Missouri AG files suit against City of Kansas City claiming Sunshine requests have gone unanswered

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed suit Thursday in Jackson County, claiming the City of Kansas City has failed to respond to records requests in a violation of Sunshine Law.

Court documents revealed Bailey’s office submitted three separate Sunshine requests to the City on March 3, 2025. In an email shared with KCTV Friday, Bailey’s office claims he is suing Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas “after the city spent millions of taxpayer dollars on out-of-state law firms in an effort to defund the police and subvert the will of the people’s elected representatives.”

According to the lawsuit, the KCMO Public Records Center returned an email on March 3 that said the city would provide a cost estimate for fulfilling the requests. The email claimed the cost estimate would return “within 15 business days.” At the bottom of the Public Record Center’s response was a link to “monitor the progress or update this request,” the lawsuit claims.

Bailey’s lawsuit claims 45 days later -- on April 16, 2025, -- there was no update available regarding the cost estimate or the requested records.

It claims “the City has knowingly and purposely violated its obligations by failing to produce records in response to the Attorney General’s three requests from March 3, 2025.”

Asked for comment regarding Bailey’s claims, a spokesperson for Mayor Lucas said the legal case “continues Mr. Bailey’s ongoing pattern of harassment of and infatuation with Mayor Lucas.”

“Having defeated Andrew Bailey at the Missouri Supreme Court and elsewhere, the mayor will trust the legal process to resolve expeditiously this matter, and hope that Mr. Bailey returns to his primary job of addressing crime in Missouri, rather than his ongoing and one-sided fixation with the mayor,” a spokesperson for Mayor Lucas said.

“As Missouri’s top lawyer, Andrew Bailey is no doubt aware the mayor does not take in Sunshine Requests submitted to the City and the mayor had no role in the fulfillment of that request,” a statement from Lucas’ office continued. “That said, much of the information Mr. Bailey requests already has been produced in connection with prior litigation and has been published previously in a lengthy opinion piece in the Kansas City Star.”

Lucas’ spokesperson said the mayor “encourages the City to complete expeditiously the time-consuming process of reviewing the thousands of records, emails, and communications Mr. Bailey seeks so that the City, unlike Mr. Bailey, can save taxpayer dollars avoiding needless litigation.

“With Holy week upon us, the mayor will keep Mr. Bailey and all who love him in his prayers for a fine Easter,” the spokesperson concluded.

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