City of Wichita and the Kansas Open Records Act

3 Comments

• CRAIG - November 4, 2009

  I was at the meeting and am still not sure whether Council members chose to ignore the fact that the City’s legal Council
  sidestepped the core issue of your complaint, or whether they didn’t understand the fact he avoided the issue. One things for sure it’s going to take a law suit to get any more info. I’ll bet.

• Pat - November 4, 2009

  Geez. Bob got what he wanted from the WDDC. Can’t you guys give it a rest? The simple way to solve this question is hire an attorney and get an AG’s opinion. But no, you would rather make a political issue out of this.

• Anonymous - November 10, 2009

  This is much ado about nothing. Bob, you got the records, bottom line. Your argument is that they should have come to the City, but, while you were reading the open records act to the council, you failed to put these items into context:

  45-215(e) reads: “‘Official custodian’ means any officer or employee of a public agency who is responsible for the maintenance of public records, regardless of whether such records are in the officer’s or employee’s actual personal custody and control. ”

  45-220(a) reads: “Each public agency shall adopt procedures to be followed in requesting access to and obtaining copies of public records, which procedures shall provide full access to public records, protect public records from damage and disorganization, prevent excessive disruption of the agency’s essential functions, provide assistance and information upon request and insure efficient and timely action in response to applications for inspection of public records.”

  And 45-220(e) reads: “Each official custodian of public records shall designate such persons as necessary to carry out the duties of custodian under this act and shall ensure that a custodian is available during regular business hours of the public agency to carry out such duties.”

  Here’s the end game, Bob: the WDDC was the “official custodian” of the records. Sure, the City of Wichita could have gone out of it’s way to get those records from the WDDC, but how would have have comported with “protecting the records from…disorganization” and “preventing excessive disruption of the agency’s essential functions?” The term “liberally construed,” as a statutory canon, does not mean you read out, or blue pencil, express sections written within a statute or add in sections or obligations by inference.

  This pettiness is just another example of your opposition to seeing Wichita grow and prosper.

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