A lobbyist is accusing a state retirement agency of declining to release attorney costs or search for investments in offshore companies.
Josh Gaskin of Flotron McIntosh filed a lawsuit on Sept. 10 in Jefferson City that is expected to answer if public agencies can withhold how much they are paying lawyers, along with testing how deep they must go in looking for records under provisions of the Missouri Sunshine Law.
In the lawsuit, Gaskin alleges that the Missouri State Employees Retirement System (MOSERS) is sealing bills and agreements from attorneys that have represented the state agency in court. In addition, Gaskin is claiming that MOSERS is failing to uphold his open records request because it was too arduous on the agency.
Communications manager and public information officer for MOSERS, Candy Smith, said the agency takes its obligations under the Missouri Sunshine Law very seriously.
“MOSERS carefully evaluated each of Mr. Gaskin’s requests and produced thousands of pages of open records in response,” she told the St. Louis Record. “Some of Mr. Gaskin’s requests sought closed records under the Sunshine Law, including closed records that MOSERS is not permitted by law to make available to the public. MOSERS explained to Mr. Gaskin why it did not produce the closed records sought by him.”
MOSERS also did not charge Gaskin for its substantial search and production effort, Smith added.
“Mr. Gaskin asked that those costs to be waived, and MOSERS agreed, as it is permitted (but not required) to do under law,” she said. “MOSERS believes that Mr. Gaskin’s lawsuit is without merit and looks forward to explaining its position in court.”