Comments on: Is It Just Too Much?

By: Audrey Spalding

Audrey Spalding — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:26:37 +0000

Susan,

I reported on the Columbia School District this fall through the spring and it became a consistent pattern — once the public school board meeting was done, board members and administrators would then have a closed “executive session” meeting, with no specific reason cited, other than “personnel issues.” It was frustrating, to say the least.

By: susan

susan — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:14:35 +0000

Cynthia,
I do hope you get an answer. Perhaps the county clerks could at least tell you whether the requests are coming from individuals. In my experience with school districts, the bulk of these types of requests come from disgruntled citizens, especially when meetings such as school board meetings routinely have “executive” sessions with a generic items’ list of sunshine law excuses checked. You would be surprised by how many such requests go unfulfilled because the records have been lost or “don’t exist.”

By: Cynthia Juedemann

Cynthia Juedemann — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:57:45 +0000

Ray,

Thanks for the comment. I agree. The job definitely is a demanding one. And from what I’ve heard, county clerks are getting hit up pretty often with public information requests. I hadn’t given it much thought until I started to hear it so frequently. I still would be curious to know who else is asking for information. Private citizens? Researchers?

Either way, the law does seem to be having certain unintended consequences for some Missouri county clerks. I’m all for access to public record, but maybe it’s time to reevaluate how we go about granting it.

By: ray

ray — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:40:58 +0000

Good points, Cynthia. Also remember that the clerks you have mentioned are also responsible for such things as payroll, insurance (for the county), the commission’s weekly meeting minutes, liquor licenses, notary commissions, and hundreds of other details surrounding running the county. And it’s not like they can just expand their staffs as needed, even in a busy, possibly record setting election year. Someone has to stop what they’re doing in order to fulfill each request. That may not seem too big of a deal, but have you ever worked a job where you have to answer the phone, plus get daily work done? It’s not easy. No, I’m not a clerk. But I know what they are responsible for. I would bet some state agencies actually have staff that’s hired to fulfill information requests. Some of them get hit up pretty often for info, too. Is that what the law intended, also? I don’t know. But it’s something to think about.