THE ISSUE: Open Records, Open Meetings
OUR STANCE: They are often ignored
Oklahoma’s Open Meeting and Open Records Act serves a distinct purpose. It’s intended to allow citizens public access to meetings and to records.
Public officials often seem to forget the public has a right to know what they are doing. The business they conduct is the public’s and in only certain instances should they go behind closed doors.
Access to public records also is vitally important. A well-informed citizenry leads to better understanding of issues which impact the public. That is why people entrusted with conducting public business should be entirely open, willing to discuss matters in open meetings and allow the public easier access to records.
Many of the violations of open meeting laws are committed because of a lack of understanding of these laws. That is one of the primary reasons Attorney General Drew Edmondson, from time-to-time throughout his career, has conducted seminars on the open meeting and open records laws.
One of these is scheduled for Aug. 31 in Tecumseh.
We suggest that public officials at all levels in this area, along with those who operate non-profits and receive public funds, mark this date down now. It will be 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Tecumseh City Hall.
Many of the open meeting violations that occur are unintentional. We believe this. In some instances we have noticed what appears to be some item on an agenda which conflicts with the law and have contacted authorities and preventing a violation from occurring.
There are those times, too, of course, when entities will flagrantly ignore the open meeting law. In those cases, which are prosecutable, individuals can be cited for a misdemeanor.
Edmondson recently ruled that electronic records created, sent or received by a public official on equipment publicly or privately owned is subject to the Open Records Act.
An example of this could be an elected public official sending an e-mail to a staff person at any level of government.
Or, even a board member sending or receiving an electronic correspondence from a person who is in charge of a non-profit that receives public money.
Good examples of public agendas to follow are those of the Shawnee City Commission and Pottawatomie County government. This is because the city’s and county’s legal counsel, John Canavan, who is well- versed in these laws, mandates these municipalities strictly adhere to the laws.
There are certain to be other good examples of these as well, but Canavan represents the two largest local municipal governments in this county.
Still, there are entirely too many misconceptions about the state’s Open Meeting and Open Records laws. That is why we encourage individuals with any public, public/private, non-profit entity large or small, which receives any amount of public dollars, to attend the Aug. 31 seminar.
It should be enlightening.
