The Public Records Officer Podcast
The Public Records Officer Podcast
Fighting for the People’s Right to Know.
From public records battles to quiet cover-ups, from deleted chats to documents they hoped you’d never see... The Public Records Officer Podcast (PROP) exposes the ways power hides from the people it serves.
Hosted by open government advocate, a former elected official, state government public information officer and communications director Jamie Nixon, this show pulls back the curtain on the tactics used by public agencies to avoid transparency, and highlights the citizens, journalists, and legal warriors fighting back.
Season One investigates the ontologically shocking story of how Washington State agencies used Microsoft Teams to automatically delete public records after just seven days, raising questions of legality, accountability, and who gets to decide what the public has a right to see.
Each episode blends documents, depositions, interviews, and digital trails with sharp commentary and a sense of civic urgency. Whether it’s a modified invoice, redacted emails, or a policy crafted to vanish before a subpoena hits... The PROP is here to shine a light where the law demands it.
Featuring interviews with journalists, attorneys, and the officials who tried to sound the alarm before it was too late.
The truth doesn’t expire in seven days.
The Public Records Officer Podcast
Ep. 3 The Watchdog's Blind Eye
What happens when the agency tasked with transparency goes silent? When the watchdog looks away, or worse, helps cover the tracks?
In this episode, we confront the growing crisis inside the Washington State Auditor’s Office. Top legal counsel Al Rose publicly accused WaTech of a yearlong cover-up, then quietly backed off, offering an apology letter that only deepens the mystery. Meanwhile, his own office refused to audit the agency at the center of it all, and instead sicced two Assistant Attorneys General on a citizen who simply asked for clarification. That citizen? Me.
From vanishing mailboxes and mysteriously missing emails to a legal joke about chickens that never clucked in court, this episode dissects a failure of courage at the highest levels of Washington's transparency apparatus. If silence is complicity, then the State Auditor’s Office has some serious explaining to do.
Transcript + Source Docs:
Get the full hyperlinked transcript and all documents referenced in this episode:
thepublicrecordsofficer.com
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About WashCOG:
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) fights for transparency and accountability in Washington State. Learn more:
washcog.org
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