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 10/24/25: The submission above has been marked as “Completed”. As written, it is unclear what specific records you’re requesting.
We’ll assume the sender is referring to Polk County NC.
On October 16, 2025 we completed a similar request to Polk County, NC that asked for “… names and salaries of all Polk County, NC employees who were employed at any point in time from February 01, 2025 through the present day [on the date the query is performed].” The results we received should include employees who are currently employed as of 10/16/25.
We think perhaps what the sender is saying today is that they expected to see Commissioners + Elected Officials included in that report, and also that the County interpreted the request we wrote to mean “only new hires made” during that period of time.
Please note the following from our FAQs page:
Who should I contact if I think there are results of requests that have been improperly disclosed or should be redacted?
The results of all Completed requests are published on our site, and have been provided to Sunshine Request directly by the disclosing government agency (government entity).
Sunshine Request’s policy in situations involving an alleged improper disclosure is to refer you to the disclosing agency (government entity). If any party feels that an alleged improper disclosure has taken place, please contact the disclosing agency (government entity) directly.
If the disclosing agency, after a review of your case, determines that confidential information was improperly disclosed, and notifies us of such disclosure, we will then be able to review your case.
Similarly — Sunshine Request has reviewed any info given to us from Polk County, NC to determine if it satisfies the initial request. We make no claim as to the veracity of records / responses we receive from Entities. If you have reason to believe that the County has improperly disclosed (or is not disclosing) all available public records in accordance with NC Public Records Law, we encourage you to reach out to them directly.
Alternatively — once our request form reopens next week, 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.
☀️ 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.
☀️ 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.
☀️ 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!