by Robin Kemp

The Clayton Crescent held its first Citizens’ Sunshine Workshop on March 19 in honor of Sunshine Week. The online event featured presentations by Richard Griffiths, immediate past president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and board member of The Clayton Crescent, and Robin Kemp, executive editor and CEO of The Clayton Crescent.

During Sunshine Week, Clayton County Police held a press conference March 17, 2021 with a banner reading “TRANSPARENCY” as the backdrop.

Also during Sunshine Week:

  • the Clayton County Police Department held a press conference about the Sam’s Club car rally bust, featuring a banner that read “TRANSPARENCY”
  • Clayton County issued a press release announcing its recent implementation of its new GovQA Open Records Request portal
  • The UGA Law First Amendment Clinic sent a letter to Georgia State Attorney General, Chris Carr, alleging that the City of Forest Park violated the Open Records Act with regard to three of The Clayton Crescent’s requests for records. The clinic is asking Carr to “instruct the City to immediately fulfill Ms. Kemp’s three outstanding ORA requests and instruct the City that its failure to do so prior to now violates state law. We request that the Attorney General further direct the City to, henceforth, produce responsive documents within the statutory time limits set forth in the Open Records Act.”

We are sharing video (soon) from the workshop and a handy reference guide for Clayton County citizens who want to know more about how to find routine government documents (like agendas and minutes), as well as an introduction to the Open Records process. We may make additions/corrections/updates to the document over time and will update the PDF as needed.

Download The Clayton Crescent’s free PDF Citizens’ Guide to Open Records:

Sunshine-Week-2021-Citizens-Guide-to-Open-RecordsDownload

In addition, we recommend these handbooks from the Georgia First Amendment Foundation:

You can order these in bulk for a nominal price or request a speaker for your group by contacting info@gfaf.org. The Clayton Crescent also has a very limited number of copies of The Red Book on hand–yours for the asking while supplies last.

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