Announced Monday, the online complaint form is a tool feeding into the new Public Access Counselor Unit housed within the AG’s office. The form is built on Smartsheet, as are several of the office’s online forms.
House Bill 2163 directs the public access counselor to review denials, delays or disputes about public records requests. Of note, legislative bodies and requests for commercial purposes are excluded. Complaints must be filed within 30 days of a denial. Accepted complaints are forwarded to the public body within seven business days and responses are required within seven days. Next, the AG’s office must issue a non-binding advisement within 60 days, and public bodies that follow it won’t be penalized.
The bill was introduced in the Oklahoma House of Representatives in February but later vetoed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, who said it granted the AG “sweeping and unchecked authority to access records from any state agency, board, commission or independently elected official — including confidential and privileged documents.” Lawmakers overrode the veto as allowed by the state constitution.
“This will give private individuals, the media and lawmakers recourse and hopefully will speed up the process of the release of these public records,” its author, Rep. John Pfeiffer said in a statement after House passage. “The way it is now in statute, the only recourse is to take the matter to district court. This will put an intermediary into the process to reduce time and court cost. This would result in better transparency and accountability.”
The idea isn’t new. Pfeiffer also authored a similar House bill in 2023, but it died in committee. Around the same time, the Attorney General hired former state Sen. Anthony Sykes to serve as a public access counselor to help resolve complaints about open records requests.
Public information requests are governed by the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
