Rep. Terrill makes state employee home addresses available to OPEA
Rep. Randy Terrill quietly opened up the confidential home addresses of state employees to the private employees group that advocates for state workers and to which he belongs, The Oklahoman reported Sunday.
The home addresses, home telephone numbers and Social Security numbers of state employees were exempted from the Open Records Act by state legislators in 1992. The same information for former state employees was exempted in 2003.
But in the closing days of last year's legislative session, The Oklahoman reported, a provision making the home addresses available to the Oklahoma Public Employees Association was tacked onto Terrill's HB 2245, the Oklahoma Criminal Illegal Alien Repatriation Act of 2009.
The OPEA named Terrill, a Republican from Moore, its "Legislator of the Year" for his effort to provide the state employee mailing list, the newspaper noted.
Under the statute, the organization "may annually send one general mailing to all state employees." The Office of State Finance must first agree to the "method of providing a list of the names and addresses of the state employees to accomplish the mailing, while preserving the confidentiality of the list."
The Oklahoman reported that since the statute went into effect on June 2, "a spreadsheet of all state workers home addresses has twice been e-mailed to direct mail companies hired by OPEA."
Terrill recently said the bill likely won't be in its current form when it comes up for a vote in the House.