When Is A Statutory Amendment A "Clarification" Versus A "Substantive" Change?

In Pike County Fiscal Court v. Utility Management Group, LLC,¹ the Kentucky Court of Appeals considered whether a change to Kentucky's Open Records Act ("ORA") was merely a clarification—and thus would apply retroactively—or a substantive change to the law. At issue in this case was whether Utility Management Group, LLC ("UMG") qualified as a public agency subject to the disclosure requirements of the ORA. Notably, UMG provided water, sewer, garbage, and other services to the City of Pikeville and a Pike County Water District through publicly bid contracts. Pike County sent an open records request to UMG seeking copies of UMG's "checks and expenses."

At the time of the request, KRS 61.970(1)(h) treated as public agencies subject to the ORA - "any body which derives at least twenty-five percent (25%) of its funds ... from state or local authority funds." UMG denied the request, claiming UMG constituted a "wholly private entity" not subject to the ORA. Pike County