Sen. Brooks wins approval for bill promoting greater transparency in state government

OKLAHOMA CITY – Sen. Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City, has won approval from the Senate’s Retirement and Government Resources Committee focusing on nondisclosure agreements (NDA) between state employees and the state agencies. Brooks said Senate Bill 1415 deals specifically with resignations and terminations.

“This bill simply says nondisclosure agreements between state employees and the state agency or entity they work for will be void and unenforceable when an employee resigns or is fired,” Brooks said. “The problem we’ve encountered is when a state employee leaves service, perhaps being terminated, they were offered severance, but only if they signed an NDA. In the interest of transparent government, it doesn’t make sense that an individual would be prohibited from being able to talk about why they had to leave that job.”

SB 1415 provides an exception in the case of any state employee that has a mandated professional privilege of confidentiality, for example in the case of an attorney or doctor employed by the state, this legislation couldn’t be used to force them to violate attorney/client or doctor/patient confidentiality.

“Sunshine is critical to open and fair government. That’s exactly what this bill is about,” Brooks said. “I appreciate the committee members who gave their bipartisan support to SB 1415 and hope the full Senate will join us in approving this measure to promote greater transparency in government.”

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For more information, contact:  
Sen. Michael Brooks at (405) 521-5557 or Michael.Brooks@oksenate.gov