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 public agencies to avoid transparency, and highlights the citizens, journalists, and legal warriors fighting back.
Season One investigates the ontologically shocking story of how Washington State agencies used Microsoft Teams to automatically delete public records after just seven days, raising questions of legality, accountability, and who gets to decide what the public has a right to see.
Each episode blends documents, depositions, interviews, and digital trails with sharp commentary and a sense of civic urgency. Whether it’s a modified invoice, redacted emails, or a policy crafted to vanish before a subpoena hits... The PROP is here to shine a light where the law demands it.
Featuring interviews with journalists, attorneys, and the officials who tried to sound the alarm before it was too late.
The truth doesn’t expire in seven days.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 29 minutes
- Episodes
- 8
- Years Active
- 2025
Ep. 7 Who Wrote That
What happens when governments let artificial intelligence draft their words? Who’s really behind the keyboard when AI systems churn out emails, press releases, or chatbot responses on behalf of publi…
Ep. 6 Transparency Isn't a Team Sport
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 te…
Ep. 5 The Cost of Erasure
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…
Ep. 4 Ferguson's Folly
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 transpa…
Ep. 3 The Watchdog's Blind Eye
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…
Ep. 2 The Obstruction Playbook
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…
Ep. 1 The Smoking Gun
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 …
Trailer: The Public Records Officer Podcast
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... …