OKLAHOMA CITY — A state lawmaker wants to make it easier for Oklahomans to obtain public records by creating a state officer who can mediate disputes over government documents and access to information.
Rep. John Pfeiffer, R-Orlando, introduced legislation this year to create a public access counselor within the Attorney General’s Office who can step in if a state entity rejects a public records request.
Pfeiffer said his bill is in response to some state agencies intentionally delaying responses to records requests despite the Oklahoma Open Records Act specifying that citizens are entitled to “prompt, reasonable access.” He declined to name specific state agencies.
“We can clean up this process so we don’t find ourselves like we currently are where members of the media and members of the general public are waiting months and months, up to around 18 months, to get their public records,” he said. “Taxpayer dollars paid to produce these records. They belong to the people. The people should have a right to them.”
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The Oklahoma Legislature is exempt from the Open Records Act.
Pfeiffer said his House Bill 2287 is a work in progress because he’s hammering out the details with Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office and the Oklahoma Press Association.
Drummond has expressed support for making it easier for Oklahomans to obtain public records from state government entities. A spokesman for Drummond said the attorney general supports the idea of creating a public access counselor.
On Friday, Drummond said he hired former GOP Sen. Anthony Sykes to serve as an open records czar tasked with helping state agencies to understand and follow public records laws. Drummond also said his office has cleared an internal public records backlog that dated back to the middle of 2021.
Codifying this new position in state law would ensure future attorneys general make the same commitment to public records access, Pfeiffer said.
HB 2287 outlines the process for a citizen to seek a review from the public access counselor if their records request is denied. Then, it lays out the steps the counselor and the attorney general can take if they believe the request was wrongly denied.
Oklahoma Press Association Executive Vice President Mark Thomas said the bill could prevent news organizations from having to file a lawsuit if a records request is denied.
Texas, Kansas and Illinois are among the states that have created similar government positions devoted to improving access to public records, Thomas said.
“I think that the concept would be a big step forward for Oklahoma, just as it has been for other states,” he said.
As part of her role as a local attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Kathryn Gardner has spent the past two years providing pro bono legal services to Oklahoma journalists who are struggling to obtain public records.
She currently has three public records lawsuits pending against state entities or officials.
In one lawsuit, an Oklahoma journalist who is writing a book on Indigenous rights alleges the offices of Gov. Kevin Stitt and former Attorney General John O’Connor failed to provide prompt and reasonable access to public records. Gardner is also representing Oklahoma Watch in a lawsuit that asked a state agency to turn over public records showing applications for federal COVID relief funds.
The public has a right to review government records to be informed about how state decisions are being made and how taxpayer dollars are being spent, Gardner said.
In Oklahoma right now, legal action is the only recourse when a public records request is denied. For a journalist or an average citizen, that’s a costly and time-consuming barrier that stops many people from moving forward, she said.
Gardner said she’s interested to see the final language of HB 2287.
“Any law that is going to make it easier to get public information into the hands of ordinary people is a good thing,” she said
HB 2287 cleared its first legislative hurdle Tuesday and is now eligible to be heard on the House floor.
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