Oklahoma
Our State Under Stitt: Government at the Speed of Business – Oklahoma Watch
Businessman Kevin Stitt campaigned on a easy theme in 2018: Rent me because the state’s CEO and let me present you tips on how to rework state authorities.
However a mess of buying scandals and revelations of misspending through the coronavirus pandemic has uncovered the hazards of operating authorities on the velocity of enterprise. Friction with fellow Republicans within the Legislature highlighted different administration blind spots. Stitt the CEO morphed into Stitt the governor.
Our State Below Stitt
One in a collection of tales taking a look at Gov. Kevin Stitt’s report as he runs for a second time period.
At the same time as he runs for re-election with a report, Stitt nonetheless touts his CEO strategy to governing. That features taking positions that may upset Capitol insiders like lobbyists, “particular pursuits” and even members of his personal occasion. His concentrate on fiscal self-discipline, together with a rebound in state revenues and tax hikes beneath his GOP predecessor, Mary Fallin, led to report state financial savings accounts.
“The one method you can really make the suitable selections for Oklahomans is just not being beholden to anyone particular curiosity group over one other,” Stitt informed Oklahoma Watch in a latest interview. “We want extra folks in state authorities which are eager to concentrate on that subsequent technology and shifting our state to turning into High 10.”
Practically all of Stitt’s cupboard secretaries have come from the non-public sector, with heavy illustration from the oil and gasoline trade. His picks for a number of company administrators have related backgrounds. Stitt is aware of the state can’t match the pay of their non-public sector jobs, however he recruits them by interesting to their sense of public service.
“I’m pleased with the folks that we introduced into state authorities as a result of I’m attempting to carry a recent set of eyes, folks from all walks of life, from the enterprise world,” Stitt mentioned. “And I continually inform them, ‘Hey, come give me two years of service.’ It’s actually a sacrifice, however that’s what public service ought to be.
“This shouldn’t be one of the best job you’ve ever had, as a result of then you definately maintain on and do issues for political causes as a substitute of for the betterment of Oklahoma.”
That quick tenure hasn’t at all times labored out. Legislative investigations, state and federal audits and the media have uncovered tens of millions in misspending through the Stitt administration, a lot of it from no-bid contracts.
Among the many examples:
Within the GOP main and within the normal election, Stitt’s opponents have pointed to that litany of scandals as proof that he shouldn’t be rewarded with re-election. Stitt, in the meantime, decries the tens of millions spent towards him this 12 months in so-called “darkish cash,” the place the donors aren’t disclosed.
“The actual query is: Discover out who’s spending $20 million towards me,” Stitt mentioned. “Is my opponent going to be extra beholden to that $20 million or the folks which are really voting?
“I might love for Congress to alter these legal guidelines, or a minimum of make it clear. If you wish to get in and attempt to affect an election, let’s let ‘em know who they’re.”
Stitt’s personal report of transparency in authorities is combined. In his first 12 months, he revamped the state’s on-line checkbook and signed an govt order forbidding businesses from hiring any new contract lobbyists. However he refused to offer particulars as an enormous incentive bundle moved by the Legislature at report velocity this 12 months, citing a non-disclosure settlement he signed. Extra not too long ago, secrecy agreements have been cited as he raised cash for a brand new governor’s mansion, in response to TV station KFOR. Oklahoma Watch needed to sue the state to get entry to billions in requests for federal pandemic aid cash beneath the American Rescue Plan Act.
Report Financial savings
Stitt can level to financial successes forward of the Nov. 8 election, together with swelling state financial savings accounts and low state unemployment. Oklahoma ranks No. 3 within the variety of days it may fund authorities utilizing solely reserves, in response to the Pew Charitable Trusts.
“Traditionally, the rationale we’ve gotten into issues previously is the Legislature spends each dime of it,” Stitt mentioned. “We had zero cash in financial savings after I bought right here. We’re in an excellent place as a result of we’ve been fiscally disciplined, and I don’t apologize for that.”
Nonetheless, a rebound in oil and gasoline costs is a double-edged sword for Oklahoma. Power firm income are up and extra drilling rigs are being deployed to the Oil Patch. However gasoline prices extra on the pump. Diesel, a key gas within the agricultural sector, stays excessive.
An electrical utility sector more and more depending on pure gasoline technology is pushing up family bills for shoppers. The value of pure gasoline averaged $4 per unit final 12 months, however that has risen to greater than $7 per unit this 12 months, in response to the federal Power Data Administration. These gas prices are handed instantly on to Oklahoma utility shoppers. That’s along with billions in buyer prices from the excessive value of pure gasoline through the winter storm of early 2021.
Stitt stays annoyed with the Legislature, and significantly the Senate, for not passing tax cuts or inflation aid this 12 months. He blames President Joe Biden and Democrats in Washington for inflation, a worldwide macroeconomic issue affecting quite a few nations with all stripes of political events in energy. Rising vitality prices and pandemic-related provide chain points are rising the dangers of a worldwide recession.
