye. The Chairman of the Board, Leon Owens, issued a statement shortly after the judge’s ruling that not only arrogantly & disrespectfully brushed off Judge Atkins ruling, but directly contradicted the facts and Judge Atkins. Said Owens, ‘The University has taken no actions in willful disregard of the law with respect to WPSD’s request.’ That’s not what the judge said. They don’t seem to be taking Judge Atkins very seriously.”

Atkins will hear arguments on WPSD’s motion for fees at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 28, at the Christian County Justice Center in Hopkinsville.

Editor’s note: This story was written without input or review from our Board of Directors

CCHD begins search for new public health director

Jessica Paine
-
0
CCHD begins search for new public health director

MURRAY – The Calloway County Health Department (CCHD) is looking for a new public health director after Jamie Hughes tendered his resignation to the Calloway County Board of Health last month. After two-and-a-half years serving in the role of director, Hughes stepped down Friday to join the human resources (HR) department at Baptist Health Paducah. 

“A position came up that is going to be a good fit for me and allow me to work in more of my area of expertise in the HR field,” Hughes explained. “People from this community who know me know that I am a person of faith and always will be, and I feel like things are not by accident. You don’t accidentally come upon a job as a (public health) director. Those things don’t just happen; I believe there is a reason behind it. … I feel like where I’m going is where I’m supposed to be next.” 

Calloway County was in the thralls of the Delta wave of the COVID-19 pandemic when Hughes took the reins in September 2021. While he had been the HR manager at the Marshall County Health Department (MCHD) for four years, he had no experience being a public health director. Three months in, the Omicron wave hit, bringing daily case counts nearly three times higher than previous records, but under his leadership, CCHD weathered the storm.  

Since that time, CCHD has grown from a staff of 12 to 15. Hughes revised numerous outdated policies, overhauled the fee schedule for environmental services and bolstered benefits packages for employees, among other things across his tenure. All the while meticulously keeping track of everything, yielding well-organized notes and spreadsheets to pass along to the next director. 

“Jamie has done a superb job since he became our Health Department Director,” Calloway County Judge-Executive Kenny Imes wrote in an email. “He has had good working relationships with both the local (Board of Health) and with the state officials. He has been excellent in getting state mandated rules and regulations, which are at times difficult to follow and understand, running very smoothly. Also, Jamie has been a good steward of taxpayers’ money in efficiently running the department.” 

Interestingly, Hughes’ background is not in public health. The Calloway County native holds a master’s degree in HR. He served as a minister at Poplar Spring Baptist Church until he joined the faculty at Mid-Continent University, teaching human resources (HR). Hughes said he had planned to retire from Mid-Continent, but his plans abruptly changed when the university laid off its entire staff in April 2014 ahead of its closure in June of that year.

He began working in public health in 2017, when he started at MCHD. There is often a steep learning curve for professionals entering the field because practice applications are unique when they are designed to address the health of a population – as opposed to an individual. Addressing public health concerns is also a function of government; therefore, health departments are strictly regulated through federal and state laws.

“When I started in public health, I learned a lot about how things are run through regs (regulations), how policies and procedures are a little different because they’re built on regs, being able to work with employees and understand the retirement system and its three tiers; there’s just a lot of different things that run in public health, and I had the opportunity to spend some time at Marshall, learning those things. 

“I had been a part of our COVID response (team) at Marshall. Basically, at that point in time, if you were in COVID response, you were just in COVID response. Even though my job was more admin side of it, I learned how to swab noses; I drove our RV around when we did testing and vaccines, and all those things. So, when (the CCHD director) position opened, I felt like I’ve been in that, so it’s not like anything that is new to me. So, when I came over here, I brought in some experience, but again, it was kind of new.” 

Hughes gave the credit for his success transitioning into the director role to Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack and his focused efforts to foster collaboration between health departments. 

“He has built a network of directors that help one another, that cross county boundaries across the state,” Hughes said. In that spirit, the new director was assigned a mentor, Hopkins County Health Department Director Denise Beach. “She helped me with things when I had questions. She came up here and met with me.”

