Corporation Commission ONG Records

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Bob Anthony, Oklahoma Corporation<br>Commission chairman, says there is no longer any reason to keep<br>secret documents linked to Oklahoma Natural Gas Co.'s gas purchase<br>contract

Wednesday, October 6th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Bob Anthony, Oklahoma Corporation
Commission chairman, says there is no longer any reason to keep
secret documents linked to Oklahoma Natural Gas Co.'s gas purchase
contract with Dynamic Energy Resources, Inc.
"What has happened is that the companies have withdrawn their
claims of confidentiality and therefore documents can be made
available under Oklahoma's Open Records Act," Anthony said
Tuesday.
He said he would support the release of the documents at a
meeting of the commission today.
Commission officials said there will be no need to take evidence
on whether or not the records are subject to release under state
law.
At issue are figures used to support a commission staff study
that concluded contracts between ONG and Dynamic were not out of
line with the market and did not harm Oklahoma consumers.
In another report Jim Proctor, former director of the public
utility division of the Oklahoma commission, concluded just the
opposite, saying the staff study is erroneous.
Proctor said the ONG-Dynamic contract will result in an
estimated $65 million in "excessive charges to ratepayers" over a
10-year period.
Don Sherry, manager of communications for ONG, said his company
never objected to release of the information as long as other
parties involved in the transaction agreed.
"Basically, what we have tomorrow is a nonevent," Sherry said.
Sherry said ONG is "very happy" about the release of the
commission staff report because it "completely exonerated" his
company of allegations of excessive charges to ratepayers.
On Tuesday, a spokesman said Anthony has filed some 60 pages of
documents to assist with the commission's response to a records
request by Stephen P. Dresch, who represents a New York law firm
defending a party to the lawsuit stemming from the 1996 airplane
crash that killed former U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
Other open records requests that are on file are from KTOK
Radio, Business Week Magazine, Common Cause of Oklahoma and the
Arizona Corporation Commission.
Anthony's documents relate to Dynamic, Gage Corp., Creek
Systems, Nora and Eugene Lum, Michael A. Brown, Thomas F. "Mack"
McLarty III, Ronald G. Miller, James Kitchens and others directly
or indirectly involved in the affairs of Ron Brown.