Making Change: ‘That’s What Drives Me’
Stitt mentioned he’s pleased with his report and relishes shaking issues up. In his first time period, he’s picked high-profile fights with a number of tribes over gaming compacts and the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s McGirt resolution that dominated tribal reservations had been nonetheless in impact in Oklahoma for main crimes. He additionally drew the ire of medical teams over masks mandates within the first 12 months of the coronavirus pandemic and ceaselessly criticized Tulsa public college leaders over their resolution to maintain faculties closed for public well being causes.
“In politics, what you guys have to grasp is, you’re rewarded to not do something,” Stitt mentioned. “You’re rewarded to not make waves, you’re rewarded to go alongside to get alongside. Whenever you see me shifting the needle and attempting to alter stuff, it’s not good for me politically in getting beat up by everyone — the insiders primarily. However I inform you this, the three.9 million Oklahomans on the market, they need their governor there making change, (asking) how can we do higher? That’s what drives me.”
John Budd was the state’s chief working officer till summer time 2021. He mentioned Stitt is fast to make selections and desires to get issues performed rapidly. Regardless of a public notion that the governor digs in when challenged, Budd mentioned Stitt appreciates different viewpoints. Nonetheless, the governor expects his selections to be carried out as soon as a coverage is hashed out.
“The governor and I disagreed on plenty of coverage factors, and we knew that going into our working relationship in 2019,” Budd mentioned. “I didn’t at all times change his thoughts after we disagreed, however I at all times felt my view was listened to. When somebody has as sturdy a persona as he does, it’s not at all times simple to problem that individual, however I feel the governor relishes going toe-to-toe.”
What He Did With Expanded Powers
Stitt’s need to be the state’s CEO differs from lots of his predecessors’ approaches. Stitt is simply the second governor within the final 50 years to come back on to the workplace from non-public enterprise. Oklahoma’s structure at statehood was designed to disperse energy, with appointed boards choosing the administrators of most businesses and direct votes on statewide elected officers. That governing philosophy has developed through the years.
The Legislature bears some accountability for the newest adjustments in govt authority. In Stitt’s first 12 months in workplace, Republican lawmakers gave extra powers to the governor, permitting him to instantly appoint the leaders of among the largest state businesses. In alternate, the Senate bought new powers to vet these company leaders by the affirmation course of.
Then, for 2 months in 2020 on the outset of the pandemic, lawmakers triggered the Catastrophic Well being Emergency Powers Act, giving Stitt, his cupboard secretaries and company administrators expanded powers.
The emergency powers legislation gave Stitt and his administration nearly king-like management over state spending. Gone had been buying provisions that require aggressive bidding. State-issued buy card spending limits may very well be discarded within the title of a public well being emergency.
A lot of the misspending highlighted by auditors or the media stem from that first 12 months of the pandemic. However some, just like the Swadley’s barbecue renovations at state parks, pre-dated the pandemic and solely got here to gentle this 12 months.
It’s not that state buying guidelines are significantly beloved. Ask any state worker, they usually’ll possible have lengthy tales about the way it was so exhausting to purchase provides or tools wanted for his or her job. Or the months or years it took for his or her company to make a serious buy. However all these buying guidelines had been put in place as a result of somebody, someplace, at a while, tousled.
Oklahoma historical past bears witness. Within the final century, Oklahoma claimed two of the biggest authorities corruption scandals in U.S. historical past.
Within the Nineteen Sixties, the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket was a den of corruption and bribery, resulting in vital reforms of the state’s judicial department. Amongst these reforms was the Judicial Nominating Fee and the imposition of nonpartisan judicial retention elections. Then, within the Eighties, the county commissioner scandal led to the enactment of most of the state’s buying legal guidelines. Greater than 200 county commissioners and their distributors throughout the state had been implicated in that scandal, which concerned buying road-building supplies.
Marketing campaign Promise Stored Utilizing Federal Funds
Within the final two years, billions of {dollars} got here into the state from the federal authorities for the coronavirus pandemic response. An alphabet soup of federal pandemic aid applications, from the CARES Act and GEER Funds to ARPA and PPP, popped as much as ship greater than $30 billion to Oklahoma since 2020, in response to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. A lot of that aid went on to companies and people, however the state authorities bought billions to spend from the CARES Act beneath the Trump administration and the American Rescue Plan Act beneath the Biden administration.
That federal cash allowed the Stitt administration to examine a number of bins from a 2018 marketing campaign promise to modernize state authorities. The state used $110 million in CARES Act cash for a Texas-located backup to the state’s knowledge middle. Hundreds of thousands in ARPA funds will go towards digital well being data for county well being departments and OU Well being.
