Editor’s Note: Sunshine Request makes no claim as to the veracity of any statements or information contained in any of the requests, or public records, we receive.
Editor’s Note 02/02/2023: We received 23 submissions within 38 minutes on 01/29/2023. Based on the similarities in their content (including subjects / messages / date ranges), and the fact they were all submitted within minutes of each other, it is reasonable for our Team to assume those submissions might have all been made by the same person(s).
We have several Editor’s Notes to provide about 19 of those submissions. Those 19 have been copied above and are marked as “Completed” on our site. In order to preserve our Team’s, the Sender’s, and Government’s time – please consider the following notes that apply to all of those submissions as a whole, before revising and submitting additional requests:
** – The submissions all have very broad date ranges and no specific subject matter. Due to the volume of requests and their expansive scopes, it’s possible there will be a lot of results for each, as well as staff time required to fulfill those types of requests. If that does apply, and we receive notice from the County / City / etc. that fees are required, then we will not be paying them. We would expect the entity to itemize the potential costs, and then the sender would need to use that information to pursue any request with the entity directly (outside of our website), should they wish to do so.
Using our own judgment about some of the content in the requests, it seems the sender might be looking for communications that potentially discuss individual court cases, or other personal legal matters, etc.
– We will not fulfill requests for public safety type information, court cases, legal matters, etc. specific to a single individual, address, incident or name. This includes police reports, calls for service, complaints / incident reports / citations, criminal / arrest type records, or camera footage. We will, on a case by case basis, fulfill public safety related requests that focus on system-level trends and data.
– Any request we send in would need to be written in a manner so as not to include court cases, addresses, personal information etc. about specific individuals. Due to the personal nature of all these requests, we encourage the sender to reach out to the City, County, etc. directly – if that’s what they hope to receive.
With this in mind, it would be helpful the sender would narrow future submissions to ask for more specific and targeted information. If you’re looking for a particular record and topic you believe exists, please write the request to specify exactly what you’d like to receive. For example – “all emails sent by [Mayor X] to [City Manager X] on March 15th, 2020 regarding the City’s trash pickup schedule”.
** – Many of the submissions are not clearly addressed to any government entity or public entity that falls under records law. As an example – Where would a request for “all emails [X person] and magistrate Joseph Knight” be sent? What Entity, State, City, etc.
** – Many of the requests do not clearly specify whether the emails you hope to receive are “Sent from”, “Sent to”, “Sent between” or just “Sent about,” X person or topic. As an example – “all emails [X person] and all buncombe county commission members and any and all county staff or employees”
Are you looking for “all emails that reference [X person / X people / X topics]”, or is it just that you want “all emails Sent to and Sent from [X person] to [X people]” ? etc.
** – We will assume that “ssia ^” is meant to indicate to our Team that the “subject says it all”. We’d ask that in the future the sender please also write out the exact records being requested in the request Message as well so it is clear. We find that there are often discrepancies between what is written in the request’s “Subject” , “Message”, “Entity”, and “Start / End Date” fields that would significantly change the request.
– Some of the subjects, contents of their messages, and the entity details, do not match. As an example – the City of Asheville as the entity, with County Commissioners and City Council in the Subject, and then County Commissioners and Staff in the message [See Request #6]. This also seems more like two separate records requests to two different entities.
In order to preserve our Team’s time to focus on the high volume of requests on our site, as well as to respect the staff time of government entities fulfilling records requests, we’d like to make sure that the sender is aware of all our policies and the notes above, before submitting future requests. It would also be helpful if all date ranges and any specific subject matter could be narrowed down to reduce the time necessary to process these requests.
We’d ask that the sender please submit any new requests to clearly indicate specific date ranges and any other specific details, subject matter, etc. about the exact public records that are being requested.
Sunshine Request will not fulfill the following types of requests:
☀️ Requests that are only informational questions, and requests that are not addressed to government entities.
