Richmond, MO Sunshine Request Data

The documentation archived below exposes a systematic pattern of administrative delay, legal deflection, and eventual capitulation when confronted with precise statutory challenges.

Phase 1: The 35-Day Administrative Stall

• July 8, 2026: Midwest Transparency Audit LLC filed a formal 4-part Sunshine Law request seeking Richmond’s vendor contracts, internal data-retention metrics, private surveillance partnerships, and usage/audit policies.

• July 13, 2026: City Clerk Saige Mason issued an official response acknowledging the request but pushed the production timeline out to August 12, 2026—forcing an unlawful 35-day delay. The city cited boilerplate text regarding "staff vacations," the "press of other business," and the imaginary need to review "various mediums and devices" for standard, centrally located vendor files.

Phase 2: Statutory Objection & Capitulation

• July 14, 2026: We fired back an immediate Statutory Objection and Formal Notice of Unreasonable Delay. The objection dismantled the city’s excuses, noting that under Stafford/Attorney General guidelines, understaffing or scheduled vacations do not toll a public body’s legal obligations under Chapter 610, RSMo. We demanded a rolling production within 24 hours under penalty of a formal complaint filed with the Missouri Attorney General’s Transparency Division.

• July 15, 2026: Facing immediate escalation, City Clerk Mason capitulated. Abandoning the month-long delay, the city executed a rolling release, turning over the master contracts, purchase orders, checks, and an active inter-agency data-sharing agreement.

Phase 3: The Active Policy Void & Dashboard Stand Run

• The Policy Admission: In her July 15 disclosure, City Clerk Mason made a startling admission: "The City has not adopted written policies or procedures specific to the use of Flock safety tools or automated license plate readers." Richmond PD is operating advanced vehicle-tracking dragnets with zero guidelines on user audits or privacy safeguards.

• July 16, 2026: We filed a notice of incomplete production. While the city handed over a static Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ray County Sheriff's Office, it actively withheld the real-time system audit logs, network integration parameters, and "Hotlist" sharing logs embedded directly within the active FlockOS cloud dashboard. We noted that withholding digital cloud logs that take seconds to export constitutes a facial violation of the Sunshine Law.

• July 17, 2026: City Clerk Mason attempted a final defensive maneuver, invoking a 2003 Western District appellate ruling (Anderson v. Village of Jacksonville) to demand clarification on the technical scope of "data logs," questioning whether the audit targeted the framework of data shared or the logs of what has actively been shared.

• Current Status: A localized response has been issued explicitly demanding both sets of dashboard records. This segment of the transparency audit remains open and actively contested.