A KC3 member spotted an illegal sign at a Mt. Sterling/Mongomery Co. park. The sign had a list of eight "park rules". The eighth rule on the sign was "No Firearms". The KC3 member complained to park officials about the sign and now it looks like the sign in the picture below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/abktk56l8676uvo/1618593118392001%20%282%29.jpg?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR3hpn-oBZdajg3OibGpZ1xIPdQXRh27CzMqz642uQz2nl9hv8gtTEKmTEw
We don't have to put up with this crap. If you find an illegal sign speak up and make them change it. If you don't know who to contact or what to say, send it to us, here on this forum and we'll look into it.

After this, I submitted Open Records Requests to the Clerks of the City of Mt. Sterling and Montgomery County. Montgomery County has sent me nothing and I have sent an appeal to the Attorney General's office. They will make Montgomery County Clerk comply with the law and send me the records that I requested. The Mt. Sterling City Clerk sent me four files. The first is a city ordinance prohibiting the discharge of a firearm in the city. You can see it here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/boac32e7q1pdw9b/doc01650720210416152530.pdf?dl=0
That ordinance is completely legal.

The second file was the city's "No Concealed Weapons in CIty Buildings" ordinance. You can see it here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dsyvoi5w36g9xxr/doc01650520210416151719%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0
That ordinance is deficient. Ordinances like this are authorized by KRS 237.115 and that state law says that the ordinance must contain several items. Here is what it says:
"The statute or ordinance shall exempt any building used for
public housing by private persons, highway rest areas, firing ranges, and private dwellings owned, leased, or
controlled by that unit of government from any restriction on the carrying or
possession of deadly weapons. The statute, administrative regulation, or ordinance
shall not specify any criminal penalty for its violation but may specify that persons
violating the statute or ordinance may be denied entrance to the building, ordered to
leave the building, and if employees of the unit of government, be subject to
employee disciplinary measures for violation of the provisions of the statute or
ordinance. The provisions of this section shall not be deemed to be a violation of
KRS 65.870 if the requirements of this section are followed."
This ordinance contains none of that and since KRS 237.115 wasn't followed it is therefore a violation of KRS 65.870 and "null, void and unenforceable.

The third file is a copy of a policy from the City's "Personnel Handbook". It says that a city employee may not be in possession of a firearm on city property, even in their own personal vehicle. Here is that file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/22ljfsh7qmqfwai/doc01655320210419113947.pdf?dl=0
This is illegal. It violates KRS 65.870 and the "concealed carry law" KRS 237.110. KRS 237.110 has a very interesting sentence buried deep in Paragraph (17). It says:
"A private but not a public employer may prohibit
employees or other persons holding a concealed deadly weapons
license from carrying concealed deadly weapons, or ammunition, or both in vehicles
owned by the employer, but may not prohibit employees or other persons holding a
concealed deadly weapons license from carrying concealed deadly weapons, or
ammunition, or both in vehicles owned by the employee,.....
Originally this would have only applied to people with a CCDW but now that we have Constitutional Carry it applies to everybody that can legally own a gun.
This policy is a violation of KRS 65.870.

The fourth policy is a real shocker. Did you know it was illegal to carry a loaded gun at "October Court Days" in Mt. Sterling? I must have done it 50 times! Here is the city ordinance:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q9v8mdsoc6ch7us/doc01650620210416151931.pdf?dl=0
This is, of course illegal. It is a violation of KRS 65.870.

I have sent all of this to the Mayor of Mt. Sterling and he responded by saying that he had sent it to the City Attorney for review. I'll keep you up with all of this as things progress.

If the county sheriff can be of any assistance let me know.  I'm friends with a former deputy.  It is my understanding the sheriff is very pro-gun.  Generally though city officials like to think of themselves above the law and that they don't have to answer to anyone else in the county.  Give them hell.

Thanks SWIRE. That may come in handy as this progresses. You have known me long enough to
know that we won't give anybody a break on this kind of thing.  At this point I don't know that the County has any violations other than failing to honor our Open Records Request. We'll follow-up as it develops.

Speaking as someone who lives extremely close to there, they (clerks office) are going to try to stone wall you as much as they can, hoping that you will go away because of a lack of response from them. You should have seen the circus that erupted when the last Sherriff had flack thrown at them for trying to "enforce" city BS.
Seriously though, the clerks office suffers from "G.O.B." syndrome rather severely.

I am not sure which "clerk" you are referring to, City or county. In fact, the Mt. Sterling city clerk sent me the information that I posted. Her response was timely, exactly the information that I asked for and pleasantly worded. It could not have been handled any better. I have already filed an appeal with the Attorney General's office over the non-responsiveness of the County Clerk. They are well beyond the 5-day time limit for their response. If he wants to "stone wall" anybody, I'll let it be the AG. The Ky. AG's office has a very effective office to handle Open Records Appeals. I have used them to help me get files that public officials didn't want to give me on several occasions. It's like magic, once they get a letter from the AG's office public records are sent out in just a few hours.

