ARTICLE 2.-RECORDS OPEN TO PUBLIC.

45-215. Title of act. KSA 45-215 through 45-223 shall be known and may be cited as the open records act.

45-216. Public policy that records be open.
(a) It is declared to be the public policy of this state that public records shall be open for inspection by any person unless otherwise provided by this act, and this act shall be liberally construed and applied to promote such policy.
(b) Nothing in this act shall be construed to require the retention of a public record nor to authorize the discard of a public record.

45-217. Definitions.{Business day, Criminal investigation records, custodian, official custodian, public agency, public record, undercover agent}

45-218. Inspection of records; request; response; refusal, when; fees.

45-219. Abstracts or copies of records; fees.

45-220. Procedures for obtaining access to or copies of records; request; office hours; provision of information on procedures.

45-221. Certain records not required to be open; separation of open and closed information required; statistics and records over 70 years old.

(a) Except to the extent disclosure is otherwise required by law, a public agency shall not be required to disclose:

(1) Records the disclosure of which is specifically prohibited or restricted by federal law, state statute or rule of the Kansas supreme court or the disclosure of which is prohibited or restricted pursuant to specific authorization of federal law, state statute or rule of the Kansas supreme court to restrict or prohibit disclosure.

(2) Records which are privileged under the rules of evidence, unless the holder of the privilege consents to the disclosure.

(3) Medical, psychiatric, psychological or alcoholism or drug dependency treatment records which pertain to identifiable patients.

(4) Personnel records, performance ratings or individually identifiable records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment, except that this exemption shall not apply to the names, positions, salaries and lengths of service of officers and employees of public agencies once they are employed as such.

(5) Information which would reveal the identity of any undercover agent or any informant reporting a specific violation of law.

(6) Letters of reference or recommendation pertaining to the character or qualification of an identifiable individual.

(7) Library, archive and museum materials contributed by private persons, to the extent of any limitations imposed as conditions of the contribution.

(8) Information which would reveal the identity of an individual who lawfully makes a donation to a public agency, if anonymity of the donor is a condition of the donation.

(9) Testing and examination materials, before the test or examination is given or if it is to be given again, or records of individual test or examination scores, other than records which show only passage or failure and not specific scores.

(10) Criminal investigation records, except that the district court, in an action brought pursuant to KSA 45-222, and amendments thereto, may order disclosure of such records, subject to such conditions as the court may impose, if the court finds that disclosure:

(A) Is in the public interest;
(B) would not interfere with any prospective law enforcement action;
(C) would not reveal the identity of any confidential source or undercover agent;
(D) would not reveal confidential investigative techniques or procedures not known to the general public; and
(E) would not endanger the life or physical safety of any person.

(11) Records of agencies involved in administrative adjudication or civil litigation, compiled in the process of detecting or investigating violations of civil law or administrative rules and regulations, if disclosure would interfere with a prospective administrative adjudication or civil litigation or reveal the identity of a confidential source or undercover agent.

(12) Records of emergency or security information or procedures of a public agency, or plans, drawings, specifications or related information for any building or facility which is used for purposes requiring security measures in or around the building or facility or which is used for the generation or transmission of power, water, fuels or communications, if disclosure would jeopardize security of the public agency, building or facility.

(13) The contents of appraisals or engineering or feasibility estimates or evaluations made by or for a public agency relative to the acquisition of property, prior to the award of formal contracts therefor.

(14) Correspondence between a public agency and a private individual, other than correspondence which is intended to give notice or an action, policy or determination relating to any regulatory, supervisory or enforcement responsibility of the public agency or which is widely distributed to the public by a public agency and is not specifically in response to communications from such a private individual.

(15) Records pertaining to employer-employee negotiations, if disclosure would reveal information discussed in a lawful executive session under KSA 75-4319 and amendments thereto.

(16) Software programs for electronic data processing and documentation thereof, but each public agency shall maintain a register, open to the public, that describes:

(A) The information which the agency maintains on computer facilities; and

(B) the form in which the information can be made available using existing computer programs.

(17) Applications, financial statements and other information submitted in connection with applications for student financial assistance where financial need is a consideration for the award.

(18) Plans, designs, drawings or specifications which are prepared by a person other than an employee of a public agency or records which are the property of a private person.

(19) Well samples, logs or surveys which the state corporation commission requires to be filed by persons who have drilled or caused to be drilled, or are drilling or causing to be drilled, holes for the purpose of discovery or production of oil or gas, to the extent that disclosure is limited by rules and regulations of the state corporation commission.

