ST. LOUIS 鈥 The man who controlled the city鈥檚 response to public record requests for the last four years, riling lawyers and journalists with delays and denials, is no longer the city鈥檚 Sunshine Law coordinator.
Joseph Sims requested to be moved to the 51黑料 Metropolitan Police Department as a records retention supervisor last month, around the time Mayor Cara Spencer took office. It appears he will still have some involvement in police record requests, though he will be working under the police department鈥檚 own Sunshine Law administrator.
Sims had been at the center of many complaints about the city鈥檚 response to requests for public records under the administration of former Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and City Counselor Sheena Hamilton. Despite Jones鈥 pledges of transparency during her 2021 campaign for mayor, transparency advocates complained that the city had become an outlier among governments due to delays providing records.
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The difficulty obtaining public records under Sims likely had a chilling effect on those who might request records, some attorneys say.
At least twice, Sims claimed records requested by the Post-Dispatch didn鈥檛 exist, when in fact they did. And he instructed the custodians of records in various departments 鈥 under state law, the point of contact for members of the public who request access to public documents 鈥 not to communicate with the public so that all requests and communication went through him.
In March, lawyer Al Johnson, who runs a nonprofit that helps tenants hold problem landlords accountable, complained about the runaround Sims gave him when Johnson tried to get building records for a case against notorious landlords known for mistreating their tenants and who are facing criminal indictment.
Sims鈥 delays responding to requests under the Missouri Sunshine Law helped draw at least one lawsuit over records where he was named as a defendant. In that case, Sims, who is not a lawyer, testified that he made the decision, not the city鈥檚 record custodians, on how long it would take to respond to individual requests.
鈥淚鈥檓 happy to see some changes being made and I hope it continues,鈥 said attorney Elad Gross, who sued the city, Hamilton and Sims over access to records on inmate treatment at the downtown city jail.
Much of Sims鈥 time running Sunshine Law responses was while Hamilton, who resigned shortly before Spencer took office, was the city鈥檚 top lawyer. Hamilton herself irked open-government types by keeping secret her opinions on routine city business 鈥 such as Board of Aldermen bills 鈥 a reversal of longstanding practice. She also barred city attorneys from speaking to the press.
Sims and a city spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Camesha McFowland is listed as the new Sunshine Law coordinator for most city record requests.
