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Capitol News Update     

 

March 4, 2013


 

                 Senator Clark Jolley has introduced three Joint Resolutions containing proposals to amend the Oklahoma Constitution.  If passed they would radically change the way Oklahoma appeals court judges and justices (and trial judges in case of a vacancy) are appointed and retained in office.   

 

                  SJR 21 provides that the role of the Judicial Nominating Commission, rather than submitting the names of three qualified candidates to the governor for appointment as a judge or justice will only report that a nominee, already selected by the governor, is "qualified" or "unqualified."  SJR 22 provides that the governor will appoint the Chief Justice with confirmation by the state senate.  SJR 24 provides that justices and appellate judges will be appointed by the governor with confirmation by the senate and will be eligible to serve up to 20 years with no retention ballot.

 

                  Senator Jolley maintains that a gubernatorial appointment of judges with confirmation by the state senate will take the politics out of the selection of judges.  He cites the recent retention ballot in which the state chamber attempted to "rate" the justices and judges based on their being "business friendly."  I agree with him it is a bad idea for a powerful interest group to try to influence the retention elections based solely on selected court rulings.  After all, the judges are required to interpret the law, not rule according to their own personal point of view. 

 

                  Ironically, Senator Jolley's proposals will save the chamber the trouble and expense of "rating" the judges.  All they need is a friend in the governor's office.  As for senate confirmation, few things could be more political.  We've seen how senate confirmation works at the federal level.  Special interests comb through the background of potential nominees looking for a "wrong" statement or a misstatement made 20 years ago that would be a disqualifier.  Nominations are held up or nominees are embarrassed by everything from ideological impurity to personal pique.  With Jolley's proposals, the main qualification for a judgeship will be a good relationship with a senator.   Lots of people are "qualified" so the appointments will go to the politically connected or ideologically compliant. 

 

                  You can't take the politics out of politics, but you can diffuse the power.  That's what the current Judicial Nominating Commission does.  The governor, the state bar, the speaker and the president pro tempore have appointments to the JNC, and it must be diverse professionally, politically and geographically.  A majority of the group must send three names to the governor who makes the appointment.  The legislature gets to make the laws.  Senators shouldn't have a powerful influence on who the judges that interpret it will be.  I'm still trying to figure out what the problem is that needs to be fixed.  Perhaps the courts have shown themselves to be a little too independent of politics.  

Check and balances: State expenditures available online

By M. Scott Carter 

The Journal Record

OKLAHOMA CITY - The 6 million expenditures made by the state since July 2007 are now available online in an easy-to-understand checkbook-style format, the state treasurer said Wednesday.

Unveiled during a morning press conference, the state's Online Checkbook offers residents an easy way to review state spending, Treasurer Ken Miller said. The website is at www.treasurer.ok.gov.

Miller said the information is presented in a searchable, easy-to-understand format.

"Banks give their customers online access to their accounts," Miller said. "We wanted to do the same. This state's checkbook looks very much like a personal checking account."

Miller said the website allows users to track expenditures and collections by functions of government or by government agency. He said payments to businesses and state employees are included and can be searched collectively or individually.

He said the access was part of a bill passed in 2011 that required the state to process vendor payments electronically. That bill was written by state Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie. On Wednesday, Murphey praised the website, saying it offered a new level of access to state government.

"It's nice to see access that wasn't required by law," Murphey said. "It's a great service."

Miller, who served as budget chairman for the House of Representatives before being elected treasurer, said the online checkbook was a natural progression of several transparency initiatives developed by himself, Murphey and state Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond. He said more financial data would be added soon.

Miller said that data would include information on public assistance payments, pensions, Medicaid payments and unemployment benefits. He said the information would be available after upgrades were made to the state's cash management, electronic payment and electronic deposit software. However, Miller said some data - such as the name of public assistance recipients - would be blocked to protect the privacy of the individual.

"We will put more information online as we update systems," he said.