As a small-government conservative, Stitt mentioned he sees no irony in utilizing federal cash to modernize state authorities. As a substitute, he sees it as placing it to good use. Sending the cash again to the federal authorities so it may be re-distributed to different states wouldn’t make sense, Stitt mentioned.
Stitt mentioned his try and modernize the way in which driver’s licenses and automobile tags are issued and renewed bumped into a really highly effective foyer of tag brokers on the Capitol, with many lawmakers initially immune to the adjustments he wished to make. Coronavirus-related workplace closures additionally meant lengthy traces, as did the state’s long-delayed transition to federally required Actual ID licenses. A scarcity of accessible appointments made the method extremely irritating for residents. This 12 months, the Legislature agreed to mix some features of the Tax Fee and the Division of Public Security into a brand new entity referred to as Service Oklahoma.
State businesses are reverting to a non-emergency posture for state buying. At a latest expo for state suppliers hosted by the Workplace of Administration and Enterprise Companies, officers touted the state’s positive factors in know-how and promised a more-responsive state authorities for residents and distributors alike. Break-out periods went over the trivia of state buying rules for varied businesses. The company debuted a brand new provider portal for distributors.
“We stored listening to how troublesome it was to cope with the state of Oklahoma,” mentioned Steven Harpe, the previous govt director of the company and the state’s former chief working officer. “In some circumstances, it was taking two years to get firms signed up on statewide contracts, and that was unacceptable. We found there was an enormous divide between state authorities and personal suppliers, particularly native suppliers.”
From Drawing On Unique Community to ‘Pondering Exterior the Field’
Stitt, whose first run for public workplace was for governor, had no authorities expertise or networks of allies with authorities expertise to attract upon as he arrange his administration. His early appointments for cupboard secretaries drew from his community of enterprise leaders, significantly an govt mentoring group referred to as YPO, or Younger Presidents Group.
In his first 12 months in workplace, Stitt picked three cupboard members and two company administrators who shared his membership within the YPO, an unique, invitation-only community of executives. Amongst them had been Jerome Loughridge, Justin Brown and David Ostrowe. Solely Brown stays within the administration as secretary of human providers. He not too long ago stepped down from his function heading the Division of Human Companies.
A handful of Stitt appointees have resigned beneath strain, together with former Tourism Director Jerry Winchester. He left over misspending allegations beneath a contract with barbecue firm Swadley’s at state parks. Gino DeMarco, who was Winchester’s chief lieutenant, additionally got here beneath fireplace for his function in shopping for private protecting tools as Stitt’s coronavirus “PPE czar.”
In the meantime, two former oil and gasoline executives who ran the Commissioners of the Land Workplace resigned after revelations about alleged self-dealing and firing whistleblowers. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is trying into the newest allegations on the request of outgoing Oklahoma County District Legal professional David Prater. Simply final week, a Stitt appointee and architect of a hospital surge plan for coronavirus response was charged with a number of counts of drug trafficking over his function to find “ghost” homeowners for industrial medical marijuana licenses.
In the previous few months, Stitt made a number of agency- or secretary-level personnel strikes. Earlier this month, he named Harpe to go the Division of Corrections, certainly one of a number of businesses the place the governor has direct appointment energy. Harpe replaces Scott Crowe, who introduced his retirement in the summertime. The Corrections Division is overseeing the state’s resumption of the dying penalty, with greater than 20 executions scheduled within the subsequent two years.
Different latest appointments additionally draw from the vitality sector. John Suter, who has a background in oil and gasoline, was named by the governor to run OMES and be the state’s chief working officer. He’s a former CEO of SandRidge Power and was a vp at American Power Companions. Stitt appointed one other oil and gasoline govt, John Legal guidelines, to be secretary of funds and the state’s chief monetary officer. Legal guidelines beforehand held executive-suite positions at Allow Midstream LP.
Stitt mentioned the failed affirmation of certainly one of his former well being commissioners, Gary Cox, was the right illustration of how he’s attempting to rework state authorities. Cox had a grasp’s diploma, a legislation diploma and a long time of expertise working at well being departments in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties. However he didn’t have a grasp’s of science diploma, and the Legislature was unwilling to alter the statutory necessities for the place in 2020. (The Legislature later modified the legislation to permit present Well being Commissioner Keith Reed to remain within the job.)
“He was probably the most educated man within the state,” Stitt mentioned of Cox. “So after I grew to become governor, I appointed him because the director of the state well being division. Little did I do know that I needed to go play ‘Mom, Could I’ with 140 completely different folks (within the Legislature) earlier than I made that appointment to ensure they had been OK with it.
“These sorts of ridiculous issues maintain you from really placing one of the best folks on a few of these boards and commissions. I’m continually attempting to elucidate to the Legislature that we’ve gotta suppose exterior the field.”
Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state businesses and public well being. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or pmonies@oklahomawatch.org. Observe him on Twitter @pmonies.
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