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 01/29/25: The submission above has been marked as “Completed”.
1) As written it is unclear what specific, searchable data is being requested and to what specific Government entity (City / County / State) a request like this should be sent. The time period of 5+ years is also overly broad.
– It is important what you’re requesting is specific and reasonable. Please specify the exact records you’d like to receive, rather than any “possible” or “potential” info that could be searched.
– We recommend limiting requests to cover a three month time period, or shorter. Remember that the larger the request, the more time it takes to fulfill.
– If you happen to have email contact info for one specific entity or records officer that you think may be able to fulfill a request like this (for all of the [100] counties in North Carolina), please write this into the request.
– Clarifying this info will help to greatly narrow the scope of the request, and will also reduce the amount of time it takes the Disclosing Agency (as well as our team) to process the request.
2) It seems that the sender may be asking to submit 100 separate requests to different NC entities.
– If you are requesting similar info from different entities, we ask that the sender please submit individual requests to our website. Each one should clearly indicate the specific entity / city / county / state, time periods, etc. and what specifically is being requested of that particular entity.
– It would also be helpful if you please include any specific contact info / website links to point us to the exact entity that you’d like the request to be submitted to.
** That being said, please note:
Sunshine Request is a site built to make requests for public records (recorded info such as documents, emails, and data sets) to government entities. We are a small 3-person team, running the website in addition to our primary business. Due to our availability, the volume of requests we receive, and the time required to fulfill each one — our focus is on fulfilling requests which are in the public interest, and evaluating if there is a public benefit to that info being available.
We do not have the capacity to submit 100 similar requests to different entities. It would take us several months or more to do so, while also processing all other requests we receive on our site.
3) Additionally, please note:
A request for basic salary data typically includes employee first / last name, date of hire, current position / title / department, and current salary (hourly wage, rate, or salary — depending what pay structure applies to that employee).
Based on our experiences requesting this type of data from many entities – we feel it’s likely that any entity will not be able to query the data in the manner requested (on a specific date in time in the past, or “on the first day of every month, from January 01, 2020 through the present day, in 2025″). Most entities seem to only be able to provide salary data “as of the present day”.
In the future we’ll be happy to send in a new request for salary data, but just wanted to note that possibility for your consideration when writing any future requests.
4) We have helped fulfill thousands of records requests submitted through our website.
A very large majority of those requests happen to be related to employee salary data from different City and County governments in North Carolina. In each case we must contact an individual entity for assistance with a request related to their particular Government. In most cases, the responsive records we receive do include Sheriff’s Department employees. If it is helpful to search for a specific county via our website, you can do so via the “Search” function on our site.
Please feel free to revise and submit a new request to our site. 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, 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!