Clay County drops appeal of Kansas City Star lawsuit for violating open records law
The Clay County Commission has dropped its appeal of a lawsuit filed by The Kansas City Star for violating the Missouri Sunshine Law.
The Star filed suit in 2019 after a private lawyer representing the county at the time said a reporter would have to pay $4,200 to review legal invoices that his law firm submitted to the county.
A judge last year ruled that by charging such a fee, Clay County violated the Sunshine Law, which is intended to give the public access to most government records.
“When entities like The Kansas City Star want information that they are owed under the law, we ought to provide it,” said current commissioner Jon Carpenter. “We shouldn’t put up fights and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and then, of course, ultimately, over time, millions of dollars of unnecessary legal costs. So it’s definitely a new era in Clay County government.”
The commission at the time the lawsuit was filed was controlled by former associate commissioners Luann Ridgeway and Gene Owen. They decided to appeal the judge’s ruling to the Missouri Court of Appeals.
“The current Clay County Commission is right: The public deserves transparency from its elected officials,” said Greg Farmer, The Star’s managing editor. “Public records don’t belong to public officials. They belong to the public. We’re delighted with the outcome in this case, but we shouldn’t have to sue so that our elected officials obey the law.
“That said, we will continue to fight for the public’s right to know.”
From 2017 to 2020, Ridgeway and Owen formed a voting bloc on the three-member commission that controlled most of the county’s substantive decisions. One of those decisions was to outsource basic county functions to private law firms, including hiring the Spencer Fane law firm to review the public’s requests to seek county records, a job previously done by the Clay County Clerk.
It’s common for cities and counties to use outside law firms to handle certain matters. Less common was Clay County’s practice of using private law firms to carry out routine matters, for which it was billed hundreds of dollars per hour.
Spencer Fane records obtained by The Star, not through a Sunshine Law request but from a whistleblower, showed the firm billed Clay County $147,000 since 2016 to review records requests.
In 2020 alone, Clay County spent $1.27 million in legal fees, according to information produced by Clay County in response to a request for records. Husch Blackwell was paid $884,730 while Spencer Fane made $373,181 from Clay County in 2020.
Under Ridgeway and Owen, the county got rid of its staff attorney and hired outside law firms to perform the county’s regular duties. Ridgeway and Owen decided not to seek another term in office and left their positions at the end of 2020.
The current commission, one in which Ridgeway and Owen were replaced by Carpenter and former county clerk Megan Thompson, voted to drop the appeal.
During the commission’s March 4 meeting, commissioners discussed the forthcoming conclusion of its litigation with The Star.
“Now, in my opinion, the previous corrupt commission broke the Sunshine Law, they have wasted taxpayer money and they tried to get away with it,” Thompson said. “And this new commission has reversed this course by making transparency and accountability a top priority. We take seriously our roles as servant leaders and good stewards of taxpayer money. And that’s why it is my pleasure to announce that the lawsuit between the Kansas City Star and Clay County is coming to an end.”
The county commission also decided to drop its legal challenges to a citizen-requested examination of Clay County by the Missouri auditor. The audit of Clay County government began in 2018 after more than 9,000 residents petitioned for it after suspecting corruption and waste, but the previous commission lodged several unsuccessful efforts to delay or to limit the scope of the audit.
Carpenter said last week he was thrilled that the unnecessary lawsuits involving the previous commission were coming to an end.
On Tuesday morning, a Star reporter requested commission spending in December 2020 through a Sunshine Law request. Most of the records were produced before noon.
