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 02/26/24: The submission above has been marked as “Completed”.
Since 2019 we have received many requests asking for various salary data from employees at “Gaston County” or “Gastonia” NC Governments.
Just to name a few:
– On 03/06/23 we completed a request for “… a list of ALL current Gaston County, NC employees and their base yearly salaries, as of 01/20/2023 (or on the date the query is performed).”
– On 08/04/23 we completed a request for “… a list of ALL current Gaston County, NC Employees and their Salaries, as of 06/23/2023 or present day (date the query is performed).”
– On 02/19/24 we completed a request for “… the names and salaries of ALL current Gaston County, NC employees, as of the present day [on the date the query is performed].”
The submission above is asking for the same data previously provided in March and August 2023, as well as “… A list of total overtime accrued in 2023.” We interpret the sender’s Message to mean they’d like to request “A list of every employee working for the County at any point in 2023 — to include their name, position/title/department, date of hire, salary (hourly wage, hourly rate, or salary). And, the total of overtime accrued by each employee in 2023″. However, it’s not clear if you’d like to know the hours and an equivalent dollar amount of the accrual [if that applies], or, just an overall number of hours?
If you can please clarify this info, it will help to possibly narrow the scope of the request or reduce the amount of time it takes the Disclosing Agency to process it. Please feel free to revise and submit a new request through our website. Please clearly indicate any specific details, subject, message, dates, record types, City / County / State, etc. about the exact public records that are being requested.
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, overly broad, 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.
☀️ 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.
☀️ Code of Conduct: Please do not use Sunshine Request or any of the results of public records requests to harass government entities / employees, businesses, private citizens / individuals, or otherwise.
☀️ 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!