ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

ST. LOUIS — Al Johnson wanted to check on a landlord in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. He ended up in an absurd tug-of-the-war with the city over public records.

Johnson is executive director of , a faith-based nonprofit that represents tenants who have been wronged by landlords. Recently, he’s filed a spate of lawsuits against brothers Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty, owners of several apartment buildings in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. The brothers are facing federal fraud allegations, on top of the problems identified by Johnson’s lawsuits, including illegal utility cutoffs and roach-infested apartments.

As he often does when he wants to hold a landlord accountable, Johnson filed a Sunshine Law request with the city, seeking permits, complaints and building code violations. His clients are Salinas Rangel, Megan O’Donnell, Ryuichi Yamamoto and Cathryn Bolick. They live in three different buildings owned or developed by the landlord brothers.

“We request all information your office has regarding complaints that have been made by current tenants, former tenants, employees, attorneys, or anyone else regarding either conditions of habitability at any aforementioned properties, or any other conditions that allegedly violate ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ City Ordinances or building codes,â€� Johnson wrote on Jan. 20.

It’s a fairly standard request he’s made dozens of times over the years.

But in this case, Johnson ran into a problem. Joseph Sims, who oversees the city’s records portal, sent an email saying it would cost $420 just to do a search. The email was addressed to Keannah Moore, a former paralegal of Johnson’s.

Moore hasn’t worked for Johnson for months. She’s now a law student at Rutgers University. But she ran the paralegal email account in Johnson’s office when the city set up its Sunshine Law portal; she signed up for the portal with that account, with her name associated with it.

There was a time, Johnson says, when he would have just sent somebody over to City Hall to ask for the records. But under Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, all Sunshine Law requests have to be made through the portal, a website that refers every request to Sims, who then forwards them to the proper departments. In some ways, the move has been a disaster, with several lawsuits alleging open records violations and attorneys, reporters, residents and elected officials all complaining about how public records are handled.

On Jan. 27, Johnson wrote back. He explained to Sims that he was the requester of the information and that Moore no longer worked at the office. He asked Sims to explain the $420 charge in more detail.

“Please note, Keannah Moore is the requester,� Sims replied, “and Al W. Johnson is not the requester, therefore, all communications regarding this request will be sent to Keannah Moore (the requester).�

Johnson was befuddled, and a little bit angry.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,� he told me. “My name is on the letter. It is clearly my request.�

Johnson, being a bit old school, picked up the phone and called Sims. He explained that the original request, sent via email and through the portal, had his name on it. He signed it, and his organization was on the letterhead. Moore had nothing to do with it. He wanted to understand the $420 charge before he paid it.

Sims wouldn’t talk to him. He insisted that Moore — who by this point hadn’t worked at New Covenant Legal Services for 7 months — was the requester. He would only talk to her.

Johnson didn’t give up. He sent requests directly to the Department of Health. But the department forwarded the requests to Sims, who, of course, sent an email addressed to Moore.

Johnson’s last letter — the one he hand-delivered before he called me — went to City Counselor Sheena Hamilton, who is Sims’ boss.

“We have sent varied Sunshine Law requests, replies, and amendments over the past few weeks,� Johnson wrote on Feb. 18. “In response, Mr. Sims violated every above-detailed part of the Sunshine Law. Although we consider all his violations obstructive, we detail only his clearly flagrant, deliberate, and repeated obstructions below.�

Sims emailed back two days later: “To reiterate, all communications regarding this request are to be transmitted only by way of this Public Portal system.�

His email was directed to, of course, Moore.

At this point, Johnson believes the city’s refusal to honor his Sunshine Law request is “absolutely deliberate,� and the only beneficiaries are the landlords he’s suing. Johnson needs the records to help make the case that the landlords have a pattern of bad behavior, but he has to overcome the city’s bad behavior before he can make that case.

“Getting documents in landlord cases used to be user-friendly,� Johnson says. “That all changed the day this administration came in.�

Sims has now closed Johnson’s request for lack of payment.

Johnson hopes a new mayor will fix the city’s Sunshine Law problems. He’s backing Alderman Cara Spencer, who overwhelmingly won the primary for mayor.

Jones’ office objects to the argument that a new mayor will improve the city’s handling of Sunshine Law requests.

“The reality is that there are hard-working people in every department who go above and beyond their normal duties to fulfill the many, many sunshine requests the city receives every week,â€� Conner Kerrigan, the spokesman for Jones, said. “Sometimes that takes time and sometimes that costs money and there is not a politician who is going to change that. As always, the city of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is hiring.â€�

Johnson says he’s considering a lawsuit against the city but is putting it off until after the mayoral election next month.

“To what window do I go to in order to get good government in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ City?â€� Johnson asks.

He lives in the city. His office is in the city. His clients live in the city and want to stay there. “I would think they’d be falling all over themselves trying to help us.