Realtor Files Lawsuit Against Ethics Commission

From www.tulsaworld.com ~ A man who questioned the sale terms of a lawmaker’s home located near a landfill has filed a court challenge regarding the constitutionality of a rule that prohibits divulging details of state Ethics Commission complaints.

Tom Hardgrave, a Realtor, has found himself in hot water with state officials for comments he made regarding an Ethics Commission investigation of state Rep. Rex Duncan.

Hardgrave told the Tulsa World in December that an Ethics Commission investigator had contacted him seeking information about the sale of the lawmaker’s home to American Environmental Landfill in Sand Springs.

Since making his public comments, Hardgrave has apparently been targeted by the Ethics Commission.

State Ethics Commission rules prohibit an individual from divulging virtually any information regarding a complaint or ongoing investigation conducted by the agency.

Hardgrave’s lawsuit, filed Thursday in Tulsa County District Court, challenges that prohibition.

Hardgrave, who lived in the same neighborhood as Duncan and had sold several houses there, was Duncan’s most vocal critic after learning how much money the lawmaker received from the sale of his former home.

He believes that Duncan, R-Sand Springs, received special treatment from the landfill company after he had threatened to oppose an expansion of its facility.

The Tulsa World reported in September that Duncan had threatened landfill officials at a public hearing two years earlier that he would do everything he could to stop the expansion.

Then Duncan sold his home for $270,000 to the landfill company.

Hardgrave, in his petition, claims “the evidence will show that the federally-required appraisal on the home valued the home to be worth greatly less than what (the) Landfill had paid Defendant Duncan.”

Duncan could not be reached Thursday for comment.

But the lawmaker previously has stressed that he was not successful in stopping the Osage County Board of Adjustment from granting the landfill company permission to expand, and that the company did not offer to buy his home until after it had won its case.

Hardgrave names the Ethics Commission and Duncan as defendants in his lawsuit.

The lawsuit requests a judge enter a declaratory judgment finding that the gag rules unconstitutionally violate free speech rights and find that the commission violates the state Open Meeting Act “with regard to its secrecy practices.”

The state ethics agency will not confirm or deny whether it is investigating a particular case.

Ethics Commission officials declined to comment on the lawsuit or the basis for the complaint disclosure prohibition.

Hardgrave also seeks unspecified monetary damages against Duncan “as a result of the conspiracy to gag/punish plaintiff for being vocal about Defendant Duncan’s graft.”

Steven Hickman, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Hardgrave, called the request for monetary damages “incidental.”

“What we’re really after is to bring to light what really happened,” Hickman said. “We have a governmental agency whose function is to bring that to light and they buried it. You can’t take a legislator out to dinner or buy him a cup of coffee, but you can buy his house from him at above market prices and just funnel money through him that way. Part of what we’re wanting to do is expose the corruption that is going on here.”

Hardgrave claims in his lawsuit that he was unaware of the gag rule, until the Ethics Commission launched an investigation against him.

He also claims that the Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint against Duncan on Dec. 11.

Hardgrave claims Duncan shortly thereafter filed a complaint against him, claiming Hardgrave violated the commission’s gag rule when he talked to the World and other media about the complaint against Duncan.

Hickman said Hardgrave did not file the complaint against Duncan.

The lawsuit has been assigned to District Judge Rebecca Nightingale.

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