Hopefuls call for exemption’s end

State legislators should end their exemption from the state’s Open Records Act, Lt. Gov. Jari Askins said Saturday.

Askins, who is running for governor, called recent efforts by the House of Representatives and the Senate to provide live video and audio feeds on the Internet when lawmakers are in session "great window dressing.”

"We will all be better served (with) transparency when the House and the Senate open up the rest of their records and remove their exemption,” said Askins, a former legislator and one of two Democratic gubernatorial candidates.

Askins made the comments while speaking to members of FOI Oklahoma, an advocacy and education group for freedom of information issues.

Candidates appear

The other five gubernatorial contenders at the event also said they would support opening records and meetings and keeping them open if they win election in November. It was the first time all six appeared together at the same event.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin, R-Oklahoma City, said they would hire someone specifically to handle open records matters and to advise department heads to oblige with open records and meeting laws.

"We will have in the office of governor a person designated to be a contact person on open meeting and open records issues pertaining to state government, where you don’t have to wade through the bureaucracy of a particular agency,” Edmondson said.

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