[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) for copies of the following: [Insert description of records sought] As you know, “[a]ll public records shall be open for inspection by any person, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
