ST. LOUIS — Major Tishaura O. Jones, who ran on promises of increased transparency in city government, is a defendant in a new lawsuit from a noted Missouri open government advocate alleging St. Louis has developed a “scheme” to “routinely” keep records from the public.
The lawsuit was filed Monday by attorney Elad Gross, who ran in the 2020 Democratic Party primary for Missouri attorney general and last year won a major Sunshine Law case at the Missouri Supreme Court after he sued Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s administration for overcharging for public records.
Elad Gross, a constitutional lawyer, works on his phone outside the St. Louis jail on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, as he waits to be let in to speak with some of the people who were arrested for blocking Interstate 64 the night before. A group of activists and lawyers waited outside the jail overnight working to get those arrested freed.
David Carson, Post-Dispatch
Gross’ 273-page lawsuit names Jones, City Counselor Sheena Hamilton and city Sunshine Law coordinator Joseph Sims as defendants, saying they have “established a system by which they regularly violate Missouri’s Sunshine Law and use public funding to deny the public access to public records .”