“Every health department has its own personality depending on what the community needs, and a lot of times, that brings the directors that are needed for that kind of personality,” he continued, adding that, with that, comes different areas of expertise. “So, being able to access all of that was great. For me, coming in as a director was so much easier because of the network Dr. Stack had set up. I think if you talk to any director, you’d hear the same thing.”

Hughes said that is one thing he will miss about working in public health – coming up with creative solutions to problems impacting the community, whether that is helping residents meet their nutritional needs, monitoring infectious diseases, ensuring that local restaurants are safely storing and preparing the food they serve or addressing problems that surface in the aftermath of natural disasters. 

“One of the best things about working in public health is working with the community in a different way,” Hughes said. “For example, during the flood (that occurred in eastern Kentucky in July 2022), some of the roads they needed to use to get to people, they couldn’t really use. They were using horses to get to some of these places, to go give people shots or vaccines or whatever was needed, so health departments were literally using ATVs and things like that to get to people. 

“There’s something special about that – and I’m not saying hospitals wouldn’t do that – in public health, that’s our job. How do we get to them? And how do we help them? They can’t always come to you – it would be great if they could – but how do we go to them when they need us to? I use the flood as an example, but there are many. Public health does so many things, and it’s continually changing. As people change, culture changes, how (public health) operates will change. I’m excited to see what that is.” 

Although he is moving on, Hughes said he is grateful for being able to serve the residents of Calloway County, specifically. 

“It’s been great to be a part of the community that I was born and raised in, met the love of my life in. I’ve lived in (several places), but if anyone ever asks me where my ‘home’ is, I always say, ‘Murray;’ and it always will be. So, I really do appreciate the opportunity to serve the community as director for the period of time that I did.”

Now, the search is on for a new public health director. In the meantime, Stephanie Hays, who worked for CCHD for 25 years until she retired from her position as finance administrator last year, has returned as interim director. 

“In beginning to think about an interim director, Stephanie Hays was on the very top of each of the board member’s mind,” Imes wrote. “Her years of previous service at our health department has been an extremely valuable asset with a thorough knowledge of all the different duties that are required of the department as well as the human resources and fiscal aspects.”

Hughes expressed similar sentiments, saying that he takes comfort in knowing that the department will be in good hands with Hays at the helm.

“Ultimately, she knows how to get it done and knows how (CCHD) should operate to operate efficiently,” Hughes said. “She has years and years of experience working specifically here (at CCHD); she is a Calloway County native; I know she has the health department’s best interest in mind; and she has the trust of the board. With all of that, I can feel comfortable knowing that there should be no hiccups whatsoever. 

“I think, when the next director comes, that (CCHD) will not be disheveled or in any kind of bad situation but that it will be moving forward. They will just get on a moving train; now, they’re the conductor, but it’s been moving the whole time.” 

Imes added that the board has confidence in Hays and her ability to effectively lead the department. Because of that, there is no sense of urgency to make a “snap decision” or otherwise rush the process, which can be quite lengthy due to bureaucratic “red tape” involved with state government, just to fill the vacancy; the board can take its time in finding the right candidate for the permanent position. 

For more information about the public health director position, including the necessary qualifications, visit CCHD’s Facebook page. Applications are submitted online and will be accepted from now until Friday, March 22, at 4:30 p.m.  

City officials respond to storm siren failure

Jessica Paine
-
0
City officials respond to storm siren failure

MURRAY – As part of Severe Weather Awareness Week, Kentucky held its annual Statewide Tornado Drill on Wednesday at 9:07 a.m. While the majority of the storm sirens in Calloway County did work as expected, two of the three sirens within Murray’s city limits did not sound. 

Calloway County Emergency Management Director Josh Kerr said that both sirens in Hazel and all of the sirens on Murray State University’s campus went off without a hitch, but only one of the three within Murray’s city limits sounded. The siren located on Doran Road did work, but those on Glendale Road and in Riviera Courts stayed silent. 

