There will be more than 120 public records requests sitting on Catherine Hanaway’s desk when she takes the oath of office Monday morning to become Missouri’s next attorney general.
Some of the requests are months old, but all but one were submitted this year, said Stephanie Whitaker, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office.
And while higher than most state agencies, the 126 requests is an improvement on the 224 Hanaway’s predecessor, Andrew Bailey, inherited when he took office in 2023. That number ballooned at one point during Bailey’s short stint as attorney general to more than 400, with Missourians stuck in limbo for months — and in some cases, years — waiting for public records to be turned over.
The backlog of public records requests has bedeviled Bailey since he was appointed to take over the office after Eric Schmitt resigned to join the U.S. Senate. It’s a situation observers say would be unacceptable for any government agency but is especially problematic for the office in charge of enforcing Missouri’s Sunshine Law — designed to ensure the public has access to government records and meetings.
Bailey assigned five staffers to deal with Missouri Sunshine Law backlog, Whitaker said — four attorneys, one intern and a custodian of records. It’s why only 126 requests remain unfinished, she said, despite the office receiving more than 400 between January and July.
“There is definitely not a massive backlog that Catherine will be inheriting,” Whitaker said.
Bailey is resigning from office early to become co-deputy director of the FBI. Gov. Mike Kehoe appointed Hanaway, a former U.S. attorney and speaker of the Missouri House, as his replacement. She will be sworn into office in a private ceremony Monday morning.
Testifying to a Missouri Senate committee in February, Bailey said the office had received 1,465 requests under the Sunshine Law since January 2023 and managed to complete work on 1,390. Only 75 pending requests remained, he said at the time, a tally some lawmakers still felt was too high.
The only request left over from 2024, Whitaker said, produced more than 40,000 records and will take some time to complete. But, she said that is not slowing down work on others.
Whitaker signaled a change in the office’s policy that has focused on working through requests on a first come, first serve basis. That meant newer inquiries that were small and easily dispensed with sat on hold as staff worked on older and more expansive requests.
Critics argued the policy exacerbated the problem, letting requests pile up and ensuring the backlog took even longer to work through.
Whitaker said that’s no longer the case.
“It has changed a little,” she said. “We’re not putting you or anyone else on hold to satisfy this one request from 2024. So it would not be accurate to say inquiries are fulfilled in the order they’ve been received.”
But that doesn’t mean the public doesn’t still face delays.
In May, The Independent submitted a request for Bailey’s public calendar. Most state agencies turn around that type of request in a matter of days. The attorney general’s office turned the records over last week.
While slow, it’s still an improvement over previous attempts by The Independent to access Bailey’s calendar that took more than 10 months.