(A) The following public records are excluded from the application of this chapter and these rules and regulations and shall be subject to inspection only upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction, except as provided in KRS 61.878(1) that no court shall authorize the inspection by any party of any materials pertaining to civil litigation beyond that which is provided by the Rules of Civil Procedure governing pretrial discovery:
(1) Public records containing information of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;
(2) Records confidentially disclosed to an agency and compiled and maintained for scientific research. This exemption shall not, however, apply to records the disclosure or publication of which is directed by other statute;
(3) (a) Records confidentially disclosed to the agency, or required by an agency to be disclosed to it, generally recognized as confidential or proprietary, which if openly disclosed would permit an unfair commercial advantage to competitors of the entity that disclosed the records.
(b) Records confidentially disclosed to an agency or required by an agency to be disclosed to it, generally recognized as confidential or proprietary, which are compiled and maintained:
1. In conjunction with an application for or the administration of a loan or a grant;
2. In conjunction with an application for or the administration of assessments, incentives, inducements and tax credits as described in KRS Chapter 154;
3. In conjunction with the regulation of commercial enterprise, including mineral exploration records, unpatented, secret commercially valuable plans, appliances, formulae or processes, which are used for the making, preparing, compounding, treating or processing of articles or materials which are trade commodities obtained from a person; or
4. For the grant or review of a license to do business.
(c) The exemptions provided for in divisions (A)(3)(a) and (A)(3)(b) above, shall not apply to records the disclosure or publication of which is directed by statute.
(4) Public records pertaining to a 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 commonwealth. This exemption shall not include those records pertaining to applications to agencies for permits or licenses necessary to do business or to expand business operations within the state, except as provided in division (A)(2) above;
(5) Public records which are developed by an agency in conjunction with the regulation or supervision of financial institutions, including but not limited to, banks, savings and loan associations and credit unions, which disclose the agency’s internal examining or audit criteria and related analytical methods;
(6) The contents of real estate appraisals or engineering or feasibility estimates and evaluations made by or for a public agency relative to the acquisition of property, until such time as all of the property has been acquired. The law of eminent domain shall not be affected by this provision;
(7) Test questions, scoring keys and other examination data used to administer a licensing examination, examination for employment or academic examination before the exam is given or if it is to be given again;
(8) Records of law enforcement agencies or agencies involved in administrative adjudication that were compiled in the process of detecting and investigating statutory or regulatory violations, if the disclosure of the information would harm the agency by revealing the identity of informants not otherwise known or by premature release of information to be used in a prospective law enforcement action or administrative adjudication. Unless exempted by other provisions of this chapter, public records exempted under this provision shall be open after enforcement action is completed or a decision is made to take no action. The exemptions provided by this division (A)(8) shall not be used by the custodian of the records to delay or impede the exercise of rights granted by this subchapter;
(9) Preliminary drafts, notes or correspondence with private individuals, other than correspondence which is intended to give notice of final action of a public agency;
(10) Preliminary recommendations and preliminary memoranda in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended;
(11) All public records or information the disclosure of which is prohibited by federal law or regulation; and
(12) Public records or information the disclosure of which is prohibited or restricted or otherwise made confidential by enactment of the General Assembly.
(B) No exemption under this section shall be construed to prohibit disclosure of statistical information not descriptive of any readily identifiable person. In addition, if any public record contains material which is not excepted under this section, the city shall separate the excepted and make the non-excepted material available for examination, subject to the possible applicability of § 34.18 of this code.
(C) The provisions of this section shall in no way prohibit or limit the exchange of public records or the sharing of information between public agencies when the exchange is serving a legitimate governmental need or is necessary in the performance of a legitimate government function.
(D) No exemption under this section shall be construed to deny, abridge or impede the right of a municipal employee, an applicant for employment or an eligible on a register to inspect and copy any record, including preliminary and other supporting documentation, that relates to him or her. The records shall include, but not be limited to work plans, job performance, demotions, evaluations, promotions, compensation, classification, reallocation, transfers, layoffs, disciplinary actions, examination scores and preliminary and other supporting documentation. A city employee, applicant or eligible shall not have the right to inspect or copy any examination or any documents relating to ongoing criminal or administrative investigations by any agency.
(KRS 61.878) (Prior Code, § 34.16)