The storm sirens are sounded whenever the National Weather Service (NWS) issues a tornado warning for Murray and/or Hazel. In accordance with NWS guidelines and the county’s emergency plan, the sirens are tested once each quarter. As noted in a press release about the statewide drill, the tests “allow officials to more accurately determine the proper functioning of each siren, which is difficult to do under actual threat conditions.” 

Unbeknownst to many, while the quarterly tests are coordinated through Calloway County Emergency Management, the county does not actually own or operate any of the storm sirens within its borders. Murray and Hazel own and maintain the sirens within their city limits; similarly, Murray State owns and maintains the sirens located on campus. 

“I will assure you that as soon as we were made aware of this, we started trying to find out who could diagnose the problem,” said Murray Mayor Bob Rogers in an email. “We don’t want to have an emergency and not be able to warn our residents.”

Murray Police Chief Sam Bierds said on Thursday that both sirens are functioning properly now, but he also confirmed that those sirens did not sound during the last quarterly test in December. At the time, a technician assessed the sirens and was able to repair both of them, but it was determined that one on Glendale Road needed to be replaced. 

“They apparently got it working at the time, and now it has failed again,” Bierds said of the Riviera Courts siren. “So, I’m afraid that we’re going to have the (same) issue with the Riviera siren that we’ve got with the Glendale Road siren. 

This siren on Glendale Road, just west of 12th Street, also did not sound during the recent test.

“Those two sirens are relatively old. When I had the company come down and look at our siren on Glendale Road, the issue is the fuse keeps blowing, and that basically cuts power off to the whole system. They’re remote set off by a radio system; so we punch a code into a number pad in our dispatch center, and that sends the radio signal out that then sets the siren off. If that fuse blows, then the whole system goes down; and for whatever reason, we’ve been trying to piecemeal it together for, I guess, quite some time. When the repairman came down, he (said it) needs to be replaced. So, I’m going to have him come out and look at our Riviera sirens to see if we’re in the same spot.” 

Bierds, who celebrates his first anniversary as chief later this month, said that, while he had not thought of storm sirens falling under the purview of the police chief, it makes sense because the signal that sets off the sirens comes from his dispatchers.  

“It’s not a police matter; it’s not a crime matter; but it’s a public safety matter, and we do have the dispatch center,” Bierds said. “When the mayor asked, ‘Do you mind looking into this?’ Absolutely. Because this is where my family lives. This is as much my community as it is anyone else’s, and storm preparedness is important.” 

“You know, I live on that side of town,” he added, “and if for some reason I can’t hear the siren go off… or my mom, who lives on that side of town… it’s just there’s such a personal connection for me and really everybody in the city government who lives and works in this city. We take it very seriously.”

Since being charged with the responsibility of overseeing the storm sirens, he has called a technician to work on them at least twice, not including Wednesday’s failure. 

“The thing is they can be repaired enough to pass the repair test, but the longevity of those repairs is what’s not lasting, which is why we need to replace them,” Bierds explained. “We can repair it, and maybe they can last a few weeks, a few months, but they don’t make it to the next quarterly test. We don’t know when they’re going down unless we’re going out there every day and testing them, and I think the citizens would be a little upset if I set the sirens off every day.” 

Bierds acknowledged that cost is an issue but said that the city has been diligent in looking for cost-effective ways to replace the Glendale siren since it failed in December. 

“I think we’ve found a pretty good option for what we need to do; but if we have to replace two sirens, we’re going to have to replace two sirens,” he said. “The big thing is that as soon as we knew that we had an issue, this is something we’ve been working on.” 

The plan is to completely replace the siren units; that means new radio components, battery back-up and speakers. Bierds said that the unit they are looking at has a range of seven to 10 miles, which will greatly enhance coverage across the city.

