In Louisiana, the punishment is up to six months in jail. In Oklahoma, it's one year. And in Arizona, officials can be removed from office by a judge. In Missouri, the state auditor conducts annual surveys of open-records compliance. So often with sunshine laws, folks think it's for the media, but it's really for the public.
Sunshine laws increase public access.
In the Missouri survey, which used statistical sampling, the state auditor found that 47.7 percent of local government agencies did not respond properly to requests for minutes from 1998 meetings. We were astonished with the findings. The auditor's office handwrote the requests and mailed them anonymously, Campbell said. We can't just send this information to anyone without knowing what they want with them. Like California, Missouri has nothing in its laws that would generally allow agencies to require requesters to give a reason.