Freedom of Information Has A Long Way To Go.

OKLAHOMA’S FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT IS THE PROPOSAL AN IMPROVEMENT, OR PROTECTIONISM?

THE WATCHMAN

  Oklahoma’s version of the Freedom of Information Act does work, although there is plenty of room for improvement. Perhaps the biggest complaint most users have, including us, is that there is no time limit placed on the responding agency to actually make a response to the request. We, as we’re sure many, people and organizations who do use the act to obtain information where initially encouraged to see legislation placing time limits for response. We then started doing some research and feel others should put a stop to this what we feel is nothing more than an attempt to keep information from the public.

We became interested in this story after watching this report from News 9. It does indicate all types of various measures to be applied to state, county and municipal agencies for timely release of information. It also indicates a clause, we feel rightfully so, about the withholding of evidentiary information in criminal cases. Right at the end of that report it was indicated that the legislative branch was to be exempt from the law, which would be a continuation of current law. There was an indication of a further report to cover the subject, but we were unable to locate the report.

The proposal we are talking about is Senate Bill 1154. It would require public agencies, anything from police departments to prisons to city council members to fulfill open records request within thirty days of when those requests are made. After thirty days the agencies are subject to other legal recourse to settle the dispute.

We went to look for a copy of the proposed legislation itself. You can read it by opening this link. We read the proposed legislation several times just to ensure that we were not missing anything. We were unable to find any specific language that expressly exempted the legislature from being subject to the Freedom of Information Act. We see no reason why, as a legislative body that works for the citizens of this state, they should be exempted. It is our tax dollars they are paid with.

Doing some further research we found this article that indicates that Oklahoma is one of only four states who’s legislature have all barred their records to being subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act. Surely, they have a reason other than the roughly $60 million dollars a year they spend on trinkets to hand out to visitors to their offices. We also feel it has to be more than the settlements paid for various lawsuits brought against individual legislators. What are they hiding from taxpayers that they don’t want us to know about?

We also found this article that goes into a little more detail about Oklahoma’s current law. After reading it you can clearly see that it needs to be clarified. As for the legislature, well those overpaid individuals are paid by the people. Everything they do is with taxpayers’ dollars. There should be no exemption for the legislature at all. If they truly represent the people as they claim, then they should be willing to go under the same examination as all the other agencies in the state. If they aren’t willing to do so, then they should resign their seats.

Many may not agree with the stance we take on this legislation, but until such time as the legislature is willing to go by the same laws and rules the rest of us go by, then we have no choice but to oppose this legislation.