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He had questions about a proposed development near his house. He couldn’t get answers. So he filed a Sunshine Law request, seeking documents that might explain what was going on.

Maki lives in Parkville, a suburb of Kansas City, along the Missouri River. His experience is not much different than that of people in small towns and big cities across the state. “The city wasn’t very forthcoming with facts,� Maki says. He didn’t know much about the Sunshine Law, the state’s open meetings and open records law intended to hold public officials accountable by making their actions transparent to taxpayers.

He filed request after request and kept running into road blocks. The city wanted $3,000. Or it said it didn’t have the records. Eventually he found out that city officials were discussing public business on private emails.

So he filed a lawsuit. Maki didn’t have an attorney. He sought some advice from Clayton lawyer Mark Pedroli, who founded the Sunshine and Government Accountability Project to promote government transparency. “I’ve never been involved in litigation before,� Maki said. He’s a technology consultant. He used his skills to help track the documents he was getting from the city.

Last week, Maki emerged victorious in his battle with the city, winning perhaps the largest Sunshine Law settlement in state history. Parkville paid Maki $195,000 to make his lawsuit go away. The settlement is a celebration of government accountability. It’s a sign that, yes, one man can take on City Hall.

But it’s also something else: A further sign that Missouri has a Sunshine Law problem that starts at the top. That’s what Tom Sullivan sees from here in St. Louis County. Sullivan is a long-time government watchdog who regularly files Sunshine Law requests of local governments. When he runs into obstacles, he goes to the state attorney general to seek help. He’s been doing this through a series of attorneys general, from Jay Nixon to Chris Koster to Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt. None of them has been particularly helpful, Sullivan says, enforcing the law that leaves residents blind if public officials believe they can ignore it.

“I think Eric Schmitt needs to do a much better job of enforcing the Sunshine Law,� Sullivan says. “That can be accomplished mainly by using the authority of his office. If that doesn’t work then a lawsuit needs to be filed. It’s expensive for a citizen to file a lawsuit, and it isn’t easy to win given the weakness of the law. The Parkville lawsuit is the exception. Of the last four attorney generals I have dealt with regarding Sunshine Law complaints, Schmitt is the worst at addressing them.�

Maki, too, sought the help of Schmitt’s office when his Sunshine Law requests were ignored. The process was slow. “It became obvious that I had to take things into my own hands,� Maki said.

So he filed suit, took the case to trial, and won a massive settlement. There’s something about the settlement that Maki wants his fellow taxpayers to know. It could have been for much less money. During settlement negotiations, Maki asked that Parkville agree to pass an ordinance to make it illegal for public officials in that city to use private emails for communication.

The attorneys for the city declined. They decided to pay more taxpayer money in a settlement rather than put a stop to a bad public practice that is pervasive in government at all levels.

One step forward, two steps back. That’s how it is with public accountability these days. Pedroli believes the combination of Maki’s settlement and a recent unanimous Missouri Supreme Court decision in a case brought by St. Louis lawyer Elad Gross, which says governments can’t pass off attorney fees for reviewing records to the people asking for the records, ought to put public officials in ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ on notice.

“Maki’s efforts and results are proof positive that non-lawyers can successfully prosecute Sunshine Law violations,� Pedroli says. Thanks to Maki, those non-lawyers will have a new tool at their disposal, also. Maki has created that helps citizens search the emails he obtained, and he says the page can be adapted to help other people track their future Sunshine Law requests.

“If people can access the information more readily,� Maki says, “they are more likely to become engaged citizens.