We at the Raleigh Public Record are always looking for ways to live up to our name. And in that light, we are revealing a new column: Sunshine Weekly. This new feature will bring reader participation to the forefront of what we are doing here at RPR.
Here’s the deal: Sunshine Weekly columnists will make public records requests and publish the documents that come out of the requests full text on our website. We will also provide some analysis of the documents. But the idea is that they will be here in their full form for readers to review. This is where you come in. What do you want to know from your government? We will request documents from city, county, state and federal departments, the only catch is that it needs to be related to Raleigh in some fashion. But we will do the legwork.
Got an idea? Click on the Contact link to get in touch with the editors.
The Raleigh Public Record reserves the right to not make any request. But as long as it is Raleigh-related, we will make every effort to get the records readers are interested in seeing.
For our first edition, we requested any requests for reimbursement from the city filed by City Manager Russell Allen, Mayor Charles Meeker and Raleigh Chief Financial Officer Perry James.
Here’s the email sent to the city requesting the documents to Jayne Kirkpatrick, the head of Raleigh’s public affairs office:
Jayne,I hope you had a good holiday weekend. I would like to request the following documents:
All of the expense reports and any other documents requesting reimbursement from the city from Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
All of the expense reports and any other documents requesting reimbursement from the city from Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
All of the expense reports and any other documents requesting reimbursement from the city from Raleigh’s Chief Financial Officer Perry James for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
I would prefer digital copies of the above-referenced documents,. But in the event that you do not keep digital copies I will be happy to come and scan them in, or I will pay reasonable copy costs if necessary.
Please confirm that you received this request and let me know how long it will take to fulfill.
Thank you,
Charles
And here is the full-text document she sent in response:
