Tulsa World donates $2,500 of reimbursed legal fees to FOI Oklahoma Inc.

The Tulsa World's years-long court battle to obtain public records from a state agency will help fund open government training for reporters, the newspaper announced Sunday.

The state Department of Public Safety has agreed to pay $60,000 to reimburse the Tulsa World for legal fees incurred by the newspaper during its successful effort to obtain records from the agency.

The newspaper's legal fees totaled more than $90,000.

The Tulsa World will donate $2,500 of the reimbursed fees to FOI Oklahoma to pay for open government training for professional and student journalists.

Thank you to the Tulsa World not only for the donation but also for its tenacity in obtaining the records.

Tulsa World sues to win release of mug shots of federal inmates housed in the Tulsa Jail

The Tulsa World is taking on the U.S. Marshals Service in court over the public's right to obtain mug shots of federal inmates housed in the Tulsa Jail.

The newspaper sued the U.S. Marshals Service on Friday, seeking the release of the photos, the newspaper reported today.

The U.S. Marshals Service cites privacy rights as the reason for withholding the photos. But jail mug shots are public under the Oklahoma Open Records Act, the newspaper noted.

Claiming a privacy right should shield the photos from public scrutiny seems to defy common sense.

The newspaper's lawsuit points out that each federal inmate's name, home city and/or street address, alleged crime, alleged elements of the crime, plea, request for release, bond, previous crimes committed and risk of flight are among the information already released to the public.

The newspaper also noted that the U.S. Marshals Service also releases the photos of inmates who become fugitives and posts on its Web site the photos of captured fugitives.

The photos also are public in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee because of newspaper challenges in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The newspaper's reasons for seeking the photos are explained in its story.


Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Journalism

Tulsa library board: No minutes of executive session; another OMA violation

The Tulsa City-County Library Commission doesn't keep minutes of its executive sessions, the Tulsa World reported this morning.

So rack up another violation of the state Open Meeting law by this board.

Minutes of executive session discussions must be kept, the state Supreme Court said in 1980.

(Berry v. Bd. of Governors of Registered Dentists, 1980 OK 45, ¶12, 611 P.2d 628, 631. (“Although the municipal attorneys' case permits executive sessions on the advice of counsel in certain specified instances, it does not abrogate the statutory requirement that minutes be kept and recorded.”))

State Attorney General Drew Edmondson came to the same conclusion in a 1996 written opinion. (1996 OK AG 100, ¶ 5)

"The Oklahoma Supreme Court has held that the requirement for minutes to be kept and recorded also applies to executive sessions," Edmondson said.

He also said state legislators had "explicitly recognized that the requirement to keep a summary of the proceedings in the form of written minutes extends to executive sessions."

Edmondson noted that Legislators had kept confidential the minutes of lawful executive sessions under the Open Records Act (OKLA. STAT. tit. 51, § 24A.5(1)(b)) and had mandated that a willful violation of the Open Meeting Act caused the executive session minutes to be made public. (OKLA. STAT. tit. 25, § 307(F)).

The penalty for violating the Open Meeting Act is one year in the county jail and/or a $500 fine.

Which public bodies in your area routinely don't keep minutes of their executive sessions? Might be worth asking them.

Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Journalism