Missouri
Missouri AG set to finally start work on public records requests submitted this year • Missouri Independent
By the end of the month, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey expects to complete work on the mountain of public records requests submitted to the office last year.
That will allow the five-person team working through the Sunshine Law backlog to finally turn its attention to the nearly 300 pending requests filed since Bailey took office in January.
“I’m proud of the thorough and expeditious work we’ve done to get Missourians the records they have requested,” Bailey said in an emailed statement.
First Amendment and government transparency advocates, however, aren’t so sanguine about Bailey’s efforts.
Records requests filed since January have continued to pile up, leaving many waiting more than a year for Bailey’s office to take any action. And new requests, no matter how simple and easy to turn around, are still projected to take at least six months to be completed.
The attorney general’s website declares that the Sunshine Law is the “embodiment of Missouri’s commitment to openness in government,” said Bernie Rhodes, a First Amendment attorney who has represented numerous media outlets, including The Independent.
By allowing requests to pile up and wither on the vine, Rhodes said, Bailey isn’t living up to those standards.
“It’s called the Sunshine Law for a reason. It exposes sunlight on what our government is doing. If we have to wait six months to find out what someone did last week, it may be too late to do anything about that,” Rhodes said.
“It’s not called the historical records preservation act, so that when we write the biography of Andrew Bailey 20 years from now we know what he was doing,” he said. “It exists so we know what he’s doing today so that when he comes up for election, we know whether to vote for him or not.”
Bailey inherited 224 unfinished public records requests from his predecessor, U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt. Since then, the office implemented a policy to work through the backlog on a first come, first served basis. Newer inquiries that are small and easily dispensed with sit in limbo as staff work on older and more expansive requests.
For example, copies of Bailey’s official calendar on Nov. 6 and 7 won’t be available until May 2024. A request like that is typically turned around in a matter of days by other government agencies, if not sooner.
“It remains deeply concerning that the attorney general’s office refuses to take a common sense approach to fulfilling Sunshine Law requests,” said David Roland, director of litigation for the libertarian nonprofit Freedom Center of Missouri.
“If a citizen’s request could be fulfilled in a matter of minutes,” Roland said, “it is manifestly unreasonable for the office to delay the fulfillment of that request by several months, even if that might require addressing requests in an order other than which they were received.”
Jean Maneke, an attorney with the Missouri Press Association, said delayed access to public records is a slap in the face to transparent government.
“Public servants,” she said, “are not acting in the public interest when they delay serving the public in this matter.”
‘Crocodile tears’
Bailey has defended how his office has handled the backlog, arguing that the office processes requests in order to avoid the perception it is “picking winners and losers.”
“You’ve got to fulfill them in the order in which they came in, or you run the risk of people saying that you’re cherry-picking favorable requests,” Bailey recently told the Springfield News-Leader. “It’s a no-win situation.”
To demonstrate his commitment to government transparency, the attorney general has pointed out that, unlike many state agencies, his office doesn’t charge anything for processing public records requests.
Madeline Sieren, Bailey’s spokesperson, said by the end of the year the attorney general’s office will have completed 56 separate Sunshine Law trainings. That’s the most in terms office’s history, she said, and up from 51 in 2022 and 42 in 2021.
The 2023 total is double Schmitt’s first year as attorney general in 2019.
“Our total attendance was in the thousands, across all of our presentations this year,” she said.
Sieren added that the attorney general’s office also “significantly improved the efficiency, speed, and results in addressing Sunshine Law complaints.”
Since Bailey took office, she said, “we have closed 525 Sunshine Law complaints, which were received both this year and in previous years. This includes approximately 20 warning letters that typically included training as a condition in lieu of further enforcement action and over 40 situations where we assisted citizens in obtaining records due to our intervention through the complaint process.”
But transparency advocates remain skeptical.
Part of the concern is Bailey’s role in crafting legislation while working as general counsel for Gov. Mike Parson to weaken Missouri’s Sunshine Law. A major policy priority for the governor during Bailey’s tenure, the legislation would have allowed government agencies to withhold more information from the public and charge more for any records that are turned over.
Rhodes said Bailey is “absolutely in violation of the Sunshine Law” by not promptly processing public records requests. If government transparency was really a priority for him, Bailey could “dispense with the backlog immediately by choosing to staff his office in a way that acknowledges Missouri’s commitment to open government.”
“If his staff says they can’t get to requests in a timely manner, those are crocodile tears,” Rhodes said. “He inherited a bunch of lawsuits, too, so is he just going to ignore those? That’s his job. He should just do his job.”
For his part, Bailey does not begrudge Schmitt for the backlog his staff is stuck with.
“My predecessors left behind a legacy of excellence,” Bailey said in an email to The Independent. “Because of the great work they did, there’s a lot of attention on our office, which resulted in a lot of Sunshine requests being filed.”
