The legislative session that ended last month was undoubtedly the most transparent in state history, simply by virtue of the House holding actual conference committee hearings late in the session.  But there is plenty of room for improvement and Oklahoma Watchdog will continue to highlight areas that need more transparency during this interim period.  This week’s suggestion deals with Oklahoma’s Open Meetings laws.

You can read the entire Open Meetings statute here, but the section that has the exceptions to the law are reprinted below (emphasis added).

It shall not mean the state judiciary, the Council on Judicial Complaints when conducting, discussing, or deliberating any matter relating to a complaint received or filed with the Council, or the State Legislature or administrative staffs of public bodies, including, but not limited to, faculty meetings and athletic staff meetings of institutions of higher education, when said staffs are not meeting with the public body, or entry-year assistance committees, as defined in Section 6-152 of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes. Furthermore, it shall not mean the multidisciplinary team provided for in subsection B of Section 1-502.2 of Title 63 of the Oklahoma Statutes or any school board meeting for the sole purpose of considering recommendations of said multidisciplinary team and deciding the placement of any child who is the subject of such recommendations. Furthermore, it shall not mean meetings conducted by stewards designated by the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission pursuant to Section 203.4 of Title 3A of the Oklahoma Statutes when the stewards are officiating at races or otherwise enforcing rules of the Commission

Later on in the statute, it explains that the Legislature has to follow open meetings in accordance to rules passed by each house.  Had the legislature been compelled to follow the Open Meetings Act, a meeting of the House Joint Committee on Appropriations could not have had its time changed with just an hour’s notice.  Since the Open Meetings Act also requires recorded votes, that would solve one of the problems outlined in Part 1 of this series regarding the lack of vote recording in Senate committees.

The Open Meetings Act clearly states, ”It is the public policy of the State of Oklahoma to encourage and facilitate an informed citizenry’s understanding of the governmental processes and governmental problems.”  One would think that the legislature, of all bodies, should not be exempt from that policy goal.