Texas firm asks Oklahoma attorney general to encourage county clerks' compliance with Open Records Act as House committee considers bill allowing them to chose who gets electronic data

A House bill allowing county clerks to refuse to provide electronic records would formalize an unconstitutional monopoly that already exists in part because district attorneys won't enforce the state Open Records Act, says the president of a Texas company that sells online access to county records.

Jason B. Smith said county clerks in Oklahoma either won't respond to his firm's requests for land records or tell him to purchase the information from KellPro, a Duncan, Okla., company that contracts with counties to provide online access to the data.

Smith's company is entitled under the Open Records Act to obtain records directly from the county clerks, but he says he can't get district attorneys to tell clerks to comply with the law.

Smith said the Grady County clerk's office refused to provide the records and told him to complain to state Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

Smith did just that last week, asking Pruitt for help "encouraging" the clerks to abide by the statute.

"The systematic denial of Open Records Requests and a lack of State enforcement has, at best inadvertently, created a de facto monopoly," Smith said in the letter.

He said the arrangement conflicts not only with the Open Records Act but also "with the spirit of the Oklahoma Constitution which provides that the 'Legislature shall pass no law granting to any association, corporation, or individual any exclusive rights, privileges, or immunities within this State.'" (See OKLA. CONST. art. 5, § 51)

Smith said Monday that Pruitt's office confirmed receiving the letter and is scheduled to meet next week with county clerks.

But in the meantime, a House committee is considering a bill that would legalize what the county clerks are doing.

The House Government Modernization Committee will likely vote on HB 2605 in the next two weeks.

As this blog noted last month, the bill by Rep. Gus Blackwell would allow county clerks to refuse to "provide any record by electronic means."

That covers a lot of important public records. County clerks keep the records of proceedings of the county commissions, county excise boards, county boards of equalizations and county boards overseeing tax roll corrections. They also keep records of the receipts and expenditures by county governments, including the payroll for all county employees and all claims for payment for goods and services.

And they keep land records such as plats, deeds, oil and gas leases, real estate liens, and other liens against property in the county.

Smith said Blackwell, a Republican representing the Oklahoma Panhandle, hasn't responded to his email and telephone call asking about the bill.

That's the same response Smith's company, TexasFile.com, got from a number of county clerks after requesting electronic copies of their real property image and index data on Aug. 30.

Smith said none of the clerks has provided the information. Some haven't responded at all -- not even by quoting a price for the database, he said.

"There is either a fundamental misunderstanding by the majority of Oklahoma County Clerks of their obligations under the Oklahoma Open Records Act or a coordinated effort by the governmental bodies to deny access to electronic information," Smith told Pruitt. "The County Clerks have expressed little interest in complying with the Law and less concern with any enforceability or retribution for the violations they may be committing.

"The Oklahoma Open Records Act has a noble and essential purpose that far extends the governance of the type of request we presented," said Smith. "However, allowing such blatant and broad disregard for the law undermines every aspect of the Oklahoma Open Records Act."

It sure does. And HB 2605 creates a troubling precedent of allowing local government officials to pick and choose who gets records in which format.

Access to records in an electronic format increases significantly the public's ability to make sense of government information. The format is as critical as the disclosure itself because the format can render the data very useful or practically useless.

Without access to computerized government records from county clerks, Oklahomans will lose a meaningful way to oversee a great deal of government activity.

For those of you interested in telling state legislators what you think of HB 2605, the House Government Modernization Committee is chaired by Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie. Vice chairman is Wes Hilliard, D-Sulphur.

The other members are Reps.

David Brumbaugh, R-Tulsa;
Josh Cockroft, R-Tecumseh;
David Derby, R-Owasso;
Mark McCullough, R-Supulpa;
Lewis H. Moore, R-Arcadia;
Richard Morrissette, D-Oklahoma City;
Seneca Scott, D-Tulsa;
Aaron Stiles, R-Norman;
Randy Terrill, R-Moore;
John Trebilcock, R-Broken Arrow; and
Purcy D. Walker, D-Elk City.

Murphey and Scott have signed FOI Oklahoma's Open Government Pledge in which they promised "to support at every opportunity 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 so that they can efficiently and intelligently exercise their inherent political power."


Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications


The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the commentators and do not necessarily represent the position of FOI Oklahoma Inc., its staff, or its board of directors. Differing interpretations of open government law and policy are welcome.