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One week later, this bureau reported that while the city was facing that oncoming threat, the City Emergency Management Agency was hosting a workshop.

That workshop apparently required the attendance of every one of the agency’s employees — thereby leaving their offices unattended shortly before and during the tornado.

And instead of being specifically related to emergency response training, the workshop dealt with ways to “learn and develop skills to increase agility and collaboration in city functions,� and to “think about the power of creativity and challenge your mental models ...�

After this and other questions about CEMA’s performance came to light in the storm’s aftermath, newly elected Mayor Cara Spencer announced that CEMA chief Sarah Russell was being placed on paid leave while the city sought a new chief.

Also on May 22, the day the workshop story ran in this space, this bureau asked for a relatively small amount of information under the Missouri Sunshine Law:

• Number of CEMA employees who attended the May 16 workshop, and the total number of employees in the agency.
• CEMA organizational chart.
• Records of money that CEMA spent to host the workshop.

That was it; the entire request.

Given that the mayor’s office had reported CEMA had only five or six employees, the information needed to satisfy the first two points of the request likely could fit on one, maybe two, sheets of paper.

The mayor’s office also said the cost of hiring the workshop presenters was paid for by a grant that the presenters secured — thereby costing the city nothing for the actual presentation.

However, some beverages and snacks were provided for attendees. And that was the reason for the third point of the request.

It seems appropriate to know how much taxpayer money was spent on a workshop that seemed to lack practicality and was not postponed in the face of a dire forecast.

In true automated fashion, the city’s Public Records Center responded on the same day, May 22, acknowledging that it got the request and would transfer it to the appropriate department.

So it came as no surprise that the next week — Wednesday, May 28, to be exact — the city sent the following message:

“Your request was forwarded to the Custodian of Records for the City Emergency Management Agency and is still being reviewed. I have followed-up with the Custodian and am working to determine what, if any, additional information is needed and developing a time-line for records production.

“I expect to have a response from them no later than June 11, 2025, and I will provide you with additional information at that time.�

That communique was signed by Camesha McFowland, the Sunshine Law coordinator for the City Counselor’s Office.

McFowland indeed provided me with additional information two weeks later, on June 11 — if “additional� can be defined as saying “additional time is necessary to locate and identify any records responsive to your request.�

This June 11 email concluded by saying “the earliest time and date records, if any, will be available ... is the close of business on June 18, 2025.�

Fair enough, the storm was only a month old and bureaucracies are big ships that never turn quickly.

True to her word, McFowland did communicate on June 18 — with another message, almost an exact duplicate of her previous message. The only difference was changing the date from June 18 to June 25.

And when June 25 rolled around, yet another bulletin arrived as promised from McFowland. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what it said?

Ding, ding, ding ... if you guessed it changed the date from June 25 to July 2 as the earliest date information could be available.

Now, ride your hot streak and take a stab at what the July 2 memo said: Score another point if you said it changed the date from July 2 to July 9 as the new date for possibly getting information.

So, as we gather here now — seven weeks after filing the request — not one of the handful of people in the CEMA office has been able to click on the right icon or open the right file drawer to find the information.

Granted, Spencer inherited a city counselor’s office that had been headed by Sheena Hamilton, an appointee of Tishaura O. Jones.

Hamilton came off as no friend of transparency, managing to anger the press, activists and aldermen with her tight grip on City Hall sunshine.

And the person Hamilton used as her sunshine request coordinator, Joseph Sims, was similarly criticized for keeping a tight lid on public information.

But Hamilton and Sims are both gone, leaving about the time Spencer took office on April 15.

So the questions asked on May 22 remain the same ones being asked today.

As to Russell’s employment, a mayoral spokesperson said she still is on paid administrative leave pending the results of an external investigation.

And the records request?

As of deadline Wednesday, we’re still waiting.