Editor’s Note: Sunshine Request makes no claim as to the veracity of any statements or information contained in any of the requests, or public records, we receive.
Editor’s Note to Sender 04/19/2023: The submission above has been marked as “Completed.” As written, it is unclear what specific public records the sender would like to receive.
For example: Is this request intended to seek specific salaries ($ amounts) / pay / other benefits and totals received by each of the people named, during a specific time period? Or, is this just a “Yes or “No” question for the City to answer (i.e. “Yes. Those people do receive payment for their duties, as well as other benefits”) ?
Please revise and submit a new request to our website, clearly indicating a specific date range / message / subject, and any other specific details about the exact public records that you’d like to receive.
Additionally – We wanted to note for future senders:
Besides a general phone number, and an email address for Donna and the Mayor, there is no other contact info for records requests available on the City of Northwest, NC’s website. https://cityofnorthwest.com/
Our Team continues to experience delays or other issues with fulfillment of requests sent to the City. On several occasions we have not received any response to our emails, and have had to follow up numerous times, call their office, email other government entities, etc. in order to get a reply. We have expressed our concerns to the City regarding their records fulfillment process, timeliness of response, etc. and have encouraged them to ensure they are in compliance with NC Public Records Law.
Currently, we have two requests [from November 2022 and March 2023] “open” with their office, and are actively trying to get them fulfilled, or to receive a reply from Donna or the Mayor.
We will submit any new requests to the City once we have them, and all updates we receive will be indicated on our website. We anticipate, however, that it will likely be difficult to get a response to our emails. If we do not receive a reply after making all reasonable attempts to follow up for a few weeks, then the request will be marked as “Denied”. We will notify Donna of this action.
Sunshine Request will not fulfill the following types of requests:
☀️ Requests that are incomplete, non-specific, or vague.
While we do proofread requests we receive for general spelling and clarity, we may choose not to fulfill the request if it is incomplete, or it is unclear what specific information the requester hopes to receive. In this case, the sender may rewrite and resubmit the request.
It’s the requester’s responsibility to write the request in a manner that clearly specifies a record that is being requested, and to what government entity it should be sent.
☀️ Requests that are only informational questions, and requests that are not addressed to government entities.
Sunshine Request is a site built to make requests for public records to the government — Public records are recorded information such as documents, government emails, and data sets.
In the interest of preserving our team’s time to focus on the high volume of requests on our site, as well to respect the staff time of government entities fulfilling records requests, Sunshine Request will no longer fulfill “requests” that are just informational type questions for government entities to answer.
We also will not fulfill requests made to non-government entities.
It’s the requester’s responsibility to write the request in a manner that clearly specifies a record that is being requested, and to what government entity it should be sent.
☀️ Please be specific:
It is important that what you are requesting is specific and reasonable, and is an actionable records request. Please specify the exact type of records you’d like to receive, rather than any “possible” or “potential” info that could be searched. Remember that the larger your request, the more time it usually takes to fulfill. Specificity will often help reduce the amount of time needed to process the request.
It is important that a request has a clearly written and complete Subject and Message, and also specifies the Government Entity (or entities), City and/or County, and State to which the request should be sent. If applicable, please also include any responsive timelines for the info that should be requested.
While we do proofread requests we receive for general spelling and clarity, we may choose not to fulfill the request if it is incomplete, or it is unclear what specific info the requester hopes to receive, or if it violates our policies.
Before submitting a request, please take a moment to review our tips for How to write and make a successful request. If you have additional questions about our site or how to make requests, please check out our FAQs or Policies page.
☀️ Please note that we cannot pay any fees / associated costs related to any of the requests on our site. If it is not possible for a Government Agency to process our request without incurring fees, then it is the responsibility of that Agency to let us know what the potential costs may be — at which point we will ask that they cease processing the request. We will mark the request as “Completed” on our site, and the sender can contact the Government Agency directly, should they wish to further pursue a request.
Thank you for using Sunshine Request!