KRS 65.037: Definitions -- Affidavit in lieu of lost, damaged, or destroyed local

government record -- Good-faith attempt at replacement or re -creation --

Contents of affidavit -- Exception.

(1) As used in this section:

(a) "Government entity" means an en tity enumerated in KRS 12.020 or the

Legislative Research Commission;

(b) "Legislative body" means the city commission, board of commissioners, city

council, or board of alderman of a city; the fiscal court of a county; the board

of a special purpose gover nmental entity, fire district, or volunteer fire

department; or the legislative body of an urban -county government, charter

county government, unified local government, or consolidated local

government;

(c) "Local government" means a city, county, urban -county government, charter

county government, unified local government, consolidated local government,

special purpose governmental entity as defined in KRS 65A.010, or fire

district operating under KRS Chapter 75 or volunteer fire department

operating under KRS Chapter 273 which reports to the Kentucky Fire

Commission under KRS Chapter 95A; and

(d) "Record" means a record, document, data, or information required to be

produced by a local government no matter the format. "Record" shall not

include any record required under:

1. KRS Chapter 422;

2. KRS Chapters 131 to 144, or any record ancillary to tax collection;

3. KRS Chapters 116 to 121A, or any record ancillary to elections of any

kind;

4. KRS Chapter 382, or any record ancillary to conveyances and

encumbrances of property;

5. KRS Chapter 213, or any record ancillary to the collection of vital

statistics or the reporting of deaths and diseases; or

6. KRS Chapters 431 to 441, or any record ancillary to the administration

of persons held in local correctional facilities.

(2) If a record required to be produced by a local government is lost, damaged, or

destroyed, under circumstances other than as set out in KRS 519.060 when a person

tampers with a record with the intent of invoking the provisions of this sect ion, then

the legislative body of the local government, in lieu of presenting the record itself,

may provide an affidavit that shall be sufficient to serve as being in compliance

with any statute or administrative regulation promulgated under KRS Chapter 1 3A

that requires the local government to transmit a record to a government entity. Any

affidavit presented to a government entity that is in substantial compliance with this

section shall be sufficient to consider the local government as effectively having

transmitted that record, and a penalty for noncompliance shall not be assessed. The

affidavit shall only serve to satisfy any requirement based solely on the fact of the

transmission or receipt of the record.

(3) A local government shall make a good -faith attempt at replacing or re -creating the

record that has been lost, damaged, or destroyed. A good-faith effort shall include at

least bona fide attempts at:

(a) Contacting the individual or entity in charge of producing or storing the record

for replacement;

(b) Reproducing the data that constituted the record and re -creating the record;

and

(c) Contacting an individual or entity that possesses a copy or an additional

original of the record to acquire a copy for replacement.

(4) If a bona fide attempt or attempts at replacing or re-creating the record in its entirety

is unsuccessful, then the legislative body of the local government may proceed with

filing the affidavit with the government entity, which shall contain:

(a) The statutory citation requiring transmission of the record which has been lost,

damaged, or destroyed and a description of the general contents of what was

required to be recorded;

(b) A description of the circumstances surrounding the loss, damage, or

destruction of the record;

(c) A detailed description of the specific efforts toward reconstructing the record

as set out in subsection (3) of this section; and

(d) A citation of any data or information that the city has been able to replace or

reconstruct from the original record, and the data or information itself shall be

included as an attachment to the affidavit.

(5) The affidavit shall be in the form of a resolution passed by the legislative body of

the local government.

(6) Nothing in this sectio n shall prevent a government entity from requiring that the

local government reproduce the information contained in the record if the

government entity determines that information is necessary for governmental

operations. A government entity shall not require the local government to reproduce

the information contained in the record if that information is received only for

archival purposes or used for incidental data collection.