Court upholds dismissal of DEQ attorney

The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals has upheld the 2014 firing of a state Department of Environmental Quality attorney who was accused of trying to torpedo the agency.

In a 3-0 ruling released last week, the court affirmed the decisions of lower courts that her dismissal was lawful.

DEQ administrators fired Mista Burgess from her job as a supervising attorney in May 2014, accusing her of conspiring with DEQ colleague Wendy Caperton and then-state Rep. Don Armes, R-Faxon, to cut the agency’s budget.

Their goal was to “exact revenge for their demotion, transfer, salary cuts and other perceived slights,” DEQ officials claimed.

Armes was a powerful lawmaker at the time. He was a member of the House

Appropriations and Budget Committee and chairman of its subcommittee on Natural Resources and Regulatory Services, which reviewed and made appropriations recommendations for DEQ. Armes was term-limited and left the Legislature later that year. He could not be reached for comment.

Contacted Wednesday, Burgess expressed shock at the decision and denied any wrongdoing.

“I was fired for trying to maintain integrity,” Burgess said.

“There were serious shenanigans,” she said. “The things that DEQ has put me through are ludicrous. They wanted to shut me down. There was no conspiracy.”

Burgess claims she was fired for talking to a lawmaker about a situation where her agency had sought a fee increase with representations that the money would be used to hire 8 to 10 employees for the Water Quality Division. The funds ended up being used for other purposes following an administrative shakeup, she said.

“All I did was talk to a legislator about it, which was well within my right,” she said.

DEQ officials contended her actions went well beyond that, saying she was terminated for “dishonest, insubordinate, inappropriate and disruptive behavior”

after her transfer to a new division, according to the appeals court ruling.

In its decision released Wednesday, the appeals court also cited a January 2014 email that DEQ officials found after Burgess’ termination. The email contained a scanned copy of handwritten notes from Burgess to Armes, the state representative, that included questions Armes could ask the agency’s director and Water Quality Division director during a budget hearing to discredit and hurt the agency.

DEQ received a budget cut of over 20 percent that year, the court noted.

Burgess sought whistleblower protection for her actions, but the appeals court rejected her request, finding that the state Whistleblower Act only applies to the reporting of “wrongful governmental activities,” and that Burgess’ conversations with Armes did not rise to that level.

“General discussions, even those with a legislator, which do not report wrongful governmental activities, are not protected by the act,” the appeals court said. “Accordingly, ... Burgess’ general discussions with Rep. Armes are not protected communications under the Act.”

The Court of Civil Appeals decision upheld earlier rulings by Oklahoma County District Judge Don Andrews and the Oklahoma Merit Protection Commission.