A different way of walkin’, a different way of talkin’

    I have avoided writing about all the sunshine law activity going on in the state which is filling the newspapers, because you don’t need to read that here.   Read your local paper, instead.  The call for openness in access to records has been refreshing, however, in whatever form it surfaces.  But whatever comes of all this call for openness, I can only hope it results in increased access to information across the board.

    Meanwhile, what I can do is offer to all of you some food for thought.  A year or so ago, I was co-author of an article  that ran in the Journal of the Missouri Bar.  It offered thoughts on a mechanism that might allow the public greater access to a process for resolving sunshine law disputes.  The process in the current law, of bringing suit yourself if you cannot convince the state’s attorney general or your local prosecutor, to sue, makes litigating these disputes darned near impossible for citizens.

    I still think this process, in one form or another as detailed in the analysis, is worth consideration in this state and would offer citizens a huge public benefit.