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 p…
Recent Episodes
20
July 6, 2026
Ep. 20 DOL 2: Delete Another Day
Episode 20 continues our two-part look at the Washington Department of Licensing’s Administrative Law Office. In Part One, we covered the February 12, 2025 Teams chat where DOL hearing examiners discussed petitioners, attorneys, hearing tactics, order language, and a joke about hitting an attorney with a car hard enough to hospitalize him. Five days later, Governor Bob Ferguson suspended Washington’s automatic deletion of Teams chats. Now, in “Delete Another Day,” we look at what happened
19
July 2, 2026
Ep. 19 Seven Days To Die
Five days before Governor Bob Ferguson ordered a halt to Washington’s automatic deletion of Teams chats, a group of Department of Licensing hearing examiners were talking in Teams as if the walls had no memory. They discussed petitioners, attorneys, hearing strategy, objections, order language, and one hearing examiner even suggested that another could “help us all out” by hitting an attorney with her car. Under the state’s seven-day deletion policy, that chat may have been headed for the dig
18
June 21, 2026
Ep. 18 The Watchdog's Blind Eye 2: Even Blinder
In this sequel to “The Watchdog’s Blind Eye,” Jamie Nixon examines how the Washington State Auditor’s Office tells citizens it lacks authority to audit public-records handling at other agencies — even though SAO has already performed public-records-related performance audits in 2008 and 2016. This episode walks through SAO’s Citizen Hotline Audit Request denials, the selective carve-out in the Bainbridge Island hotline matter, the removal of “Records” from the hotline’s public-facing category
17
May 12, 2026
Ep. 17 Are You Trying to Kill Me?
In this episode, Jamie breaks down the May 12, 2026 Seattle Times story about a Public Disclosure Commission complaint involving Brandi Kruse, Let’s Go Washington, and alleged unreported in-kind political advertising. But this is not just about Brandi. It is about a much bigger question: what happens when campaign-finance law collides with the modern influencer economy? The complaint alleges that Kruse’s repeated promotion of Let’s Go Washington initiatives may have provided reportable val
16
March 20, 2026
Ep. 16 No Legitimate Concern
When an Office of Financial Management public records officer complained in writing about requests from “West and Nixon,” she didn’t just vent about workload. She accused those requests of having “no legitimate concern,” suggested there should be ways to “tighten and restrict those particular types of requests,” and contrasted them with what she called “legitimate requests.” In this episode, Jamie Nixon breaks down why that email matters, what request OFM was actually processing at the time,
15
March 12, 2026
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 about openness and restraint, courts have now handed lawmakers a powerful new shield — legislative privilege grounded in separation of powers. What does that mean in practice? More redactions, more withheld records, and less public access to the decisions be