Sunshine Request is a site built to make requests for public records to the government — Public records are recorded information such as documents, government emails, and data sets.
In the interest of preserving our team’s time to focus on the high volume of requests on our site, as well to respect the staff time of government entities fulfilling records requests, Sunshine Request will no longer fulfill “requests” that are just informational type questions for government entities to answer.
We also will not fulfill requests made to non-government entities.
It’s the requester’s responsibility to write the request in a manner that clearly specifies a record that is being requested, and to what government entity it should be sent.
☀️ Requests that are incomplete, non-specific, or vague.
While we do proofread requests we receive for general spelling and clarity, we may choose not to fulfill the request if it is incomplete, or it is unclear what specific information the requester hopes to receive. In this case, the sender may rewrite and resubmit the request.
It’s the requester’s responsibility to write the request in a manner that clearly specifies a record that is being requested, and to what government entity it should be sent.
☀️ Requests for public safety information specific to a single individual, address, incident or name.
This includes police reports, calls for service, complaints / incident reports / citations, criminal / arrest type records, or camera footage. We will, on a case by case basis, fulfill public safety related requests that focus on system-level trends and data.
Due to the personal nature of this type of information, we recommend that the sender reach out directly to the appropriate entity for assistance with the request.
☀️ Requests that include profanity, personal statements, opinions, possibly defamatory statements, or other unnecessary info that is not relevant to making a records request.
Please do not include personal opinions and statements in the request’s Subject or Message. Please omit any extraneous statements that are not specific to the exact information you’d like to receive. This is not relevant information pertinent to the processing of a records request, and the request will not be published.
☀️ Please be specific:
It is important that what you are requesting is specific and reasonable, and is an actionable records request. Please specify the exact type of records you’d like to receive, rather than any “possible” or “potential” info that could be searched. Remember that the larger your request, the more time it usually takes to fulfill. Specificity will often help reduce the amount of time needed to process the request.
It is important that a request has a clearly written and complete Subject and Message, and also specifies the Government Entity (or entities), City and/or County, and State to which the request should be sent. If applicable, please also include any responsive timelines for the info that should be requested.
While we do proofread requests we receive for general spelling and clarity, we may choose not to fulfill the request if it is incomplete, or it is unclear what specific info the requester hopes to receive, or if it violates our policies.
Before submitting a request, please take a moment to review our tips for How to write and make a successful request. If you have additional questions about our site or how to make requests, please check out our FAQs or Policies page.
Additional Note for Users: Sunshine Request does not control if / when Government entities will confirm receipt, begin processing, complete, or deny requests we submit to them via our website. If you would like to make a request that is time sensitive, we recommend that you reach out to the appropriate government entity directly for assistance with a request, rather than submitting through our site.
Sunshine Request is run by a very small team. Due to holidays, unforeseen events / scheduling conflicts, there may be times that we cannot publish or update requests for several days. We will do our best to process all requests as quickly as possible.
We review and send in requests to the appropriate entities as quickly as we are able, and it is up to the Government agency to determine the timeline and speed with which the request can be processed. We generally try to follow up on requests once every 1 – 2 weeks as we’re able, until the government agency has confirmed that the request has been received and is being processed (and there is some timeline for completion), and we will wait to follow up again during the time period they specify.
Please do not send us additional submissions asking that we “follow up on” a request on our site, or to ask for a status update on a request. If at any time you would like to track the status of your request, please “Search” for your request via the “Search box”, or by viewing the list of requests on the View All Requests page. Any updates we receive will be posted on our site as soon as we are able.
☀️ Please note that we cannot pay any fees / associated costs related to any of the requests on our site. If it is not possible for a Government Agency to process our request without incurring fees, then it is the responsibility of that Agency to let us know what the potential costs may be — at which point we will ask that they cease processing the request. We will mark the request as “Completed” on our site, and the sender can contact the Government Agency directly, should they wish to further pursue a request.
Thank you for using Sunshine Request!