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As the legislative session draws to a close, Governor Stitt had a busy week signing - and vetoing - a large number of bills. In doing so, the divide between the legislative and executive branches appears to be growing ever wider. What does that mean for the Governor's agenda...and for the state?

The Oklahoma legislature ended both their regular session and their special session today. In doing so they voted to end CHEPA, the Governor’s catastrophic health emergency powers act, on May 30th. 

• Does that mean we should expect the Governor to end the state of emergency declaration soon as well?

This morning Governor Stitt named Col. Lance Frye, MD, as the interim commissioner of health. As listeners may remember, current interim commissioner, Gary Cox, was not confirmed by the Senate because he lacks the academic credentials required by law for that position. On behalf of Let’s Pod This, we extend our appreciation to Gary Cox for his service and wish Col. Frye good luck as he takes the helm of the Dept of Health in the midst of a pandemic and with his agency facing an audit.

Also this morning, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, which handles Oklahoma’s unemployment claims system, voted to consolidate its IT & business practices with the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. This happened because OESC, like many state agencies, has an aging & outdated IT infrastructure that was woefully inadequate for the massive number of claims they’ve received over the last couple of months. There are three things that are ironic about this:

1. Yet another state agency falling apart due to lack of investing in infrastructure. It’s 2020 - you can’t run a state government on Windows XP.
2. OMES was created for just this purpose - to consolidate and house the IT and business operations of all the state agencies. That never really worked out as some agencies didn’t conform, so we have this very splintered system. 
3. If memory serves, didn’t Governor Stitt previously say he wants to dismantle OMES and return those operations back to individual agencies so they can run more efficiently?

Then, this afternoon news broke that the head of OESC, Robin Roberson, stepped down. She was just hired in January, before all this Covid mess started, and according to the Oklahoman, Roberson said she had five calls yesterday asking her to step down before the meeting.

The Governor also had a busy week signing - and vetoing - a large number of bills. We don’t have time to discuss all ~134 approvals, but do want to mention the COLA for retired state employees was signed into law. And then, let's talk about the vetoes are certainly interesting. Let’s quickly run through all the vetoes:

• HB 2749 and HB 2750, which worked in conjunction to authorize an additional $161 million bond package to fund the state’s matching obligation for endowed chair positions at Oklahoma higher education institutions. The measures also functionally capped the state’s funding of endowed chairs. Stitt wants to end state funding for endowed chairs entirely.  

2749 Veto override passed 94-3, 44-1

2750 Veto override passed 92-6, 44-1

• HB3819 - made any contract from a state agency open to inspection by any member of the Oklahoma Legislature, and it also banned any agency from prohibiting an employee, contractor or other person to communicate with the Legislature. It passed the House 94-1 and the Senate 44-0. Stitt said the measure was duplicative, detailed concern about confidential information...