Once everything is in place in terms of financing, Bierds said it should take three to six weeks to have the new sirens operational. Rogers has been in communication with Murray Electric System General Manager Tony Thompson about using some of their bucket trucks to assist with the installation of the replacement units. Officials will also need to secure a crane to hoist the new unit on top of the existing poles. 

“If they were more frequent,” Bierds said of the quarterly tests, “we would probably know a bit more, but obviously, you have to do these things on a schedule. And we do the tests, and we’re aware of the issue and actively working to fix it. In a perfect world, we would’ve had everything installed and replaced before this quarterly test, but sometimes when you’re looking at a multi-thousand-dollar project, you’ve got to take a little time to make sure you’ve got all your ducks in a row before you pull the trigger on it. That’s kind of where we’re at right now.” 

Read all of The Sentinel’s coverage of this issue:

City officials respond to storm siren failure (3/8/24)

Storm sirens still not working (5/8/24)

Storm siren update (5/26/24)

Out with the old: City erects new storm siren on Glendale Road (7/22/24)

MSU and WPSD respond to motion for fees and penalties

Jessica Paine
-
0
MSU and WPSD respond to motion for fees and penalties

MURRAY – Murray State University Board of Regents Chairman Leon Owens released a statement after Friday’s quarterly board meeting in response to a motion for attorneys’ fees and statutory penalties WPSD-TV filed Monday in its lawsuit against the university, marking the first time a Murray State official has publicly commented on the case.

The university has largely remained mum regarding the dispute, which centers around two open records requests the Paducah television station submitted to the university in the fall of 2022 after allegations surfaced amidst highly-publicized misconduct proceedings against a former local circuit judge that administrators attempted to interfere with reporting by MSU’s NPR-affiliate radio station WKMS-FM.   

WPSD appealed MSU’s response to its first request to the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General (OAG). The station largely prevailed in the OAG decision, and MSU produced more heavily-redacted records. Shortly thereafter, WPSD filed suit in Calloway Circuit Court against the university to compel the release of records related to “MSU’s attempts to interfere with reporting by WKMS.”

The university declined to comment on the lawsuit when it was filed in March 2023, but it did release a statement related to WKMS.  

“The university has provided consistent financial support to WKMS for many years including during the pandemic,” the statement read, in part. “This financial support, future work and new leadership for WKMS allows us to fully pursue WKMS’ vision which is as follows: ‘WKMS is a beacon for growing regional culture as a part of Murray State University’s public service investment in our communities through thoughtful journalism, conversation, music and arts.’”

On subsequent filings, MSU has declined to comment. Although, after Calloway Circuit Special Judge John Atkins issued his summary judgment in favor of WPSD last month, ruling that MSU willfully violated the Kentucky Open Records Act, the university did release a brief statement that said it respected the court’s decision and reiterated its commitment to student success and academic excellence. 

When asked for comment on WPSD’s motion for sanctions in excess of $415,000, the university returned to declining to comment on pending litigation. 

Friday’s meeting concluded with a closed session to discuss “pending litigation against or on behalf of” the university, which lasted an hour and 20 minutes. Whether the lawsuit against WPSD specifically was discussed is not known, but shortly after the meeting adjourned, MSU released Owens’ statement.

“In the fall of 2022, Murray State University responded to several expansive requests for records from WPSD,” Owens wrote. “The University worked cordially with WPSD and their counsel throughout this process and spent hundreds of hours and significant resources compiling documents. Unfortunately, the University’s good faith efforts, which resulted in the disclosure of more than 1,000 pages to WPSD, were met with a lawsuit. 

“Prior to the Court’s February 16, 2024 ruling, WPSD had already received hundreds of pages of records from the University, many of which were featured in WPSD’s news stories. Despite its good faith belief about the applicability of three very narrow Open Records Act exemptions, which the University applied to a very limited number of records, the University promptly provided WPSD with revised records upon receipt of the Court’s Order.”

Likewise, documents filed Monday indicate MSU produced those records within two business days of the judgment’s entry.  