Providing taxpayers more access to spending information, Miller said, leads to better spending decisions. He said work is also under way to add information about the receipt of federal funds to the system.

The online checkbook is the second financial reporting website launched by the state. Another website, www.ok.gov/okaa, offers information about state expenditures and budget information.

DHS centers bill clears committee

By M. Scott Carter

The Journal Record

ENID - Legislation designed to prevent the Department of Human Services from closing two state facilities that serve developmentally disabled residents cleared the House Human Services Committee this week.

House Bill 2053 would prevent the DHS from shutting down the Northern Oklahoma Resource Center in Enid and the Southern Oklahoma Resource Center in Pauls Valley. Both facilities serve developmentally disabled residents.

The Pauls Valley facility was targeted in 2012 after DHS officials said they wanted to shut the center down and move its residents to Enid. At that time, then-DHS Commissioner Michael Peck released a document calling for closure of the center by Aug. 13, 2013.

Following a public outcry and the passage of a state question that abolished the DHS commission, efforts by the agency to close the center slowed.

Ann Dee Lee, spokeswoman for the DHS Developmentally Disabled Services Department, said the agency wanted to place residents into group homes to give the residents a better living experience. She said all the residents in both facilities were qualified for a group home setting.

"The trend across the country is to stop institutionalizing people and place them in a more home-like setting," she said.

Lee said those homes would provide medical care based on the resident's need. She said federal and state funds - currently being paid to the state facilities - would instead follow the residents.

"We'd rather the funds go to the people instead of being used to repair 100-year-old buildings," Lee said.

Documents provided by the DHS show that both facilities need millions of dollars in repair work. A budget for repairs at the Enid center recommends more than $15 million in major maintenance and renovations, including work on sewer lines, windows and roofs.

In Pauls Valley, DHS officials said, more than $14 million was needed for building maintenance and renovations.

Lee said her agency would rather have the funds be spent on the residents.

"Some of these buildings are very old and need a lot of work," she said.

However, lawmakers from the Enid area question the plan to close the facilities. In a media statement announcing the House Human Services Committee's passage of HB 2053, House Speaker Pro Tempore Mike Jackson, R-Enid, said his legislation would require the DHS to develop a plan for the facilities that considers the concerns of the families and the state's need for safety net beds for citizens with disabilities.

Other lawmakers, including state Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid, and Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, who served as Republican majority leader in the Senate, also questioned the need to close the centers.

"As an Enid native, I have always been supportive of the Northern Oklahoma Resource Center and the quality of life it provides," Lamb said in an email. "I will work with local legislators to point out the benefits of such a center and the services it offers to our most vulnerable citizens."

Because the DHS commission was dissolved, Jackson said, lawmakers should step in to protect the residents of the centers.

"This closure plan was voted in by a board that has been abolished by a vote of the people," he said. "I think it is time for lawmakers to step in and address the concerns of these vulnerable citizens and their families."

Jackson said both facilities provide services to the state's most seriously developmentally challenged adults. Some residents, he said, have serious chronic medical conditions such as epilepsy, have tracheotomies or are fed using gastrostomy tubes.

"Most of the residents have lived most of their lives at the facilities," Jackson said. "The costs of these facilities are paid through Medicaid, and the funds are minimal when looking at the overall budget, yet they are critical to the residents and their families."

Lee said DHS officials understand the fear involved in moving residents out of the centers and into group home facilities.

"The residents would have care based on their needs and there would be regular supervision and oversight," she said. "The residents would be properly cared for and protected."

Lee said 103 residents live at the Enid center. She said the facility has a staff of 293.

Still, should lawmakers pass the measure, Lee said DHS officials would comply with the law.

"We are a state agency," she said. "If this is what the Legislature wants us to do, then we will do it."

HB 2053 now goes to the full House of Representatives for review.

Food stamp requirements

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An Oklahoma House subcommittee has advanced a proposal to make qualifying for food stamps more difficult.

