Dear Boonville: As a resident of Missouri, you have the ability to take advantage of something known as the Sunshine Law.
It's true that journalists frequently use the law to obtain public records. But this law isn't exclusively for news folk — in fact, of the three people honored this year as Sunshine Hero nominees by the Missouri Sunshine Coalition, two of them were concerned citizens.
We appreciate readers' suggestions that we file Sunshine Law requests on a variety of topics, and we intend to actively use the law to obtain public documents. They are immensely helpful in research and in reporting.
But as journalists, another part of our job is educating the public. We want to give you the tools to perform the research and get the answers you want, too.
What follows is a tip sheet for filing these requests:
Step 1: Go to the Missouri attorney general's Web site. Specifically, you'll want to go to the section of the Web site that provides sample language for filling out your own request. That URL is: ago.mo.gov/sunshinelaw/samples.htm.
Step 2: Be very specific in your request. For example, specify the timeframe during which the documents would have been created, name the kinds of documents you are seeking, specify who has them or the names of the people who might have exchanged those documents, etc.
It wouldn't be practical to state, "I want all of the documents in the mayor's office." Rather, you might request the documents by type (e.g. printed out, e-mailed); by date (e.g. sent between April 1, 2010 and April 26, 2010); and by description (e.g. documents including the phrase "Katy Bridge").
Step 3: Understand what the Sunshine Law does and doesn't allow. You can learn more using (sound familiar?) the attorney general's site. It offers a "Top 10 things" page (http://ago.mo.gov/sunshinelaw/topten.htm) and a "Sunshine Law FAQs" page (http://ago.mo.gov/sunshinelaw/faqs.htm).
Step 4: File your request. Be sure to keep an extra copy of your request on file. Get a signature from the person taking your Sunshine Law request for your files so that you can document the day and time on which you filed your request.
We look forward to hearing about your experiences in using the Sunshine Law.
Contact news and online editor Nate Birt by calling 882-5335 or e-mailing nate@boonvilledailynews.com.
