Memo shows Missouri AG helped craft governor’s plan to weaken open records laws

According to a 2021 memo obtained by The Independent, one of the architects of Parson’s plan to weaken government transparency laws was Andrew Bailey.
At the time, Bailey was serving as the governor’s general counsel. In January, he was sworn in as Missouri’s attorney general, the office in charge of enforcing the Sunshine Law and making sure government agencies are complying with its provisions on open records and public meetings.

Since he stepped on the public stage for the first time late last year as Parson’s pick to replace Eric Schmitt as attorney general, Bailey has faced criticism from transparency advocates — first over the governor’s office slow-walking release of documents from his time as general counsel, then for a massive backlog of public records requests within the attorney general’s office.