(20) Notes, preliminary drafts, research data in the process of analysis, unfunded grant proposals, memoranda, recommendations or other records in which opinions are expressed or policies or actions are proposed, except that this exemption shall not apply when such records are publicly cited or identified in an open meeting or in an agenda of an open meeting.

(21) Records of a public agency having legislative powers, which records pertain to proposed legislation or amendments to proposed legislation, except that this exemption shall not apply when such records are:

(A) Publicly cited or identified in an open meeting or in an agenda of an open meeting; or
(B) distributed to a majority of a quorum of any body which has authority to take action or make recommendations to the public agency with regard to the matters to which such records pertain.

(22) Records of a public agency having legislative powers, which records pertain to research prepared for one or more members of such agency, except that this exemption shall not apply when such records are:

(A) Publicly cited or identified in an open meeting or in an agenda of an open meeting; or
(B) distributed to a majority of a quorum of any body which has authority to take action or make recommendations to the public agency with regard to the matters to which such records pertain.

(23) Library patron and circulation records which pertain to identifiable individuals.

(24) Records which are compiled for census or research purposes and which pertain to identifiable individuals.

(25) Records which represent and constitute the work product of an attorney.

(26) Records of a utility or other public service pertaining to individually identifiable residential customers of the utility or service, except that information concerning billings for specific individual customers named by the requester shall be subject to disclosure as provided by this act.

(27) Specifications for competitive bidding, until the specifications are officially approved by the public agency.

(28) Sealed bids and related documents until a bid is accepted or all bids rejected.

(29) Correctional records pertaining to an identifiable inmate, except that:
(A) The name, sentence data, parole eligibility date, disciplinary record, custody level and location of an inmate shall be subject to disclosure to any person other than another inmate; and
(B) the ombudsman of corrections, the corrections ombudsman board, the attorney general, law enforcement agencies, counsel for the inmate to who the record pertains and any county or district attorney shall have access to correctional records to the extent otherwise permitted by law.

(30) Public records containing information of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

(31) Public records, pertaining to prospective location of a business or industry where no previous public disclosure has been made of the business' or industry's interest in locating in, relocating within or expanding within the state. This exception shall not include those records pertaining to application of agencies for permits or licenses necessary to do business or to expand business operations within this state, except as otherwise provided by law.

(32) The bidder's list of contractors who have requested bid proposals for construction projects from any public agency, until a bid is accepted or all bids rejected.

(33) Engineering and architectural estimates made by or for any public agency relative to public improvements.

(34) Financial information submitted by contractors in qualification statements to any public agency.

(35) Records involved in the obtaining and processing of intellectual property rights that are expected to be, wholly or partially vested in or owned by a state educational institution, as defined in KSA 76-711 and amendments thereto, or an assignee of the institution organized and existing for the benefit of the institution.

(b) Except to the extent disclosure is otherwise required by law or as appropriate during the course of an administrative proceeding or on appeal from agency action, a public agency or officer shall not disclose financial information of a taxpayer which may be required or requested by a county appraiser to assist in the determination of the value of the taxpayer's property for ad valorem taxation purposes; or any financial information of a personal nature required or requested by a public agency or officer, including a name, job description or title revealing the salary or other compensation of officers, employees or applicants for employment with a firm, corporation or agency, except a public agency. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to prohibit the publication of statistics, so classified as to prevent identification of particular reports or returns and the items thereof.

(c) As used in this section, the term "cited or identified" shall not include a request to an employee of a public agency that a document be prepared.

(d) If a public record contains material which is not subject to disclosure pursuant to this act, the public agency shall separate or delete such material and make available to the requester that material in the public record which is subject to disclosure pursuant to this act. If a public record is not subject to disclosure because it pertains to an identifiable individual, the public agency shall delete the identifying portions of the record and make available to the requester any remaining portions which are subject to disclosure pursuant to this act, unless the request is for a record pertaining to a specific individual or to such a limited group of individuals that the individuals' identities are reasonably ascertainable, the public agency shall not be required to disclose those portions of the record which pertain to such individual or individuals.

(e) The provisions of this section shall not be construed to exempt from public disclosure statistical information not descriptive of any identifiable person.

(f) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a), any public record which has been in existence more than 70 years shall be open for inspection by any person unless disclosure of the record is specifically prohibited or restricted by federal law, state statute or rule of the Kansas supreme court or by a policy adopted pursuant to KSA 72-6214 and amendments thereto.

45-222. Civil remedies to enforce act.

45-223. No liability for damages for violation of act.

45-224. Continuation of fees and procedures adopted under prior act.

45-225. Severability of provisions.