Oklahoma Ethics Commission, State Legislator Sued

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A real estate agent has sued the Oklahoma Ethics Commission and a Sand Springs legislator for allegedly “conspiring to cover up graft.”

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Tom Hardgrave in Tulsa County District Court accused the Ethics Commission of violating the Open Meetings Act and seeks a declaratory judgment against the agency’s use of a gag rule during its investigations, including one involving Rep. Rex Duncan, Hardgrave’s former neighbor.

Hardgrave and others have accused Duncan, R-Sand Springs, of backing off a pledge to fight the expansion of a landfill operated by American Environmental Landfill near the subdivision where they both lived.

“I may not beat you, but I’m going to fight you. And I’m going to fight you as a property owner; I’m going to fight you as a family man; I’m going to fight you as a state representative; and I’m going to fight you as vice chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee for Natural Resources, that among other things oversees the DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality),” Duncan said at a 2006 public meeting in Sand Springs.

Then American Environmental Landfill purchased Duncan’s house for $270,000, double what Duncan paid for the residence 13 years earlier. Duncan’s was the only house purchased by the landfill in the subdivision.

After Duncan moved out, he built a $500,000 home in an upscale, rural Sand Springs neighborhood about seven miles northeast of the landfill, according to reports.

Duncan has denied allegations that he was bought off. The attorney for the landfill company also denies that the lawmaker was overpaid to blunt his opposition to the landfill expansion.

Neither Duncan nor a representative for the Ethics Commission could immediately be reached for comment.

Hardgrave told the Tulsa World in December that an Ethics Commission investigator had contacted him with questions about the property sale. According to the lawsuit, the commission voted at its Dec. 11 meeting to dismiss the case.

Duncan then filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission accusing Hardgrave of violating the gag rule, which Hardgrave said he didn’t know about, the lawsuit said.

“In this charge filed by Defendant Duncan he alleges that Plaintiff “divulged his knowledge of and participation IU-2008-007 by communicating such” with the media, referencing articles in the Tulsa World and The Oklahoman.”

The gag rule violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and free-speech rights guaranteed in the Oklahoma Constitution “and is invalid,” the lawsuit alleges.

“The conspiracy between Defendants to investigate and prosecute Plaintiff for violation of the unconstitutional gag rule harms Plaintiff, giving him standing and also a civil remedy against Defendant Duncan for damages,” the lawsuit said.

Hardgrave seeks an unspecified amount of “money damages” against Duncan.