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 07/12/24: The submission above has been marked as “Completed”.
1) Overall, as written it is unclear what specific public records the sender would like to receive, and to what specific time period those records should apply. 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.
2) Unless specified otherwise, we typically interpret the term “correspondence” or “communications” to mean Emails, SMS text messages, Google Chat messages, and Facebook Messenger messages — Please specify the exact “communications” records you are hoping to receive.
3) The time period for responsive records written in the request’s Message indicates the sender is asking for communications (and other records?) from April 01, 2023 through June 18, 2024. However, the dates in the Start Date / End Date section indicate a longer period of April 01, 2023 through June 30, 2024. Please clarify the desired time period.
4) We don’t know how many records a request like this would potentially include — but due to the long time period of more than 1 year, and since it’s unclear if these communications are subject matter or keyword specific (and there are also multiple different aspects to the request), as it’s written we find the request to be overly broad and unclear.
– 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/or multiple entities, it’s important to include any specific subject matter or specific keywords that should be included in the search.
– We recommend limiting requests like this to cover a three month time period, or shorter. Remember that the larger the request, the more time it takes to fulfill. If you’d like to request records over a larger time frame, then please include more keywords, to / from addresses etc. to limit the number of responsive records.
Please feel free to revise and submit a new request through our site. 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.
Clarifying the specific records you’re seeking 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.
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!