As allegations of transparency law violations continue to mount against the agency he runs and the board he chairs, Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters received a July 16 letter from Attorney General Gentner Drummond asking him to respond to numerous complaints made about unfulfilled media requests for public records.
Although Drummond directed Walters to respond by Aug. 9, a spokesman for the attorney general said this morning that Walters’ office had yet to reply.
“My office has received an alarming number of complaints about open records requests sent to the State Department of Education,” Drummond wrote in the letter (embedded below). “According to the complaints, the requests are unanswered. Throughout my administration, my staff has contacted SDE representatives on several occasions regarding the complaints without substantive response. Often, the SDE has inconceivably also ignored these inquiries. SDE’s inaction on these critical requests is unacceptable.”
In the letter, Drummond included a list of 42 records requests and associated correspondence with five news outlets dating back to January 2023.
“You and the SDE must strictly comply with the (Open Records) Act’s specific requirements, as well as its broader public policy of vesting the citizens with the inherent right to know their government,” Drummond wrote in the letter. “Failure to comply may subject you, your agency and staff to costly and unnecessary civil litigation as well as potential criminal liability.”
In an email sent after publication of this article, OSDE Director of Communications Dan Isett said Walters is “deeply committed to transparency in his administration” and provided a letter from Walters dated Aug. 9 in which Walters misspelled four times the name of Drummond’s public access counselor, Anthony Sykes.
“Rest assured that my agency and I are working diligently to clear all ORRs … not only those you reference from the media,” Walters wrote in the letter, which can be read at this link.
Reporter: ‘Delays amount to an unlawful denial’
The complaints attached to Drummond’s letter include emails with between his office and employees of four Oklahoma news organizations: Griffin Media, Oklahoma Watch, Oklahoma Eagle and KOKH Fox 25. Drummond’s office also included communications with Tyler Kingkade, a Los Angeles-based reporter with NBC News.
“The designated open records coordinator for the department stopped responding to emails or phone calls last July,” Kingkade wrote in an April 17 email to Sykes, a former Republican state senator who serves as Drummond’s public access counselor. “Dan Isett, the department’s spokesperson, has generally responded to my inquiries for updates, but not provided substantive information regarding when I should expect my open records requests to be fulfilled nor explained why there is such a lengthy delay. In some cases, I have now been waiting for 10 months on some records requests with no indication when I should expect the results. We believe these delays amount to an unlawful denial of my open records requests.”
Drummond’s letter about the journalists’ complaints comes as rumors abound of a possible multi-county grand jury inquiry into Walters’ compliance with the Open Records Act.
Walters has also faced recent scrutiny for his compliance — or lack thereof — with the state’s other primary transparency law: the Open Meeting Act.
Rebuffed in their attempts to access executive sessions as allowed in Title 25, Section 310 of state statute, multiple legislators have wondered if Walters and State Board of Education members have violated the law at their last two meetings.
Members of the State Board of Education denied three Oklahoma legislators — including two attorneys — access to observe the board’s full executive session during a July 31 meeting. The unusual event, which unfolded largely outside of the public meeting room, marked the second time in two months the board has denied entry to legislators.
Drummond has already attempted to intervene on that issue, sending a letter to Walters and the state board after a June meeting informing them of their obligation to allow legislators to view executive sessions.
Additionally, the board’s July meeting agenda featured separate executive session proposals for two main items: whether the legislators would be allowed to observe the executive session proceedings; and whether to take action on the teacher certifications.
Although the board moved to enter executive session to discuss the legislator attendance question, no member made a motion to discuss teacher certifications. After nearly two hours in executive session, board members came back into open session and took multiple actions on teacher certifications.
Although they were not referenced in Drummond’s letter to Walters, NonDoc is also waiting on three records requests concerning:
- OSDE’s Awareity complaint system. The request has been pending since Feb. 9;
- The new social studies standards review committee. The request has been pending since July 19; and
- Travel reimbursements for Walters. The request has also been pending since July 19.
OSDE recently fulfilled two other records requests from NonDoc concerning Talihina Public Schools and the teacher-signing bonus program after periods of about nine months and 10 months, respectively.
Monday afternoon, hours after publication of this article, three Republican legislators released a statement saying their “patience is wearing thin” after “two years of problematic leadership tactics.”
The representatives — Reps. Josh West (R-Grove), Ty Burns (R-Pawnee) and Chris Banning (R-Bixby), who are all veterans — referenced Walters’ recent beef with Bixby Public Schools Superintendent Rob Miller over delays in federal funding getting to districts. Miller is also a veteran.
“Over the past four years, we’ve witnessed Ryan Walters’ often questionable leadership and tactics,” said the legislators in their statement. “In the past two weeks, he has violated the Open Meeting Act, denied legislators access to executive sessions, deprived districts of rolled-over money meant for school safety and now is putting children’s lives at risk by withholding appropriated funds for emergency asthma inhalers.”
The three Republicans said Walters “refuses to listen to those around him or take responsibility for his missteps.”
“Though we do not speak for others, we cannot stand by while a respected leader and veteran is insulted and demeaned for simply doing his job,” said West, Burns and Banning. “Walters’ behavior is unbecoming of any leader, especially the highest-ranking person in the Oklahoma public school system.”
(Update: This article was updated at 4:59 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, to include a statement from Walters and a statement from three legislators about Walters.)
Read Drummond’s letter on Ryan Walters open records issues
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