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.
Episodes
18 episodes
Ep. 17 Are You Trying to Kill Me?
In this episode, Jamie breaks down the May 12, 2026 Seattle Times story about a
Ep. 16 No Legitimate Concern
When an Office of Financial Management public records officer complained in writing about requests from “West and ...
Ep. 15 Legislative Secrecy
In this episode of The Public Records Officer Podcast, Jamie Nixon takes on one of the biggest transparency fights in Washington State: the Legislature’s push to keep its internal deliberations hidden from the public. After years of rhetoric ab...
Ep. 14 Get It Gone 2: The Bureaucracy Strikes Back
In our last episode, we exposed the alleged destruction and withholding of public records inside OMWBE. This case was documented through emails, chats, and timelines of their Public Records Officer.This week, we widen the lens.The...
Ep. 13 Get It Gone: Anatomy of a Records Crime
What starts as a routine public records request at a small Washington agency detonates into one of the clearest documented cases of alleged records destruction in recent memory. In this episode, Jamie Nixon walks through the stunning internal m...
Ep. 12 Suing WaTech and Gov; AG's Model Rules; Harrell's Failures
On this important episode, Jamie Nixon breaks down the absurdity of the state’s response to the 2020 1.5 terabyte Teams chat deletion. After four months and multiple delays, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has delivered almost nothin...
Ep. 11 They Didn't Ask For Slack Chats
In this episode, we return to a recurring pattern in Washington’s public records system: agencies only search what you name — and quietly celebrate when you don’t.First, an update on PRR 24-530.
Ep. 10 And make it discoverable? LOL
Washington’s culture of secrecy just hit a new low.In this episode, host Jamie Nixon digs into Governor Bob Ferguson’s disappearing act... no press availabilities, no transparency, and apparently, no clue that he has a responsibility to ...
Ep. 9 When Hypocrisy Makes You Vomit
In this episode of The Public Records Officer Podcast, Jamie Nixon takes aim at Brandi Kruse’s September 12th show Un...
Ep. 8 Backroom Deals in our Backyards
What happens when secrecy becomes routine in local government? From zoning boards to school districts to state agencies, closed-door decision-making shifts power away from the public — and it’s happening everywhere.In this episode, Jamie...
Ep. 7 Who Wrote That
What happens when governments let artificial intelligence draft their words? Who’s really behind the keyboard when AI systems churn out emails, press releases, or chatbot responses on behalf of public agencies?In this episode, Jamie Nixo...
Ep. 6 Transparency Isn't a Team Sport
WaTech just burned through a decade and nearly $300 million on a project that never left the planning phase. Meanwhile, Fish & Wildlife commissioners were caught telling each other to delete their texts about state business. Add in...
Ep. 5 The Cost of Erasure
What happens when a government designs its record-keeping system to fail the very people it’s supposed to serve? In this episode, we dig into the human cost of Washington’s auto-deletion policies and the Attorney General’s defense of destroyed ...
Ep. 4 Ferguson's Folly
The clock is running out on Governor Bob Ferguson’s six-month “pause” of Washington’s Microsoft Teams chat auto-deletion policy, and with it, the last thin excuse for secrecy. Will he restore transparency or quietly restart the digi...
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 cou...
Ep. 2 The Obstruction Playbook
Washington’s bureaucrats weren’t just slow-walking transparency—they were engineering its demise. In Episode 2, host Jamie Nixon exposes how state agencies, led by WaTech, quietly adopted a Microsoft Teams auto-deletion policy that wiped out 50...
Ep. 1 The Smoking Gun
Governor Bob Ferguson didn’t kick off his term with a speech on education or housing. He talked about Microsoft Teams. Why?This episode unpacks a scandal years in the making—one that saw millions of government chat messages auto-deleted ...
Trailer: The Public Records Officer Podcast
Welcome to The Public Records Officer Podcast (PROP)... a show about transparency, accountability, and the absurd bureaucratic hoops government agencies jump through to avoid both.I'm Jamie Nixon... dad, guitar player, former Washington ...