The Appropriations and Budget Public Health and Social Services Subcommittee approved the bill from state Rep. Sean Roberts , R-Hominy, without opposition Thursday. The proposal would make anyone with $5,000 or more in cash or in a bank account ineligible for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Roberts said his bill closes a loophole in federal requirements for the program, which focus primarily on a person's income level. He said someone could win the lottery and still be eligible for food stamps.

Roberts also said he doesn't intend to take aid from those who need it - but to cut spending on people who can provide for themselves.

GOP-backed workers' comp plan clears Senate

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A Republican-backed plan to overhaul Oklahoma's workers' compensation system has been approved by the state Senate, despite concerns that the cost savings in the bill come at the expense of those injured on the job.

The Senate voted 34-12 for the bill on Wednesday, mostly along party lines, although two Republicans opposed it. It now heads to the House for consideration.

The bill would transform Oklahoma's Workers' Compensation Court to an administrative system overseen by commissioners appointed by the governor.

Republican leaders say the overhaul is needed to reduce the high cost of workers' compensation insurance in Oklahoma, but Democrats say there's no guarantee the bill will lower costs. Opponents say the savings will come from a reduction in benefits to injured workers.

Okla. House 'morning-after' pill vote delayed

By Dan Holtmeyer

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma House delayed a vote Thursday on a bill that would prohibit the state's Medicaid authority from paying for emergency contraception coverage, after Speaker T.W. Shannon raised concerns that his proposal might jeopardize the program's federal funding.

Shannon's proposal would prevent the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which oversees the state's SoonerCare Medicaid program, from covering the use of the so-called "morning-after" pill. Many conservatives say they consider the pill's use to be an abortion and don't want the state supporting it.

State Rep. David Derby of Owasso returned the bill to a calendar committee Thursday at Shannon's request. When it might come back up for a vote is unclear, because Derby told his colleagues the bill would be amended before being reassigned a voting date by the committee.

Shannon told reporters after the chamber adjourned for the weekend that he was concerned his bill might contradict federal Medicaid guidelines, which could put Oklahoma's federal funding for the program at risk.

"Essentially, if we want the fed-negotiated price for some prescription drugs, then we have to have an open formulary," Health Care Authority spokesman Carter Kimble said, referring to the list of medications covered by Medicaid. "If you have a closed formulary ... then you don't get federal rebate dollars towards those drugs."

SoonerCare also covers non-emergency contraception and provides for family planning.

Of SoonerCare's roughly 800,000 monthly enrollees, more than 700,000 are children, pregnant women or fall in the aged or disabled category, according to the OHCA.

That leaves a relatively small number of adults who'd use contraception, Kimble said, and of them the group that uses non-emergency methods is "vastly, vastly larger" than the number that use emergency contraception. He said he didn't have specific numbers for either group immediately available.

Okla. public health agencies face budget cuts from Washington

By Sarah Terry-Cobo 

The Journal Record

OKLAHOMA CITY - The state's public health and disease prevention efforts will suffer if automatic federal budget cuts take effect on Friday.

Officials from the state Department of Health and the Oklahoma City-County Health Department said the cuts, known as sequestration, would reduce funding for vaccines, nutrition assistance programs and staff, possibly resulting in layoffs.

Julie Cox-Kain, chief operating officer of the Oklahoma State Department of Health, said a 5-percent reduction in federal funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would translate into a 10-percent reduction, or about $9.5 million less, for Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City-County Health Department could face reductions, too, but executives from that agency said they have plans so the effects won't be sudden or dramatic.

On Monday, the White House released a list of state-by-state reductions that will automatically take place. In Oklahoma, the automatic cuts include millions to the civilian Department of Defense workforce, training and assistance to unemployed people, and nutrition assistance for senior citizens. Oklahoma would receive about $102,000 less for vaccines for children, $98,000 less for HIV testing and treatment, and $358,000 less for public health threats such as natural disasters and infectious diseases.

