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 lawmakers giving themselves a 30-day auto-delete loophole, and you’ve got a masterclass in bipartisan backroom survival tactics.

In this episode, Jamie Nixon breaks down how government failure, cover-ups, and partisan blame games all add up to the same result: the public gets shut out. Along the way, he calls out hypocrisy, highlights absurdity, and—yes—finds himself in rare agreement with Brandi Kruse?

Because transparency isn’t red versus blue. It’s the people versus power. And the people deserve the receipts.

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Transcript + Source Docs:
Get the full hyperlinked transcript and all documents referenced in this episode:
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

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Join our mailing list for future episodes and investigations
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Support the show:
We’re powered by public records and public support. Buy us a coffee https://coff.ee/thepublicrecordsofficer

About WashCOG:
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) fights for transparency and accountability in Washington State. Learn more:
washcog.org

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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 evidence.

From litigants denied a fair trial because key Teams chats vanished, to families of children with disabilities fighting for services without access to past rulings, the damage is measured, not just in megabytes lost, but in due process denied.

You’ll hear from attorney Joan Mell, journalist Shauna Sowersby, and disability advocates who’ve seen firsthand how “disappearing ink” erases justice. We also examine Bob Ferguson’s record as Attorney General, including a $3.1 million sanction for withholding evidence, and the legislature’s quiet moves to weaken public access.

The verdict is clear: erasure isn’t an accident. It’s a policy choice, and the people of Washington are paying the price.

Listen, share, and decide for yourself whether this culture of secrecy can continue unchecked.

Support the show

Transcript + Source Docs:
Get the full hyperlinked transcript and all documents referenced in this episode:
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Sign up for updates:
Join our mailing list for future episodes and investigations
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Support the show:
We’re powered by public records and public support. Buy us a coffee https://coff.ee/thepublicrecordsofficer

About WashCOG:
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) fights for transparency and accountability in Washington State. Learn more:
washcog.org

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X (Twitter): @opengovpod
Instagram: @opengovpod
BlueSky: @thepropodcast.bsky.social‬

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 digital shredder? 

In this episode, Jamie Nixon takes you inside the backstory Ferguson hopes you’ve forgotten: the years he spent defending this legally risky policy as Attorney General, the behind-closed-doors review with zero public input, and the ongoing culture of evasion across state agencies. 

With real public records as source material, blunt commentary, and righteous indignation... we cut through the spin and lay out the stakes for Washington’s right to know. Because one person’s “transitory record” might be another person’s only chance at the truth.

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Transcript + Source Docs:
Get the full hyperlinked transcript and all documents referenced in this episode:
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Sign up for updates:
Join our mailing list for future episodes and investigations
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Support the show:
We’re powered by public records and public support. Buy us a coffee https://coff.ee/thepublicrecordsofficer

About WashCOG:
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) fights for transparency and accountability in Washington State. Learn more:
washcog.org

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X (Twitter): @opengovpod
Instagram: @opengovpod
BlueSky: @thepropodcast.bsky.social‬

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 counsel Al Rose publicly accused WaTech of a yearlong cover-up, then quietly backed off, offering an apology letter that only deepens the mystery. Meanwhile, his own office refused to audit the agency at the center of it all, and instead sicced two Assistant Attorneys General on a citizen who simply asked for clarification. That citizen? Me.

From vanishing mailboxes and mysteriously missing emails to a legal joke about chickens that never clucked in court, this episode dissects a failure of courage at the highest levels of Washington's transparency apparatus. If silence is complicity, then the State Auditor’s Office has some serious explaining to do.

Support the show

Transcript + Source Docs:
Get the full hyperlinked transcript and all documents referenced in this episode:
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Sign up for updates:
Join our mailing list for future episodes and investigations
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Support the show:
We’re powered by public records and public support. Buy us a coffee https://coff.ee/thepublicrecordsofficer

About WashCOG:
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) fights for transparency and accountability in Washington State. Learn more:
washcog.org

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X (Twitter): @opengovpod
Instagram: @opengovpod
BlueSky: @thepropodcast.bsky.social‬

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 million public records per week. And now? They're calling critical records “transitory” just because they were sent in chat.

We dig into the cynical legal arguments used to defend mass deletion, hear from whistleblowers and internal agency voices, and debut a damning unredacted memo from the Attorney General’s Office warning that the state’s Microsoft setup wasn’t compliant with public records law. 

It’s not a tech glitch. It’s a playbook designed to obstruct, deny, and delete.

Support the show

Transcript + Source Docs:
Get the full hyperlinked transcript and all documents referenced in this episode:
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Sign up for updates:
Join our mailing list for future episodes and investigations
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Support the show:
We’re powered by public records and public support. Buy us a coffee https://coff.ee/thepublicrecordsofficer

About WashCOG:
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) fights for transparency and accountability in Washington State. Learn more:
washcog.org

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X (Twitter): @opengovpod
Instagram: @opengovpod
BlueSky: @thepropodcast.bsky.social‬

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 under the radar. Host Jamie Nixon traces the story from a fumbled deposition to the governor’s emergency suspension of the policy, with appearances by journalist Shauna Sowersby and attorney Joan Mell. You’ll hear the documents, the audio, and the bureaucratic freakouts that followed.

It's the story of what happens when government accountability meets the delete key. And no, you're not paranoid—they really did delete it.

Full transcript + source docs: thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Support the show

Transcript + Source Docs:
Get the full hyperlinked transcript and all documents referenced in this episode:
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Sign up for updates:
Join our mailing list for future episodes and investigations
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Support the show:
We’re powered by public records and public support. Buy us a coffee https://coff.ee/thepublicrecordsofficer

About WashCOG:
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) fights for transparency and accountability in Washington State. Learn more:
washcog.org

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Instagram: @opengovpod
BlueSky: @thepropodcast.bsky.social‬

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 State public information officer & communications director, and a records nerd with stories to tell.

This isn’t just a podcast. It’s a whistleblower's field guide, an exposé, and a letter of thanks to the public servants working tirelessly to get it right.

New episodes begin dropping late July.

If you care about public records, journalism, due process, or just enjoy watching corrupt institutions squirm... be sure to follow or subscribe. It’s going to get interesting.

Support the show

Transcript + Source Docs:
Get the full hyperlinked transcript and all documents referenced in this episode:
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Sign up for updates:
Join our mailing list for future episodes and investigations
thepublicrecordsofficer.com

Support the show:
We’re powered by public records and public support. Buy us a coffee https://coff.ee/thepublicrecordsofficer

About WashCOG:
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) fights for transparency and accountability in Washington State. Learn more:
washcog.org

Follow & Share
X (Twitter): @opengovpod
Instagram: @opengovpod
BlueSky: @thepropodcast.bsky.social‬