A former attorney for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality fired in a 2014 scandal involving a state legislator has lost her case with the State Court of Civil Appeals.
The court upheld the firing of Mista Burgess who was fired as a supervising attorney in May 2014. She had been terminated after being accused of conspiring with colleague Wendy Caperton and then-Rep. Don Armes to cut the state agency’s budget.
The DEQ at the time accused Burgess and Caperton of working to seek revenge over demotions, pay cuts and job transfers.
Burgess still maintains she did the right thing, telling The Oklahoman, “I was fired for trying to maintain integrity.”
“There were serious shenanigans. The things that DEQ has put me through are ludicrous. They wanted to shut me down. There was no conspiracy,” she continued. “All I did was talk to a legislator.”
Burgess claimed she had talked to Rep. Armes over a fee increase for the Water Quality Division but the money was reportedly used for other purposes.
At the time, Arms sat on the House Appropriations and Budget Committee and chaired its subcommittee on Natural Resources and Regulatory Services.
The court ruled against attempts by Burgess who claimed she was a “whistleblower” saying the Whistleblower act applies to the reporting of “wrongful government activities.”
The Court stated, “General discussions, even those with a legislator, which do not report wrongful government activities are not protected by the act.”
It was the third legal ruling that went against Burgess. She previously had lost rulings in Oklahoma County District Court and the Oklahoma Merit Protection Commission.