Rule requires state agencies' secrecy on contracts

[sendoff]

"A state Department of Central Services rule allows state agencies and commissions to secretly pick winners of state contracts, even when it involves multi-million-dollar deals requiring a vote in public.

"If it is not a violation of the Open Meeting Law, it certainly is a violation of the spirit of the act," Mark Thomas, executive director of the Oklahoma Press Association, said of the DCS rule, which has the force of law.

The existence of the rule came to the surface last week when the fledgling Oklahoma Lottery Commission voted at a public meeting to select 'Vendor A' as the company that will produce instant and online lottery tickets for the new state lottery.

The name of the company was not disclosed during or immediately after the vote by lottery officials, who said they had been advised they could not legally do so because of the DCS rule."

http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=88387

In most places, this would cause alarm, but this is business-as-usual in Oklahoma.

The best line of the article is this one:

"Thomas said the situation reminds him of a city council meeting in Oklahoma that followed a closed-door meeting. When the council reconvened in open session, a councilman moved to 'approve what we talked about in there.' The motion carried unanimously."