Fresh Tips: Sample Request for Records
[Name of Records Custodian] [Name of Public Agency] [Street Address] [City, ST ZIP Code] [email address] Dear [Records Custodian]: I hereby submit this request under the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) via email and regular mail for physical or electronic copies of the following public record or records: [INSERT DESCRIPTION OF RECORDS.] As you are […]
Open Records Act brings Sunshine
Advocates of open government have good reason to celebrate this Sunshine Week, a national celebration of government transparency, which runs from Sunday, March 12, through Saturday, March 18. In Kansas, the week also represents an annual commemoration of the Kansas Sunshine Laws, which primarily include the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) and the Kansas Open […]
Attorney General’s Office “holds open” KOMA complaint; takes almost four years to respond
This spring, the Manhattan Free Press finally received a response from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to an open meetings complaint it filed in 2012 against county officials. Although the response finds the officials in violation of law, the AGO declined to penalize them. Moreover, the response implies that the complainant is somehow responsible for the delay and lack […]
Fresh Tips: Public agency settlement agreements are subject to disclosure under KORA
Settlement agreements memorializing amounts paid by public agencies to end legal disputes are public records under the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) and thus subject to disclosure, even if the parties to the dispute attempt to keep the agreement confidential. As long as settlement documents are retained by the agency in the ordinary course of […]
Revising KORA: Containing costs of “staff time” under K.S.A. 45-219(c)
When a citizen asks a government agency in Kansas for a public record, the agency may charge a high fee for finding and producing it. In fact, the fee can be so high that the citizen can’t afford to pay it. As a practical matter, then, the citizen cannot exercise his or her right of […]
Fresh Tips: Requesting disclosure of probable cause affidavits
A little more than a year ago, two Kansas statutes, K.S.A. 22-2302 and K.S.A. 22-2502, were amended to give the public, including journalists, a right to see affidavits that police file to justify making arrests and conducting searches. As is often the case with new law, not everyone initially agrees on how to interpret it. So courts […]
Comment on proposed Supreme Court Rule changes; call for reform of rule-making procedure
Dear Chief Justice Nuss and Kansas Supreme Court Justices: As one interested in freedom of expression and freedom of information, I have examined the proposed amendments to Supreme Court Rule 106 and 108, which were in turn in response to comments the Court received when it first proposed amendments to Rule 106. I appreciate the […]
Fresh Tips: Accessing probable cause affidavits in Kansas
Fresh Takes’ own Max Kautsch co-authored the cover story in the May 2015 issue of the Journal of the Kansas Bar Association. The article takes an in-depth look at the legislative intent related to the newly amended statutes and the genesis of their adoption. It aspires to guide members of the public and journalists in […]