Government bodies are required to respond to your request within 3 business days. The Missouri AG provides some sample language for Sunshine requests some cities have forms they want you to fill out. Sunshine requests can be sent most often to city clerks or board secretaries by email.
#Jefferson county personnel board test professional#
The Sunshine Law can be used to acquire a number of government documents, including contracts (for professional services, employees, purchases, etc), legal settlements (unlike in private lawsuits, settlements involving governments can’t be kept secret), budgets, even emails and internal memos. But if charges are filed, a lot of this information shows up in the case records. These reports are not available until the investigation becomes inactive, either because charges aren’t being pursued or the accused are convicted. Investigative reports offer a detailed account of the facts behind an incident, and the results of any investigation done by law enforcement. They may not have very much information other than date, time, and location of the incident, but can often serve to indicate that something happened, pursuant to a rumor or unconfirmed report that a noteworthy event occurred. These reports are open records and can be requested right away after the arrest or incident. The first two of these are basic reports that describe the initial facts related to an arrest or the initial report of a crime or incident. There are three types of police reports mentioned in the Sunshine Law: arrest reports, incident reports and investigative reports. Results of votes in closed sessions regarding hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees must be released within 72 hours of the vote. Governing bodies are supposed to cite in the agenda the specific reason they are going into closed session (legal issue, real estate, personnel issue, etc). Regarding closed sessions, the law outlines what reasons are permissible for going into closed sessions (closed sessions are allowed, but rarely required). These provisions also prevent elected officials from gathering in a quorum to discuss official business outside of an announced meeting. This may offer the only chance to learn about or comment on something before it gets voted on. If you are interested in keeping close tabs on a government body, it is a good idea to check each agenda before the meeting to see what will be discussed. Some cities in JeffCo are good at this ( Pevely, Arnold) and others are abysmal ( Hillsboro, DeSoto ).
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This is sufficient, but it is weak, and cities should be posting full agendas and meeting schedules on their websites. Sometimes, a government entity will just post the notice on the door of city hall. The agenda of the meeting is included in this notice. Part of the law pertains to the notice that must be given in advance of meetings of government bodies, and that those meetings must be open to the public, except for closed sessions. In cases of violation of the law, the state attorney general can get involved to force the entity to fulfill the request. It also sets out how citizens can make requests for information that the government entities are legally required to respond to. The Sunshine Law is enshrined in state statutes and sets out the requirements for what information a government must share, and in what cases it can keep items confidential. This is a tool I have used a number of times, and anyone can use it, not just journalists or big-time bloggers. I thought I’d put together a short description of Missouri’s Sunshine Law and how you can use it to get information from our local governments.
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