Due to the pandemic... isn't it now 10 business days for a response to an Open Records request? I seem to recall this from our interactions with an unhappy former employee this past winter.

Yes, it is. We waited until that was long since passed. We have never complained if a ORR goes a few days past the limit. It's when it starts to look like the request is being ignored completely that we file an appeal. The Mt. Sterling City Clerk responded in three days.

Yeah, sorry about that. I keep forgetting that there is an actual City clerks office. I am always dealing with the morons at the County office.

This dispute continues. The mayor of Mt. Sterling has committed to following the law but he says they can't do anything until the City Council meets next month and he has not gotten a plan of how best to bring the city into compliance with state law from the city attorney. I don't think it is up to us to write their city ordinances for them. They will have to find their own way through this but I don't want to have to do this twice and I would like to see their plan before its too late to change anything. Montgomery County Clerk has not responded to two Open Records Requests and I have already had to involve the Attorney General's office to get him to send me county records. I just mailed a second appeal to the AG over a request for records that has now gone unanswered for over 15 days. I don't know that they are in violation of any gun laws because I have not been able to get a look at their ordinances and policies. This is just a pissing match where the County Clerk has decided he doesn't want anybody telling him that he has to give me access to "his" records. Eventually, he'll have to do it and I have no idea what I'll find. Meanwhile, he's making me work for everything and wait for everything.

This afternoon, I had a telephone conversation with Mt. Sterling Mayor Al Botts. Tuesday night they will hold their monthly City Council meeting and they will have the 1st reading of an ordinance to repeal their "No Concealed Weapons" ordinance. He also said that they are revising several things that are related to Court Days and they will do all of them at once and their firearms ordinance will be in compliance with the law before that event, which is the only time it is ever enforced. They are also revising their Personnel Handbook and the firearms issue will be addressed in that new revision. Everything will be in compliance with the law by Court Days.

I still have not been able to get any records from the Mongomery County Clerk. I won an appeal with the Attorney General's Office for his refusal to comply with my original request and I have filed a second complaint for a second request. This continues to be a battle. He refuses to accept an Open Records Request except by USPS. The statute says fax is acceptable and that is what I did. He continues to demand it his way. He won't get it. The worst of it is that I don't even have any suspicion that they have any violations. This was 100% a fishing expedition and he has turned it into a dog fight.

That is ridiculous that he won't respond to an open records request.  I have sent all of mine through email and never had anyone complain or fail to respond.  I never sent on to Montgomery County though.  I almost want to send him one now just to see what happens.

Go ahead send him one. I'd like to see him get 100 that he would have to respond to. I have had a few requests by email that were rejected, but they are required to respond and tell you why they won't accept it. This guy just ignored it and that is the reason the AG's office determined that he had "subverted" the Open Records Act. Most people won't even bother to write a letter to the AG's office for an appeal. A lot of state prisoners send them in because they have plenty of time on their hands. The current law was written before email was a common practice and it says that the request "shall" be hand-delivered, sent by US mail or faxed. He says he will only accept them by US mail, but most people would prefer to use email, it's just easier for everybody. I sent the second by fax on purpose because I refuse to let him get away with his demands. I don't even have a fax machine and had to go to the UPS Store to send it. I am obeying the law, he isn't. He'll get slapped down again by the AG. All ORR appeal decisions are available for public viewing on the AG's website here: https://ag.ky.gov/Priorities/Government-Transparency/orom/Pages/2021-OROM.aspx
I am the fourth or fifth one down the list. You look back and you'll see 5 or 6 other times that I've made that list. Usually for different reasons. Crazy assed Clerk from Monroe County didn't even know what an Open Records Request was. She told me, "I'm not going back there and look through all that stuff!". Later she was calling me and asking advice on what she was supposed to do. I helped the poor lost soul out and told her what was required and she called me back and said, "I can't find nothing". I told her just send this to me, "No such records exist" and you'll be done with me and the AG's office will be happy with you.

The law was changed this year and email will become an acceptable method of submitting requests but that new law, like most of the others passed in the 2021 session, won't take effect until June 29. If I have to, I'll wait until the 29th and send another email. It will be legal then. I know that will really chap his ass. I am in no hurry and I will not let him have his way when the law says he can't.

I talked to my LEO friend in Montgomery County.  He was surprised that the County Clerk hasn't responded.  He said overall the guy is a really good guy but that he is  also fairly new to that job.  It's possible the guy doesn't really know what he should be doing or how to respond to that request.  He said even so he should be issuing some type of response instead of ignoring it.  I have a feeling that you and the Attorney General will help him figure that out.

The link below is a copy of the Agenda for tomorrow night's Mt. Sterling City Council meeting. Notice Item # 13. This seems to be progressing nicely. Notice that this is a full repeal of the existing ordinance, not just amending it to comply with the law. Once this process is completed, Mt. Sterling will have no gun bans, even the ones they could legally pass.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mg84gw1qlw5yne1/City%20Council%20Agendas%20-%20Mount%20Sterling.pdf?dl=0

Nice.  Thank you for all the effort you put in on these types of issues.