Missouri
Ex-convict pardoned by Missouri governor, wants to continue helping former prisoners get fresh start
KANSAS CITY, Mo — The new year is less than two weeks away and a community advocate is already celebrating.
Kevin Morgan, founder of Sent1One Ministries and Lean on Me Ministries, got a pardon from Missouri Gov. Mike Parson this summer.
He’s been keeping the news private to think about how he wants to make a difference.
Morgan spent nine years on supervised probation for drug crimes.
For the past 11 years, he’s been hoping to get another chance, but the journey there took a lot of work.
He had three cases involving drug possession and drug trafficking but could only pick one to be expunged.
“They said, ‘Hey, in the state of Missouri, you are only allowed one felony to be expunged a lifetime,” Morgan said. “I knew I couldn’t die come back and get another one.”
Morgan spent seven months going through the process for a pardon.
According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, “a full pardon does not remove the conviction from the individual’s criminal record. A full pardon restores all rights of citizenship and removes any disqualification or punitive collateral consequence stemming from the conviction without conditions or restrictions.”
When he received the news that a pardon was granted in the mail, Morgan immediately gave thanks.
“I just got on my knees, prayed and thanked God. I was in amazement. I told God he can have all of me,” he said.
Morgan’s life has always come down to choices.
Now, he’s chooses to continue being example for other men in the community.
“I’m not that person anymore,” Morgan said. “Whatever struggles I was dealing with then — that’s gone. I’m a new man.”
From here on, he wants to continue serving men through his ministries, work with the city on homeless initiatives and eventually create a pathway for other people to have their record expunged or pardoned.
“I can see myself in some of the people I serve so I want to get them to where I am,” he said.
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KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including neighborhoods in Overland Park, Shawnee and Mission. Share your story idea with Alyssa.
Missouri
Top Missouri education official hopes shrinking state budget will not hurt teacher pay
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KY3) – Missouri’s top education official is worried about funding for teacher pay as the state’s budget shrinks.
In three weeks, Jefferson City will once again be bustling with lawmakers as they decide which policies will affect the future of Missouri. With about 150 bills already filed on the topic, lawmakers are sure to discuss K-12 education at length.
The passage of an expansive education bill this year came with a big price tag — one that has people like Matt Michelson with the Missouri Teachers Association worried about funding. Gov. Mike Parson said that education bill will cost $400 million more than anticipated. It includes raises for teachers and incentives for schools to stay in session five days a week.
“We have growth in current programs, and if we’re not seeing growth in the economy, where are those cuts going to come from? We know in the past, many of those cuts have come from K-12, transportation and even the foundation formula,” Michelson said.
One of the things that new law promises is a starting salary of $40,000 for teachers. That starting salary briefly changed Missouri’s status as the lowest paying in the country, but only if the state can keep up with it.
Missouri put $4 million toward raising that teacher pay in the most recent budget, but lawmakers will have to renew that grant every year for it to continue. The state would pay for 70% of the salary while the school districts must cover the rest.
This year, several Missouri lawmakers did try to implement the teacher salary grant permanently, but it never got past committee.
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Karla Eslinger is preparing for her first state legislative session in a new position. She knows the state is facing a tighter budget next year. Small districts are only able to afford the new pay bump with the help of a state grant, but Eslinger is already thinking of sacrifices that might have to be made to protect that grant.
“If we’re not funded, I could act adequately, then obviously we’re not going to be able to do that, so other areas will probably have to be put aside or or not fully funded,” Eslinger said.
Eslinger is also focused on retaining quality teachers. In an anonymous survey conducted by the Missouri State Teachers Association, 70% of educators said they have seriously considered leaving the profession. The top reasons are stress, student behavior and lack of pay. According to the anonymous survey, a common reason for teachers to be stressed is low staffing.
“It depends on the quality of that teacher, then as far as what’s happening with the classroom and how successful the kids are,” Eslinger said. “So we’re again focusing on those pieces and hoping that we see some legislation that will help us to recruit and retain some really, really high fliers to meet the needs of our kids.”
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Missouri
Report: Beau Pribula to Transfer to Missouri
One week after entering the transfer portal, backup quarterback Beau Pribula has found a new home in the Show-Me State, joining the Missouri Tigers:
Pribula entered the portal on December 15 ahead of Penn State’s first round matchup with SMU. The York native played a vital role in Penn State’s rejuvenated offense in 2024, including an impressive second half performance at Wisconsin while Drew Allar was injured. He will have two years of eligibility remaining.
Current Missouri starting quarterback Brady Cook is out of eligibility after the season, giving Beau a solid chance to earn the starting job in 2025. After an 11-2 season in 2023 that featured a Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State, the Tigers went 9-3 this season and finished No. 23 in the final CFP rankings, which earned them a bid in the Music City Bowl against Iowa.
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