“The University is eager to respond to WPSD’s motion for fees and costs promptly through proper channels in this litigation,” Owens continued. “The University has taken no actions in willful disregard of the law with respect to WPSD’s requests. As such, WPSD is not entitled to fees and penalties under the Act, let alone fees and penalties in the egregious amount sought. The University has fulfilled numerous requests for open records, in accordance with the Act and without dispute on a near-daily basis, and it takes its responsibility in this area very seriously.”

A search of the OAG open records decisions revealed that, since 1993, five open records appeals have been filed against MSU, which comprises 19% of all appeals filed against public agencies in Murray and Calloway County. The only agency with more appeals during that time period is the Calloway Circuit Clerk with seven appeals, the majority of which occurred between 1997 and 2003. 

Two of those appeals were from individuals seeking records about themselves (10-ORD-089 and 14-ORD-002), and three were from media outlets – the Kentucky New Era, seeking records related to the construction of the Regional Postsecondary Education Center in Hopkinsville (02-ORD-13); the Louisville Courier-Journal, seeking records related to the 1998 death of Michael Minger, a student who died in a fire in Hester Hall (04-ORD-030); and WPSD (23-ORD-024).

“After months of unnecessary, unjustified, protracted litigation, and hundreds of hours spent producing thousands of pages of records at a tremendous cost to the University,” Owens wrote in conclusion, “administrators, faculty and staff look forward to returning all of their energy, efforts and resources to their students, and the amazing teaching and learning that occurs at Murray State University.”

On Tuesday, WPSD News Director Perry Boxx released a statement about the motion for fees and penalties, echoing the assertions Atkins made in his succinct February ruling and drawing particular attention to the judge’s own characterization of MSU’s actions as a “scheme.” 

“Judge Atkins’ order described the actions of the University under the leadership of President Bob Jackson, a former state senator, as a ‘near categorical redaction scheme at ‘odds with existing law,’’” Boxx wrote on Tuesday. “A ‘scheme.’”

“The judge’s order specifically ‘adopts’ the arguments our attorneys made about the behavior of Jackson’s administration,” he continued. “A university is supposed to be a center of learning, a place where truth and knowledge are valued, a beacon of light in darkness.” 

Boxx called MSU’s response to WPSD’s open records requests “the most arrogant, cynical and contemptuous of the people’s right to know” he has ever personally seen from a public agency in his 44 years of managing news operations.

“It was an unprincipled, indefensible, egregious and unconscionable attempt to shield remarkably bad behavior,” he added. 

Boxx pointed out that, as WPSD’s “reporting unfolded,” Western Kentucky University’s Board of Regents adopted an editorial integrity policy for its NPR-affiliate station, WKU Public Radio. 

According to reporting from WKU Public Radio on the August board meeting when regents adopted the policy, WKU President Timothy Caboni “said it is important for the board to publicly validate its support for the editorial independence of public media.”

“As president,” Caboni told WKU after the meeting, “what I want everyone to understand is that it also has complete autonomy to ask any questions it wants to ask, pursue any stories it wants to pursue, without any interference from the institution, its leadership, or its PR program.”

In his statement, Boxx noted that such an act is “something that Jackson and the Board of Regents at Murray (State) have so far been content to ignore.” 

Due to a scheduling conflict, WPSD’s motion for attorneys’ fees and statutory penalties, which was previously scheduled for hearing next week, will now be heard on Thursday, March 28, at 1:30 p.m. at the Christian County Justice Center. 

Editor’s note: This story was written without input or review from our Board of Directors.

WPSD suggests over $415K in sanctions for KORA violations

Jessica Paine
-
0
WPSD suggests over $415K in sanctions for KORA violations

MURRAY – On the heels of a summary judgment ruling in their favor, attorneys for Paducah television station WPSD-TV asked Calloway Circuit Special Judge John Atkins to require Murray State University to pay the station over $415,000 in penalties and fees for willfully violating the Kentucky Open Records Act (KORA) when it responded to open records requests submitted by the station in the fall of 2022.

