AG: U of L Foundation wrongly withheld records

The University of Louisville Foundation wrongly refused to provide records about conflicts of interests of board members and staff salaries, the Kentucky attorney general’s office has found.

The office ruled in two opinions that the foundation improperly denied records sought by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting under the Kentucky Open Records Act.

The foundation is the university’s fundraising arm, operates several business and supplements compensation of professors and officers. From 2012-14, it supplemented former university president James Ramsey’s pay by about $8 million. Ramsey resigned as university president last month but remains president of the foundation.

Some critics on the U of L board of trustees have accused the foundation of operating with excessive secrecy.

According to an opinion issued Aug. 5 by Assistant Attorney General Amye Bensenhaver, when KyCIR asked copies of all conflict of interest forms submitted by board members and staffers, the foundation responded that the request was “unreasonably burdensome” because the records, which spanned 46 years were spread out over a number of offices, warehouses and storage facilities.

But she said although KyCir agreed to limit the search to four years, the foundation never responded to the request and failed to prove the amended request was overly burdensome.

In a separate opinion, Bensenhaver said the foundation also refused to supply salary records for one year for its employees on the grounds that the request was overly broad and "blanket in nature" in nature but never presented any evidence supporting that claim.

Attorneys general opinions carry the force of law in open records cases. The foundation can appeal to circuit court.

The board's chairman, Dr. Bob Hughes, said in an email that he was unaware of the requests and "not aware of any intentional  attempts to thwart requests for records." He said the board has been swamped by overwhelming number of requests.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com