Officials can’t hide their work – Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson Rules

Is for Transparent Government or Big Brother’s Thumb

Friday Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson gives an opinion on state employees and public officials use of private electronic devices and if they are subject to freedom of information act. 

Is anything private anymore, or everything that a public official and state employee subject to public scrutiny?

BY BRYAN DEAN
Published: May 16, 2009

A new ruling from Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson puts public officials
on notice that they can’t hide public business by using their personal computers and
telephones.

Edmondson said Friday his ruling should be a warning to both elected officials and
state employees to be careful when using private technology for public business.
According to the opinion, e-mails, text messages and other documents which would
otherwise be open under the Oklahoma Open Records Act are still public if they are
sent, received or stored on a public official’s privately owned equipment or
communication device.

Susan McVey, director of the state Libraries Department, requested the opinion, which
also states that such records must be preserved just as they would be on governmentowned
computers.

The issue came up last year when an Oklahoma State University student requested
records after discovering that OSU President Burns Hargis and hundreds of other
university employees conducted public business on their personal cell phones.
University officials claimed the text messages, e-mails and numbers dialed on those
phones were not public records because the devices were not owned by the school.
Edmondson said ownership of the device is irrelevant, and the law is clear that such
information is public record.

“The analogy that I likened it to is a document that someone believes is not a public
record because it is in their personal briefcase and not a filing cabinet,” Edmondson
said. “That is just not going to work.”

The ruling means public entities like OSU will have to force their employees to turn
over text messages, e-mails and phone records related to government business, if
requested.

“We appreciate the Attorney General’s opinion on this matter, and we will continue to
comply fully with the state’s Open Records Act,” OSU spokesman Gary Shutt said.

Private vs. public

Given the legal problems with government entities being responsible for turning over
employees’ private cell phone records, along with security issues which came up this
year as employees have lost sensitive information they took home, Edmondson said the
best idea is for government workers not to mix private electronic devices with public
business.

“I think if I were a lawyer for a school board or a city attorney, I would urge my
members to avoid using personal computers and cell phones for public business,”
Edmondson said. “If people were using their official computers, maybe they would quit
taking thumb drives home with people’s private information on them and losing it.”