The Missouri attorney general鈥檚 office crossed an ignominious milestone last week.
Nearly nine months after taking office, Attorney General Andrew Bailey and his staff finally completed work on public records requests submitted in 2021.
鈥淲e fulfilled the last remaining open request from 2021, of which there were 18 when Attorney General Bailey came into office,鈥� said Madeline Sieren, Bailey鈥檚 spokeswoman. 鈥淲e have fulfilled 32 requests in the last seven business days.鈥�
Yet that progress did little to dent the number of unfilled requests in a massive backlog that continues to tick upwards and has translated into yearslong waits for even simple queries to be answered and the public鈥檚 documents to be turned over.
As of Saturday, the attorney general鈥檚 office confirmed it was still processing 397 records requests. That鈥檚 up from 374 in June and 389 last month, despite recently adding a third full-time staff member dedicated solely to processing Sunshine requests.
A fourth staffer is expected to join the effort, though an ad for the position notes the attorney hired would 鈥�.鈥�
Similar backlogs don鈥檛 appear to exist in any other branch of state government.
鈥淢aybe the situation will improve once they have made the anticipated hires and get them up to speed. We can hope,鈥� said David Roland, director of litigation for the libertarian nonprofit Freedom Center of Missouri. 鈥淏ut as of right now, I remain skeptical that the steps being taken are likely to be adequate to clear this backlog in a meaningful timeframe.鈥�
The logjam has resulted in every request to Bailey鈥檚 office, no matter how small, being punted for months or longer. Bailey鈥檚 office has insisted on working through requests as they are received, meaning large, cumbersome inquiries are bogging down the process while newer, simpler ones await any action at all.
For example, The Independent requested three days of the attorney general鈥檚 official calendar last week. Government agencies typically turn over those records within days of a request being filed.
Bailey鈥檚 office says the records won鈥檛 be made public until March 25, 2024.
鈥淗ow does the attorney general explain that his office cannot meet the demand for services it is supposed to provide?鈥� said Jean Maneke, an attorney for the Missouri Press Association. 鈥淲hen an office holder says, 鈥榳e are overwhelmed by requests that we are required by state law to answer,鈥� it would seem to be an indication that the office holder isn鈥檛 in control of procedures within that office.鈥�
The attorney general鈥檚 office is also the entity that鈥檚 supposed to make sure other government entities comply with open records and open meetings laws. Every government agency handles its own requests.
The slow response from the attorney general鈥檚 office to requests for the office鈥檚 own records has renewed scrutiny of how the revolving door of attorneys general over the last five years has handled the job of enforcing government transparency laws across the board.
As the backlog persists, Bailey has drawn criticism for his work as general counsel for Gov. Mike Parson, where he helped craft a proposal to and charge more for any records that are turned over.
For his part, Bailey has denied having any sort of adversarial relationship with the Sunshine Law.
鈥淎ttorney General Bailey is committed to transparency and has dedicated more resources to providing Missourians with their records than any previous attorney general,鈥� Sieren said in an email to The Independent.
Beyond Bailey, Missouri was forced to pay $240,000 in legal fees and a $12,000 fine earlier this year after a judge concluded under Josh Hawley in order to bolster his successful 2018 campaign for U.S. Senate.
And when Eric Schmitt resigned as attorney general in January to follow Hawley to the Senate, Bailey鈥檚 office says it inherited .
As many as 90 of those requests could be related to last spring by the Democratic National Committee.
The DNC asked for records of funds spent to renovate office space, copies of Hawley鈥檚 credit card statements, text messages and cell phone bills for top staffers and other records, according to the , which reported on the requests at the time.
It鈥檚 unclear how much of the backlog stems from these wide-ranging requests. The Independent asked in June for a copy of the attorney general office鈥檚 sunshine log 鈥� a list or spreadsheet that most government offices maintain that documents pending records requests 鈥� and was informed it couldn鈥檛 be turned over until December.
Chris Nuelle, spokesman for Schmitt鈥檚 U.S. Senate office, said in an email to The Independent that the former attorney general tried to ensure the transition to Bailey was smooth.
鈥淚n his previous role,鈥� Nuelle said, 鈥淪en. Schmitt and his team worked diligently to ensure that all Sunshine Law requests were fulfilled in a timely manner and that proper and constant communication occurred between the office and the requestor.鈥�
Maneke noted that Aug. 23 marked the 50th anniversary of the Missouri Sunshine Law.
She wonders if government agencies are seeing a higher volume of requests for records because 鈥渢he citizens of Missouri, whether Democrats or Republicans, have come to recognize the importance of using that law to access public information.
鈥淢issourians clearly are big believers in accessing and using public information,鈥� she said. 鈥淢ore so than other states? More than ever before in the history of Missouri? I don鈥檛 have numbers to support either of these conclusions. But clearly public information is something folks in this state want.鈥�
This story was originally published by the , part of the States Newsroom.