WPSD’s lead counsel Michael Abate, a First Amendment attorney with Louisville firm Kaplan Johnson Abate & Bird, filed a motion for attorneys’ fees and statutory penalties this afternoon, asking the court for reimbursement of more than $40,000 in attorneys’ fees and court costs and to impose statutory penalties in the amount of $374,850 for withholding 105 records for 357 days.

“Although that is a substantial amount,” Abate wrote of the proposed penalty in today’s filing, “it is far less than the maximum allowed under the Act, which permits up to $25 per day, per record, from the moment MSU willfully denied WPSD’s request. KRS 61.882(5). Here, the maximum award allowed by the Act far exceeds $1 million dollars.”

The dispute between the parties, which has included an appeal to Kentucky Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in addition to the civil lawsuit, centers on two open records requests (ORR) WPSD submitted to MSU in October and November 2022, respectively, and the heavily-redacted documents the university produced in response to those requests. 

WPSD filed suit against MSU in Calloway Circuit Court in March 2023 and, in November, filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to enter a ruling in the case based on pleadings, exhibits and affidavits submitted without going to trial. A hearing on the motion was held Jan. 24.

On Feb. 16, Atkins entered a succinct order that wholly adopted the arguments WPSD made in its motion wherein the station clearly held that MSU’s actions constituted a willful violation of KORA. 

Atkins reviewed both the original and redacted records before ruling that the university “misused or misapplied” attorney-client privilege, personal privacy and preliminary records exemptions to redact the requested records; furthermore, he agreed with WPSD’s assertion that MSU’s application of broad categorical exemptions was “at odds with the law.”

He ordered the university to “comply without unreasonable delay with the only redactions tolerated by this Order being ones that concern purely personal or private information such as phone numbers and other personal descriptors which have nothing to do with this litigation,” which MSU did on Feb. 20, according to documents filed today.

The judge also granted WPSD’s request to file a motion for attorneys’ fees and statutory penalties, signaling his openness to sanctions against the university. 

“MSU’s original sin was the gross over-redaction of these records at the outset of this case,” today’s filing states. “It had a years’ worth of opportunity to voluntarily remedy that error, but instead it forced WPSD to engage in drawn-out, expensive negotiations to obtain public records it should have received in 5 days. MSU’s slow-drip production was certainly done ‘without plausible justification’ and in ‘conscious disregard’ of WPSD’s rights under the Act.”

WPSD’s attorneys submitted invoices for attorneys’ fees and court costs totaling $40,428.45 in addition to $374,850 in penalties. According to the pleading, that amount was determined using the rate of $10 per day for each of the 105 records improperly redacted and/or withheld for 357 days – from March 6, 2023, the day the lawsuit was filed, through today.

The motion cites a landmark open records case brought by the Louisville Courier Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader against the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) wherein the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld a $756,000 sanction imposed by a lower court. Notably, $756,000 was not the maximum penalty that could have been assessed in that case either. Those fines – based on 140 records withheld for 540 days – were also calculated at the rate of $10 per record, per day.

“MSU’s willful defiance of its transparency obligations deserves serious sanction from this Court,” the motion states. “… MSU’s initial categorical redaction and its year-long, stubborn refusal to abandon many of those redactions ‘reveals a culture of secrecy’ within MSU reflecting a ‘misguided belief that the Open Records Act is merely an ideal—a suggestion to be taken when it is convenient and flagrantly disregarded when it is not.’ Only ‘meaningful’ statutory penalties can pierce that culture of secrecy and put MSU on notice that its willful defiance of the Open Records Act will not be countenanced by Kentucky’s courts.”

WPSD’s motion for attorneys’ fees and statutory penalties is scheduled for hearing on Wednesday, March 6, at 9 a.m.  

Neither WPSD-TV News Director Perry Boxx nor MSU Executive Director of Marketing and Communication Shawn Touney immediately responded to requests for comment on this story. 

Editor’s note: This story was written without input or review from our Board of Directors

1...333435...40Page 34 of 40
Verified by MonsterInsights