JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The ongoing controversy over the the Department of Public Safety’s document sharing procedures and the Missouri Department of Revenue’s document scanning procedures has set off a string of disclosure requests under the Missouri Sunshine Law.
Last week, a handful of state representatives — including Republicans Casey Guernsey, Holly Rehder, Eric Burlison, and Stanley Cox — sent Sunshine requests to Gov. Jay Nixon and the two agencies, in addition to a Sunshine request to the Missouri Attorney General’s office sent by Rep. Bill White.
The requests ask for documents related to the Department of Revenue and the License Fee Offices document scanning procedures, the federal REAL ID Act of 2005, and any request by a federal or state agency related to concealed-carry weapons permits. Burlison’s request specifically asked for correspondences between Nixon administration officials about the document scanning controversy, MorphoTrust USA (the company contracted to produce the new licences), and all information from MorphoTrust USA’s lobbyists.
“What is really obvious is that it is about asking the right questions in the right way,” he said. “The only thing that we’ve gotten back so far is that they are looking in to it and they are looking in to what the costs are going to be.”
In response to inquiries from The Missouri Times, the offices of all five lawmaker said the administration almost immediately responded to ask for more time to comply with their request. White said of his request to Koster, “We should start getting info later next week.”
The Nixon administration, which in the recent week has become more aggressive in fighting back on what has become a major hurdle in his second term agenda, filed their own Sunshine request last week asking the House of Representatives to preserve computer records regarding a computer that has sought access to the state’s data center.
Nixon’s administration said a House computer tried to access an account set up for Special Agent Keith Schilb of the Office of Inspector General of the Social Security Administration, a name at the center of the DOR controversy. The Nixon administration had once sent Schilb information to access confidential information regarding conceal carry weapons permits.
“Within the hour, the Office of Administration made a written request to the Chief Clerk of the House to preserve these records so that the specific House computer from with these unauthorized attempts was made could be identified,” said Misti Preston, a spokesman for the Office of Administration. “At approximately 5 p.m. the Chief Clerk responded that they would not provide these public records, nor would those records be preserved.”
The House computer was not able to access any of the information on the file because it had been removed after the document became public knowledge during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. The documents were given to the committee in response to a subpoena.
On Monday, House Speaker Tim Jones announced he had formed an independent investigative committee to look in to potential wrong doing by Nixon.
