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 02/07/24: The submission above has been marked as “Completed”. As written, it is unclear what specific, searchable public records the sender would like to receive:
1. “a copy of all deposits of donations received by Sherrif Ellenburg for the Sheriff department and deposits into his political campaign accounts.”
– It is unclear what donations received “for the Sheriff department” means, and what specific records you’d like to receive. Also — what time period should this cover? Is it 01/01/23 – 02/01/24, or some other period?.
2.“all emails and texts from Sherrif Ellenburg and Mike Hager from January 1, 2023 to February 1, 2024.”
“all emails and texts from Sherrif Ellenburg and Bryson Smith from January 1, 2023 to February 1, 2024.”– Is this meant to be a request for “all texts and emails sent between the Sheriff and Mike Hager” specifically. And, “all texts and all emails sent between the Sheriff and Bryson Smith” specifically?
– We don’t know how many records a request like this would potentially include — but since the communications you’re seeking cover a 1+ year period, and are not subject matter or keyword specific, as it’s written we find the request to be overly broad.
- When requesting communication records, it’s important to specify the type of communications being requested, who the communications are “sent to”, “sent from”, or “sent between”, and any specific people / staff / departments etc. that should be included. Also, when a request covers a large time period and multiple entities / employees, it’s important to include any specific subject matter or specific keywords that should be included in the search.
Clarifying this info will help to greatly narrow the scope of the request(s), and will also reduce the amount of time it takes the Disclosing Agency (as well as our team) to process the request.
Please feel free to revise and submit a new request through our website. Please clearly indicate any specific details, subject matter, message, dates, record types, City / County / State, etc. about the exact public records that are being requested, and to what entity the request is being made.
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.
☀️ Requests that include profanity, personal statements, opinions, possibly defamatory statements, or other unnecessary info that is not relevant to making a records request.
Please do not include personal opinions and statements in the request’s Subject or Message. Please omit any extraneous statements that are not specific to the exact information you’d like to receive. This is not relevant information pertinent to the processing of a records request, and the request will not be published.
☀️ 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!