A CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM

THERE IS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST

IN OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM OR JUST THE APPEARANCE OF ONE

- THE WATCHMAN

Often times are done within government agencies and private associations. The question is whether or not they represent a conflict of Interest. Outward appearance would tend to lean towards there being a conflict of interest when they are not. Two such entities are the District Attorney’s Council, a state agency, and the District Attorney’s Association, a private entity. The answer will surprise all.

What got us interested in this subject was article. There are two groups in Oklahoma that we are going to talk about. One is the Oklahoma District Attorney Council, a state agency, and the Oklahoma District Attorney’s Association, a private organization. The first group is a state agency and subject to the open meetings act. The second group being a private association is not subject to the open meetings act. Because both groups are comprised of the same individuals, has made people a little un-trusting of both groups. We can understand why.

Here’s a brief summary of how things go. There is a call to order, introductions, get down to do the business scheduled votes and adjournment. They all get themselves some fresh coffee and five minutes later They start the meeting of the second group, a private organization meaning the meeting of this group is behind closed doors and the business they do is private.

To this point, there is nothing in the statutes that prevent them from doing so. Where they run into trouble is the top two executives of this group are registered lobbyists. We agree with the original article and say that answering questions with, quoting the article, “One of the most interesting things during session was that oftentimes, when questions were raised in the public meeting by the Das, the answer they got was We’ll discuss that in the ODDA meeting. “When actions like this occur, it only serves to strengthen the mistrust most people, including a lot of DA’s have of both organizations.

We first went to this site and actually read the law covering the open meetings act. It is a very dry read, but it answers a lot of questions. If you want to know what the state statues are covering the open meetings, we would recommend that you start here.

We next found this site which covers the freedom of information act. This is a very informative article well worth reading.

Now there is nothing that prohibits a non-profit from conducting lobbying activity. We can also understand why these two groups would want to keep the lobbyist within the organization. Governor Stitt even signed an executive order prohibiting state agencies from hiring outside lobbyist, but it is our opinion that these two organizations should have sought permission for outside lobbyist. This is where we believe the conflict of interest arises. The Council’s and Association have the top two executives of both groups, which happen to be the same individuals for both groups, as registered lobbyist.

These two organizations try to influence the passage of bills that their groups are either in favor of or against. As they are members employed by the state of Oklahoma and registered lobbyist, they can hardly be partial. We can hardly say they are an unbiased group that shapes the laws of the state of Oklahoma. This can be easily corrected.

Now we will say that they cooperated with the public and even provided all the documents requested. That included 3 years of tax returns for the association. We appreciate the fairness that thy offered. They went out of their way to disclose the documents requested.

Quoting directly from the story was this “One of the most interesting things during the session was that oftentimes, when questions were raised in the public meeting by DA’s, the answer they got was, “We’ll discuss that I the ODAA meeting .” said Nicole McAfee, director of policy and advocacy for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma. That makes you want to know what they are trying to prevent the public from knowing.

We also found this informative article. This is within the OCSN and available to read. We feel everyone should read this article.

We also found this draft document of proposed rule changes that were being considered by the legislature this year, The proposal was approved.

In conclusion we can say that there is no law or regulation which makes this an illegal act. We concede that it looks wrong. We could only locate two individuals as being in conflict of interest. That was the top two executives of both groups, which happens to be the same individuals, are also lobbyist. This can easily be corrected. There are two ways we can see of correcting this matter. One is to dissolve the closeness of the two groups by selecting a completely new membership of Oklahoma District Attorney’s Association. As a non-profit they can hire outside lobbyist. The other is to seek permission from the appropriate authority to hire an outside lobbyist. In either way, it removes a conflict of interest from both groups.