Opinion ID: 2127245
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Date Restriction on Access to ICVA's Records.

Text: The Court of Appeals decided that the right of access to records under the Public Records Act did not arise until ICVA had been notified by the State Board of Accounts that it was subject to audit on June 23, 1989. For that reason, the court restricted INI's access to ICVA's expense reports to those created after June 23, 1989. In essence, the opinion of the Court of Appeals conditions the finding that an entity is a public agency on whether the entity has been notified by the State Board of Accounts that it was subject to an audit. This notice requirement does not appear in the Public Records Act or statutes relating to the State Board of Accounts. The Public Records Act expressly states that an entity subject to an audit by the SBA meets the definition of public agency. IND. CODE § 5-14-3-2(3) (emphasis added). As enacted by the general assembly, the Public Records Act does not require notice to an entity that it is subject to audit. Similarly, the State Board of Accounts statute prescribing who is subject to audit does not suggest that there is any notice requirement or that entities are not subject to an audit until they are so informed by the State Board of Accounts. Rather, ICVA is subject to audit by operation of law because it meets the statutory definition of public entity, viz., being maintained and supported by public funds. Because it is a public entity, its records are available to public inspection. Having determined that ICVA is a public entity under the Public Records Act because it is subject to audit by the SBA by virtue of the public funds that have maintained and supported it, we now determine whether there is a date restriction applicable to ICVA's records. INI claims that it is entitled to the expense records back to 1978 as originally requested. ICVA, on the other hand, claims that if the records are available at all, they are available only from 1986 forward. ICVA urges us to give the Public Records Act prospective application, and we agree. Absent strong and compelling reasons, prospective application of laws, rules and regulations is the normal construction to be given. Manns v. State Dept. of Hwys. (1989), Ind., 541 N.E.2d 929, 936. The Public Records Act created a right of the public to obtain access to records of a private not-for-profit corporation. Thus, ICVA was transformed into a public agency when the Public Records Act was passed in 1984. Prior to that time, the statute regulating disclosure of public records was found in IND. CODE ANN. § 5-14-1-3 (West 1987), which limited access to records kept by administrative bodies or agencies of the state or a political subdivision. [3] We conclude that ICVA would not have come within this definition and, therefore, its records were not available prior to the passage of the Public Records Act in 1984. Accordingly, we conclude that the public's right, including that of INI, to records of ICVA began June 1, 1984, the effective date of the Public Records Act.