Wyandotte County has refused a request from KMBC Channel 9 for email communications exchanged with the Chiefs regarding the team’s recent decision to move its operations to Kansas, citing a state law that allows the communications to remain confidential until July, 2029.
The TV station filed a Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) request for emails dating back to January 1, 2023:
This request includes emails received by any Wyandotte County or Unified Government elected official, administrator, or employee, regardless of department, that originated from the @chiefs.nfl.com domain.
*Please also include in this request any emails sent to a domain with a @chiefs.nfl.com email address from any Wyandotte County or Unified Government elected official, administrator, or employee, regardless of department.
The station instead received this reply:
Pursuant to K.S.A. 12-17,181(c), the UG declines to provide any associated documentation since it is confidential until at least July 1, 2029. Any emails pertaining to a potential stadium is considered “associated documentation” at this time.
Your request has been closed.
The 2024 statute cited by WYCO authorizing it to refuse the KORA reads, in part:
A proposed agreement and any associated documentation or testimony shall be confidential and shall not be subject to the open records act. After execution of an agreement, the executed agreement and all written documentation provided to the council required by subsection (d) with respect to the proposed agreement that has been approved and executed shall be a public record. The provisions of this paragraph providing for confidentiality of records shall expire on July 1, 2029, unless the legislature acts to reenact such provisions pursuant to K.S.A. 45-229, and amendments thereto, prior to July 1, 2029.
The statute reads, in part:
A proposed agreement and any associated documentation or testimony shall be confidential and shall not be subject to the open records act. After execution of an agreement, the executed agreement and all written documentation provided to the council required by subsection (d) with respect to the proposed agreement that has been approved and executed shall be a public record. The provisions of this paragraph providing for confidentiality of records shall expire on July 1, 2029, unless the legislature acts to reenact such provisions pursuant to K.S.A. 45-229, and amendments thereto, prior to July 1, 2029.
Channel 9 investigative reporter Matt Flener told KCMO’s Pete Mundo he wasn’t expecting that response from the county to an open records request:
“That allow us to see what our government is doing, to see what taxpayers pay for, to be able to understand the inner workings of deals that go on, of different items that our legislators and our city council people vote for. So we made an open records request to this, to Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas on whether or not any of their officials, any of their elected leaders had been speaking back and forth over the past couple of years with members of the Kansas City Chiefs. We requested emails from Kansas City Chiefs’ email addresses and we got back a denial that said there’s going to be three more years, potentially three more years until we might be able to understand more about this deal.
“So, they denied our request for emails and they cited a 2024 state law that allowed any quote associated documentation to be kept secret until 2029. And that was Wyandotte County’s denial for those emails back and forth. So, we were quite surprised to see that it may take three more years to understand what conversations have happened back and forth, at least over email between leaders from Wyandotte County and the Kansas City Chiefs.”
Flener told Mundo the station was considering its next course of action to obtain the material.
