LOCAL SUNSHINE LAW EXPERTS DISCUSS THE TOPIC
A panel of specialists delivered a cautionary tale about a mounting war on citizen access to public records and the meetings of elected public officials.
Their presentation, “Sunshine and the Storms,” was a reference to Missouri’s Sunshine Law, designed to allow easy public access to records when requested by citizens and the press and to govern when meetings are required to be open and closed to the public.
The event was created to share information about the panelists’ many court battles for their clients’ access to public records even as some elected officials create a wall to such records. The records sought range from documents leading to the votes of elected officials on a variety of issues to more mundane records, including drivers’ licenses.
The discussion was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Kansas City/Jackson-Clay-Platte Counties and was held at the downtown Kansas City offices of Shook, Hardy & Bacon Law, a Kansas City law firm.
Dan Margolies of KCUR-FM, journalist emeritus, who provided background on information freedom, said Missouri was a pioneer in protecting public access to information by creating the Sunshine Act during the 1970s, before many states had enacted such laws. He also explained to the audience of about 50 attendees, including some who watched the event online, that the federal equivalent to the law is the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The rest of the presentation focused on a growing trend for government officials to limit access to public information.
“I cannot overemphasize how critical these laws are that government officials might not care to share,” said Bernie Rhodes, a First Amendment attorney with Lathrop GPM.
Rhodes further explained that the “storms” currently threatening to cut off public access to records are being created by a growing number of officials who view the background material, discussions that lead up to votes and, sometimes actual votes, as private matters.
He gave examples of elected officials who attempt to charge thousands, or in some cases millions of dollars, for public records requested by citizens and the press. Missouri’s Sunshine Law states that governments may only charge nominal fees for copying material, but many citizens are unaware of the law designed to protect them from exorbitant fees and, as a result, halt their requests after being told of the charges.
Others turn to local law experts, such as Rhodes and panelist Jean Meneke, who also is a First Amendment attorney. Rhodes said he’s noted “a different mindset in officials who think the records are theirs and not the public’s.”
He said some public officials are so determined to fight access that they have documented in emails their intention to lobby Missouri legislative members to “change the law” in order to shield the information they deem “private” from public view.
Examples of breeches are numerous, Rhodes said, who recounted the case of Josh Hawley, then Missouri’s Attorney General, who directed his staff to use private emails to conduct public business. A Missouri judge ruled Hawley “knowingly and purposefully” used private accounts in violation of Sunshine Law and Hawley paid $12,000 in penalties plus attorney’s fees.
In addition, Hawley’s office used private emails to communicate with political consultants in his race for U.S. Senate. Ironically, the Missouri Attorney General is charged with protecting access to the state’s public records and has a backlog of several hundred requests for assistance in obtaining records from public officials where access was denied.
Meneke, an attorney who works on behalf of the Missouri Press Association, said the current Missouri Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, “inherited” a backlog of hundreds of complaints from his predecessors, Eric Schmitt, and Hawley.
Jason Lewis, general counsel for the Missouri Attorney General’s office, also a panelist, said the backlog is indicative of the increasing evidence of officials’ attempts to shield access to public information.
Another example is that of a Parkville area resident who acted as his own attorney in a lawsuit he brought against City of Parkville for withholding and overcharging for public information. Jason Maki won the largest settlement in the state’s Sunshine history in 2021 when he was awarded $195,000.
Maki filed the suit accusing the City of Parkville of violations of the Sunshine Law. Maki’s decision to represent himself, despite not being an attorney, makes his case unusual, Meneke said.
In 2022, Maki was a statewide winner of an award by the Sunshine Coalition, which recognized three individuals and an organization for their efforts to embrace the law.
Other local cases include the police raid in 2023 on a newspaper in Marion, Kan., which received national media coverage of the officers’ bodycam footage. In the raid, conducted by the local police department, officers seized computers, cell phones and other materials from The Marion County Record, one of its journalists and also raided the home of the newspaper’s publisher.
The reporter had searched an online Department of Revenue site for information about a local woman who applied for a liquor license in order to open a business. The reporter received a tip that the applicant lacked a valid drivers’ license due to a DWI conviction. The newspaper did not run the story for fear the tipster had ulterior motives because he was seeking a divorce from the liquor license applicant. The raid also was motivated by the journalist’s search into the background of the small town’s police chief, who previously was employed by the Kansas City Police Department but was let go amid controversy. He later became the chief in Marion.
Rhodes, who became the newspaper’s attorney, stated the journalist was being punished for doing her job. The judge who signed off on the raid eventually ordered that confiscated material be returned to the newspaper and reporter and the reporter sued the Marion police department. Many, including the local panel of press attorneys, criticized the raid, stating it violated the newspaper’s rights.
“That’s a real-world example,” Rhodes said, adding that the newspaper’s circulation soared as a result of media coverage and subscriptions came in from throughout the world in a show of support for the paper’s efforts.
Asked how access to public records can be improved, Lewis said education of the public, through forums such as this one, is key. Citizens need to know about their rights under the Sunshine Law and how to access information despite the efforts of some public officials to limit access. In addition, members of the public can contact their state legislators to show their support for the Sunshine Law.