News from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission

Office of Public Information -- Phone: (405) 521-4180 FAX (405) 521-6945

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Patrick K. Petree Reference: PUD3598-17

OCC Hearing Will Decide Privacy of Telephone Documents

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Corporation Commission will conduct a hearing on Thursday, March 12, to decide whether certain information provided to the commission by Southwestern Bell Telephone is confidential or open to public examination.

The hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Jim Thorpe State Office Bldg. in Oklahoma City. Parts of the hearing may be closed while documents that Southwestern Bell considers to be confidential are examined and discussed, but the commissioners' decision will be announced publicly, as required by law, Commissioner Bob Anthony said.

Southwestern Bell submitted the information in November 1997 as required by the settlement of a rate case in 1995. The commission staff entered into a confidentiality agreement with Bell regarding the information.

On Feb. 18, in a memorandum to members of the Legislature, Commissioner Anthony said a commission staff report based on the information provided by Southwestern Bell indicates that Southwestern Bell is overcharging customers by $75 million per year.

A news media request for disclosure of Bell's information under Oklahoma's Open Records Act required the commission to determine if the information is confidential.

"We believe the (commission staff) report is, in its entirety, an open record and we do not believe the information is confidential and excluded from release to the public," Lawrence R. Edmison, Corporation Commission general counsel, said.

However, Edmison noted that state law specifically empowers the commission to determine what is confidential.

"It is our routine practice to treat any information that utilities claim to be confidential as confidential until the commission determines otherwise," Edmison said.

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