Cox-Kain said it's uncertain if the reduced funding will result in her agency losing specific programs, but there are plans for across-the-board cuts. The Health Department receives about 90 percent of its funding for emergency response preparedness from federal agencies like the CDC. As it did in some parts of Oklahoma with Monday's snowstorm, the state agency helps coordinate police and hospitals, when one small hospital is full and has to divert people to another, she said.

The state Health Department also sends employees to respond to natural disasters. In 2011, workers gave tetanus vaccines to people in the Piedmont area who cleaned up rubble from a tornado. The agency provides vaccines to low-income children whose parents can't afford shots necessary to enroll in school. Rather than eliminating the free vaccine program, the state will likely have to reduce the number of vaccines they can give to physicians, Cox-Kain said.

"The budget impacts are real, even though we operate in prevention mode," Cox-Kain said. "The reality is, infrastructure is necessary to prevent diseases and injuries."

Robert Jamison, deputy director of the Oklahoma City-County Health Department, said there is still much unknown about exactly how much money will be cut and which programs will be affected. His agency has 14 programs that receive federal funding passed from the state; those programs provide $5.7 million in revenue and support the equivalent of 96 full-time employees.

"Technically the state could absorb those cuts and pass the funding on to our agency," Jamison said, "but traditionally that hasn't happened."

Phillip Parker, chief of personal health services at the Oklahoma City-County Health Department, said the Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, program could face reduced funding. Parker said the agency might have to reduce eligibility requirements, so fewer women with small children would receive money for food. A smaller WIC program could also mean the Health Department has to lay off workers who administer the program. A November analysis by the state Health Department estimated that a 10-percent reduction in CDC funding would mean more than 50,000 people wouldn't receive WIC benefits.

Jamison said the agency plans its budget three to five years in advance, with a kind of rainy day fund in case of unexpected cuts such as the automatic federal cuts. His agency looks at the community's priorities and then will determine if it can absorb the costs of a vaccine or other program.

"For the last several years, we've tried to make sure there is funding in reserve, so we are not faced with an immediate crisis that would affect our staff and clients," Jamison said. "From a broad point of view, I'm not anticipating we will drastically cut our programs and services if sequestration comes to pass."

Shannon eyes ways to make workers' comp bill 'stronger'

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - House Speaker T.W. Shannon says a Senate bill to overhaul Oklahoma's workers' compensation system could undergo changes in the House.

The Senate approved the Republican-backed measure, Senate Bill 1062, on Wednesday and sent it to the House for consideration.

Shannon said Thursday that he supports the idea of shifting Oklahoma's Workers' Compensation Court to an administrative system, but that the House still has to closely analyze the 260-page measure and will look for ways to make it "even stronger."

Opponents have said the cost savings realized under the bill come mostly by limiting benefits to injured workers, and Shannon expressed concern that those hurt on the job aren't penalized. If the bill is modified in the House, it would have to return to the Senate for consideration.

State government power balance debated

By M. Scott Carter 

The Journal Record

OKLAHOMA CITY - One lawmaker said the state constitution, with its populist roots and fractured authority, needs to be modernized.

Others fear a new push to concentrate power for the governor.

Somewhere in the middle, at least one political scientist said changes are needed, but must be balanced.

This week, after a vote by the state Senate's General Government Committee, proponents are still trying to marshal votes to keep several bills alive that would allow the governor to name the heads of several executive agencies and appoint at least three offices now chosen by voters.

On Monday Senate Bill 598 cleared the General Government Committee 6-1. That bill would ask voters to decide whether the governor should appoint the state superintendent of public instruction, insurance commissioner and labor commissioner.

The bill's author, state Sen. Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, told the Associated Press the governor's authority to name individuals to office should be expanded.

"I think these are the ones we can get done this year," Treat said. "Hopefully moving forward, we can add more to it."

Getting there might not be easy.

