SUNSHINE LAW ADVOCATE: ‘WHAT THEY’RE DOING IS UNETHICAL AND LIKELY UNLAWFUL’
Saying he will “see this through to the end,” a Platte County resident with a history of successful legal action in matters of government accountability now has his sights on the Platte County Commission.
What has caught his attention is Platte County’s use of $84,000 of taxpayer money for what the county commission calls “public education” of its half cent jail tax proposal.
At an Aug. 6 election, Platte County is asking voters to approve a new half cent sales tax that would generate $408 million over 20 years to construct and operate a 471-bed jail in Downtown Platte City. If approved, it would be the largest tax increase in Platte County history.
The county commission has used taxpayer dollars in conducting what it calls an “education” campaign with multiple targeted mailings of full color flyers, along with social media/online video commercials and more.
Jason Maki of Platte County filed his first Sunshine request on the matter with the Platte County Clerk’s Office on Monday morning. In that action, Maki requests all electronic records of communication to or from commissioners Scott Fricker, Dagmar Wood, Joe Vanover, county administrator Wes Minder and any other official, employee or agent of Platte County that has been involved in what the county commission calls “public education” of the jail tax proposal.
The time range of the request runs from Jan. 1, 2024 to present.
Maki’s request for county records covers much more than just emails. It also covers text messages, instant messages, social media communications, social media posts, notes, telephone call logs, recordings, or notes of telephone conversations, recordings of voicemails, electronic transmissions via smartphone applications such as Confide and Signal, and more.
“What they’re doing is unethical and likely unlawful,” said Maki, who represented himself in a public records lawsuit against the City of Parkville a few years ago. The city eventually settled the two-year court case by paying $195,000 to Maki, which legal observers reported to be the largest Sunshine settlement in Missouri history.
For his work on the Parkville case, Maki was honored as a 2022 Sunshine Hero by the Missouri Sunshine Coalition. The award recognizes those who have distinguished themselves by using the Sunshine Law to gain access to public meetings and records, working to preserve and improve the law, and encouraging greater government transparency.
PLATTE COUNTY’S ‘PUBLIC EDUCATION’ ON JAIL TAX PROPOSAL
The “public education” contracted by the county commissioners has featured Platte County taxpayers paying for, among other things, targeted mailers to certain voters. Some of those flyers have included inaccurate information, such as a statement that “417 beds are needed now.” The inmate population at the Platte County Jail is hovering around 210, more than 200 inmates fewer than the number of beds the county commission’s flyer says “are needed now.”
Maki said many statements in the county commission’s publicly funded voter education campaign are “widely disputed.”
“They (commissioners) are pretending these things are facts. These ‘facts’ are widely disputed. And if any one of their ‘facts’ turns out to be less than a fact then they are lobbying based on their opinion and desires, which is a problem and may be unlawful,” Maki said.
“They are using Joe and Jane Taxpayer resources to create a platform to drive an agenda,” Maki remarked. “While at the same time Joe and Jane Taxpayer do not have equal access to those public resources to provide their perspective on this or any other matter.”
Maki said he has no opinion on the jail ballot question on the Aug. 6 ballot. Maki says his fight isn’t about the jail.
“I don’t have an opinion about the jail one way or the other. This is about local government and elected officials skirting the margins or operating in the margins of what is legal and not legal,” he explained.
“This is about accountability and I will see it through to the end,” Maki added.
Maki said he was surprised when he saw a jail tax mail piece arrive at his home and the piece was marked “paid for by Platte County, Mo.”
On May 13 the Platte County Commission entered a contract with Parson and Associates, a public relations firm of Kansas City. In that agreement the total projected budget of what the county commission refers to as “public educational phase of the Platte County Detention Center Expansion and Modernization Project” amounts to $84,200.
The largest expense item listed in the plan is $34,200 for mailers. The contract states a projected cost of three different mailers, each going to 20,000 households.
Listed is a line item of $25,500 for a monthly retainer of Parson and Associates, three months at $8,500 per month.
Also listed is a line item of $15,000 for social media and online advertising (video commercials, social media, YouTube, etc.).
Also listed is a line item of unspecific “expenses” at $5,000, and a $2,000 line item for “newspaper advertisements, print and digital,” and $2,500 for “printed fact sheets, palm cards, etc.”
COUNTY RESPONSE
In his request for the electronic records, Maki submitted a list of keywords the county should use to electronically search for the requested records. Those keywords include:
Public education phase
Educational materials
Informational
Voter education
Facts
Taxpayer dollars
Public funds
Funding source
Budget allocation
Expenditure approval
Targeted mailers
Targeted
Mail campaign
Direct mail
Voter outreach
Jail tax
Landmark
Ivan
Foley
Gordon
Cook
Social media
Shortly after submitting his Sunshine request, Maki received an email from Tanya Buckler, deputy county clerk, that said: “Mr. Maki, your request covers 140 accounts and 96,455 emails. Did you want to make any changes to your original request?”
Maki responded to the county clerk’s office that he is “seeking electronic records per my original request,” and he offered legal state statute in regard to what defines electronic records. “As such, the process of searching for electronic records should be consistent regardless of the number of email accounts involved, be it one or 1,000 accounts. The number of accounts should not impact the request, and I respectfully ask that the county provide the electronic records as outlined in my Sunshine request.”
Maki went on to highlight state laws in regard to fees for gathering electronic records, including a 2020 court decision “that addressed this issue directly.” The ruling states that the charge for staff time “is limited to the amount of time required to make copies or transfer electronic records at ‘the average hourly rate of pay for staff of the public governmental body required for making copies.”
Maki closed his follow-up message to the county clerk’s office by saying “please proceed with processing the request as specified.”
Also in his Sunshine request, Maki wrote: “The information that I request will be used to inform the public’s understanding of the county’s operations and activities.”
RELATED POSTS:
