News from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission

Jim Palmer, Director of Information

October 4, 1999

(OKLAHOMA CITY)—The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) has received Open Records Act requests regarding Oklahoma Natural Gas (ONG) gas purchase contracts with Dynamic Energy Resources, Inc. and a related commission staff report with attachments. The OCC is compelled by the Oklahoma Open Records Act to provide public access to the information.

Commission files indicate previous or current Open Records Act requests were made by KTOK Radio, Business Week Magazine, Common Cause Oklahoma, The Arizona Corporation Commission and Stephen P. Dresch, Ph.D., working for a New York law firm defending a party to the 1996 airplane crash lawsuit involving former U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and his Bosnian Trade Mission.

Commission Chairman Bob Anthony filed some 60 pages of documents with the commission’s General Counsel and court clerk’s office to assist with the commission’s response to Dresch’s Open Records Act request. The documents relate to Dynamic Energy Resources Corp., Gage Corporation, Creek Systems, Nora and Eugene Lum, Michael A. Brown, Thomas F. ("Mack") McLarty III, Ronald G. Miller, James Kitchens and others directly or indirectly involved in the affairs of the late Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown.

The commission set a hearing for Wednesday, October 6, at 9:30 a.m. in court room 301 on the third floor of the Jim Thorpe Building at 2101 N. Lincoln Blvd. in Oklahoma City.

The OCC’s General Counsel, Bill Burkett, requested the hearing to determine if the staff report and attachments and other documents held by the commission subject to protective orders should continue to be held as confidential or may be released through open records requests. The General Counsel also requests that if a portion of the information is determined to be confidential that the commission decide what portions are not confidential so a new copy can be made available through the Oklahoma Open Records Act.