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 07/24/24: The submissions above have been marked as “Completed”. Please review the email we received today (July 24, 2024 @ 11:05 AM) from Lincoln County, NC Attorney Megan Gilbert in regard to the following records request:
Including that request – currently, we have 3 “open” requests submitted to Lincoln County, NC:
Megan’s message today is intended to apply to all 3 of those open requests, as well as any prior requests the County has already fulfilled for us since May 2024.
We are a very small team, running this site in addition to our primary business. We will need time to discuss and respond to the email we’ve received from Megan today. Once we’ve determined a course of action or replied to Megan, those updates will be posted on our site. It could take some time.
Until this matter is resolved – our team at Sunshine Request ([email protected]) will not be sending any more new requests to Lincoln County, NC Government. Please do not attempt to submit any new requests to the County through our website during this time. If you would like to submit a new request for records for the County to fulfill, please reach out to them directly for assistance.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
That said. In regard to the new Submissions # 1 and # 2 above – In the future, if you do choose to submit requests to Lincoln County through our website please note:
#1) 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. 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.
#2) Since 2020 we have frequently received or completed many requests asking for various salary (and other financial) data from Lincoln County, NC employees. We ask that the sender please perform a “Search” on our website using the term “Lincoln” or “Lincoln County” to see those requests. Most recently, we fulfilled another request to the County on June 07, 2024 for “… all current employees and salaries“.
We understand that Lincoln County Gov. might not have a public data dashboard with salary data, or that perhaps they are not proactively making that public online. We would typically be glad to continue to send records requests on the sender’s behalf to obtain updated salary info. However, if the sender plans to continue to request updated employee salaries on a monthly, bi-monthly, or regular basis, we would ask that you please try getting in touch with the County directly for assistance. We encourage you to ask them to post that type of salary data on their website (or open data dashboard), on a regular basis. It is in the public’s interest for them to do so, and it would also benefit County staff by saving them time fulfilling repeated requests for that same data.
As an example. The City of Asheville, NC uses the following:
https://data-avl.opendata.arcgis.com/
https://data-avl.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/4d96bf8fbad640edbe124fe7185ba670_0/explore
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!