RALEIGH -- A coalition that includes several media outlets, an environmental advocacy organization, and a liberal research group are suing Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and the heads of several state agencies, alleging that they have violated the state's open records laws.

The suit filed in Wake County Superior court changed the administration, with among other points, “failing or refusing to furnish requesters with copies of requested public records "as promptly as possible";  imposing or requesting unjustified and unreasonable "special service charges" for locating, retrieving and copying public records”; and in some cases “denying or concealing the existence of public records.”

The suit specially said information was not provided in a timely manner on, among other topics: travel by state officials, the specifics to sell the Dorthea Dix property to the city of Raleigh, a state mobility plan, several environmental projects and salaries in the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Governor’s office provided an official response, but also said in media reports they considered the lawsuit “frivolous” by members of the “liberal news media.”

“This administration is a champion of transparency and fair and legitimate news gathering. Fulfilling records requests is vital part of meeting those goals,” according to the official statement.

“The facts are the McCrory administration has been asked to fulfill more than 22,000 records request, or roughly 170 every business week. The breadth of some of these requests is staggering. One advocacy group’s records request was so broad, it produced more than 5 million emails after the computer search was halted after 6 days. The narrowed search, now 6 days old, is expected to return approximately 1 million e-mails that must be individually reviewed to protect legally confidential information and the privacy of our citizens.”

The statement noted it cost $1.7 million, to retrieve more than 2.2 billion emails from nearly 95,000 mailboxes of current and former state employees and transfer them to a new, more efficient record retrieval system.

“Like the requests themselves, this lawsuit is an attempt to tie up state personnel and resources that should be spent serving the people of North Carolina,” the statement concluded.

Only hours after the suit was filed, the state’s Republican Party reiterated a request for extensive records from Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is expected to challenge McCrory for Governor next year.

“Roy Cooper should comply with the law he swore an oath to uphold as North Carolina’s chief law enforcement officer,” said GOP Chairman Hasan Harnett. “It shouldn't take legal action for him to comply with the law. But for more than 127 days to pass without any meaningful response from his office despite repeated calls and emails from our team, it is clear he is stonewalling the North Carolina people and is shirking his responsibilities.”

The North Carolina Republican Party had previously requested a meeting with Cooper’s office to discuss its public records request and his compliance with the law, but received no response.

The GOP has requested all his official emails and any private emails retaining to his public duties; all correspondence between his office and the General Assembly; all correspondence between his office and that of Gov. Mike Easley; a copy of all correspondence between his office and that of Walter Dalton while Dalton was a senator or lieutenant governor; and his official calendar from 2001 to present.

The GOP has threated to file suit in less than a week if they don’t receive a response.