By Stephen George
U of L Foundation must disclose donors’ names, gifts
A Jefferson County judge ruled Thursday that the University of Louisville Foundation must disclose the names of some donors and the amounts of their donations under state public records law.
Circuit Judge Steve Mershon handed down the ruling, which deemed the foundation a public entity and thus subject to the Kentucky Open Records Act.
“Any expectation of privacy or confidentiality is waived when a corporate or private foundation makes a charitable donation to a public agency,” Mershon wrote in his decision. “The public has an interest in how corporate donations may influence the decisions of the University of Louisville, a state institution.”
Thursday’s ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by The Courier-Journal in May 2001, when the foundation refused to turn over names of donors, the amounts of their donations, and other receipts and records of expenditures to the newspaper. The Courier-Journal was investigating funding of the university’s McConnell Center for Political Leadership, named for and established by Kentucky’s controversial Sen. Mitch McConnell, at the time the lawsuit was filed.
Jon Fleischaker, legal counsel for The Courier-Journal, was quoted by the newspaper on Mershon’s decision, saying it was “a very well-thought-out opinion. The very, very real significance is we have an entity that has been spending university money for years and they have not been accountable for it.”
The foundation, which deals with all donations made to U of L and works closely with the administration in allocating funds, plans to file an appeal to the decision. Foundation chairman Malcolm Chancey issued a statement concerning Mershon’s ruling, saying it “has serious implications for the charitable support which colleges, universities and other institutions nationwide genuinely need in order to serve the public. The impact of denying potential donors their right to remain confidential will undermine the very missions the foundation has in its charter.”
At the root of the lawsuit and Mershon’s ruling is the debate over whether or not the foundation can be considered a public entity. Although a 1980 Court of Appeals decision ruled the foundation a private entity not blanketed by the Open Records Act, Mershon considered the very nature of the foundation to be public. His ruling acknowledged that the foundation’s bylaws “expressly state that the mission of the foundation is to ‘conduct and carry on its work, not for profit but, exclusively, for the charitable and educational purposes of the University of Louisville,'” which officially became a public institution in 1970.
U of L spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith expressed the foundation’s apprehensions as it constructs its appeal.
“We will be watching the appeals process closely, as we are concerned about the commitments we have made to our donors and the potential negative effects on private giving from donors who wish to remain anonymous,” she was quoted as saying in The Courier-Journal.
