OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Voice and its parent organization have sued the state Department of Transportation to obtain unredacted and complete copies of the agency’s flight logs.
The open records lawsuit, filed by States Newsroom doing business as Oklahoma Voice, alleges the agency unlawfully redacted the lists of passengers who flew on the state plane, which is maintained by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, and also failed on dozens of occasions to disclose the purpose of the flights as required by state law.
A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation declined to comment as the state agency had not yet been served the lawsuit.
Oklahoma Voice in July requested that the agency provide a copy of travel logs for all individuals who used the Transportation Department’s plane, including the “date, time, passenger list, duration and purpose of the trip along with the total cost.”
ODOT provided the records, but redacted some passenger names for flights involving the Governor’s Office. In addition, the purpose of over 50 flights was left blank or contained a statement that it was “not provided.”
Of the different agencies that used the plane, only the Governor’s Office and Department of Public Safety left the purpose blank, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the purpose for those flights was omitted because both agencies did not provide ODOT with the information.
The lawsuit also alleges some flight purpose information provided by other agencies was inadequate. Four trips identified the reason for the trip as “visits” or “airport visits” while 13 only listed “meeting” or “event,” according to the lawsuit.
Leslie Briggs, an attorney with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, who is representing Oklahoma Voice, wrote in the lawsuit that ODOT’s attorney responded that while the agency maintained the records, “it can not provide information that has not been received. If the purpose is not included, ODOT does not fill in the blanks.”
The agency’s attorney also cited a provision of the Oklahoma Open Records Act that allows the Department of Public Safety to keep confidential records related to personal information along with other information that could be considered of a tactical nature, according to the lawsuit.
ODOT said in November that it had unredacted copies of the records, but would not release them, according to the lawsuit.
The Governor’s Office previously said passenger logs on prior flights were redacted if they contained Department of Public Safety employees or the names of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s children.
The lawsuit contends that state law requires the printed name of each person traveling on an aircraft and the purpose of each landing, “including whether the purpose of a landing is for a speech, meeting or performance of a service.”
State law requires that those travel logs be maintained and made available to the public upon request under the Open Records Act.
Among other things, the lawsuit, which was filed in Oklahoma County District Court, requests that Oklahoma Voice be provided unredacted copies of the records, and that the Department of Transportation be required by the court to properly maintain complete records as required by law. It also seeks “reasonable” costs and attorneys fees.
Briggs said this lawsuit aims to ensure “maximum transparency allowed by law.”
“The goal of this lawsuit is to clarify what information may be redacted under the (Open Records Act) and what information must be gathered as required by statute in order to maintain complete records of expenditures of public funds relating to the use of the state plane,” she said in a statement. “Taxpayers deserve to know for what purpose their money is spent when public officials use the state plane.”
Republished in partnership with Oklahoma Voice under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Oklahoma Voice is a part of States Newsroom which is a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on Facebook and Twitter.
Emma Murphy covers the statehouse for Oklahoma Voice. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia and covered Missouri's legislature for three years at the Columbia Missourian.
