Weekly Opinion Editorial
WEAPONIZING
OF FOIA!
In 1966, Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). It established the legal presumption government records are accessible to the public. Up until the FOIC was enacted, a request for a government record required the requestor to demonstrate a specific "need to know." The FOIA explicitly applies only to government agencies under the executive branch and requests are to be handled within 20 days.
After the FOIA became law, many states followed suit and passed similar laws. The Oklahoma Open Records Act (OORA) was added to the books in 1985 with the following stated purpose: "As the Oklahoma Constitution recognizes and guarantees, all political power is inherent in the people. Thus, it is the public policy of the State of Oklahoma that the people are vested with the inherent right to know and be fully informed about their government." OORA has been added to and amended several times in the last 40 years, but the stated purpose has remained consistent.
This past week, Oklahomans for Transparency in Government (OTG) sued Oklahoma State Treasurer Todd Russ. OTG alleges Russ did not respond or recognize an open records request from March 16th. OTG wants records on the state's contract with 'Way2GoCard," a debit card/direct deposit program for state employees. OTG claims an unnamed whistleblower says Gateway Bank is involved. Governor Kevin Stitt founded Gateway Mortgage, which merged with the bank. OTG says using Gateway could be a conflict of interest. They claim they have reached out to the treasurer's office three times with no response. Russ said two status reports were provided and the request was “overly broad.” His office has reached out to the Attorney General’s Office for guidance. Three observations:
First, the people have a right to know. The secrecy by government agencies during the Cold War triggered the federal FOIA. Democrat California Congressman John Moss led a bi-partisan campaign to make the FOIA law. The people got tired of the lack of accountable by arrogant bureaucrats and elected officials. FOIA's stated purpose was to allow citizens, journalists, and civic organizations to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. FOIA has increased accountability because all too often, people only do what is inspected, not what is expected.
Oklahoma government agencies should be willing to comply with reasonable requests for records, but therein lies the issue- who determines what is reasonable?
Russ said about OTG's request: “As written, the request is overly broad and encompasses thousands of records. Based on its language, the Office is unable to identify with reasonable specificity the records being sought. The hours required to fulfill the request are likely in the hundreds, as documents must be reviewed for personal identification, information and other sensitive material requiring redaction under the law.”
Second, open record laws have been weaponized. Many open record requests are made simply to harass, overwhelm, intimidate, and hassle public officials. Broad, excessive, duplicate requests are made not for transparency, but as a tool of disruption. Those requests cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year. The goal of those type requests is not accountability/transparency- it's chicanery/trickery.
Third, if Gateway is involved, that should be disclosed. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt founded Gateway and has reportedly placed his ownership into a trust to avoid conflicts of interest, but he still retains ownership of the company. No laws may have been broken even if Gateway was used, but citizens have a right to know the truth.
The timing of OTG's lawsuit is suspect. Russ is up for re-election and has drawn a
Republican opponent. There appears to be
no direct link between Russ' opponent and the OTG request, but expect politics
to come to play. With a June 16th
primary looming, expect a hit piece on Russ to be in your mailbox soon. Recognize it for what it is- politics.
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