Voters have a distrust of both the governor and the Legislature, said University of Oklahoma political science professor Keith Gaddie. Oklahoma, Gaddie said, has a progressive constitution in a populist state.

"Our constitution creates a weak governorship," Gaddie said, "and it can make it hard to govern and hard to solve problems."

In addition, the Oklahoma Constitution places the oversight of several state agencies into the hands of commissions and boards of directors, diluting a chief executive's power even further.

"One problem with having a commission oversee a state agency is that eventually the commission is controlled by special-interest groups," he said. "They capture positions on the board and then the agency administrators are answering to people with special interests and not the general public."

The perfect example, said retired Maj. Gen. Rita Aragon, state secretary of military and veterans affairs, is the War Veterans Commission. Though members of the WVC are appointed by the governor, the list of candidates is supplied by special-interest groups.

"There are more than 500 nonprofit veterans groups in the state," Aragon said. "Yet only three are represented on the War Veterans Commission. That's in a state with more than 300,000 veterans."

Treat said the state constitution was designed to divide executive power.

"Making these offices gubernatorial appointments will truly bring them under the executive branch, and allow the executive to be held accountable for the performance of the agencies," Treat said in a press release touting his bill. "This reform is in line with what the voters approved for the Department of Human Services this year, and in my opinion, it is long overdue."

Other lawmakers, though, remain skeptical.

State Rep. Eric Proctor, D-Tulsa, said bills giving the governor more appointive power take that power away from the public.

"It's not something I can support," Proctor said. "It's not taking power away from the Legislature, but from the people."

Every four years, he said, the public has the ability to hire or fire whoever they want in office.

"If the voter disagrees with an official about how that official is doing his job, then they can fire them," he said.

The final authority of state government, Proctor said, should rest with voters.

State Rep. Dennis Casey, R-Morrison, said he remains undecided on the issue. Casey, a former public school administrator and football coach, said there are both good and bad arguments that can be made for expanding the governor's appointive authority.

"You have to be careful of what you wish for," Casey said. "I can see both sides. Right now you have Republicans controlling the Legislature and the governor's office, but I think the issue would be even more complicated if there were different parties in charge."

While Casey said he had full faith in Republican Gov. Mary Fallin's administration, he said that might not be the case with a future governor.

"It can be a slippery slope," he said. "There's not an easy answer."

Senate Bill 598 is set to be heard by the full Senate. Should the measure become law, the offices of insurance commissioner, labor commissioner and state schools superintendent would become appointive beginning in 2018. A second measure, Senate Bill 467, would give the governor the authority to appoint the executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs. That measure is expected to be heard within the next few days.

Two former lawmakers face trial for bribery

By Tim Talley

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY - A judge on Friday ordered two former Oklahoma lawmakers to stand trial on charges alleging that one offered to set the other up with a job in exchange for promising not to seek re-election.

Oklahoma County Special Judge Stephen Alcorn entered not-guilty pleas for former state Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, and former state Sen. Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, and scheduled a March 20 date for them to appear before District Judge Glenn Jones. They remain free on their own recognizance.

Alcorn ruled in 2011 that the state had enough evidence to try the two for bribery, but not conspiracy. Prosecutors appealed Alcorn's ruling on the conspiracy charge, and on Wednesday the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Alcorn's decision.

"We are fully confident that we will also win at the district court on the substantive count," Leftwich's attorney, Robert McCampbell, said after Friday's hearing, referring to the bribery charge.

Terrill is charged with offering a bribe and Leftwich is charged with soliciting or accepting a bribe. Prosecutors contend that Terrill offered Leftwich an $80,000-a-year job at the Office of the State Medical Examiner in exchange for Leftwich's promise not to seek re-election in 2010. They allege that Terrill wanted the Senate seat to go to a Republican colleague, state Rep. Mike Christian, of Oklahoma City.

At the time, Terrill was chairman of a House budget subcommittee responsible for the budget of the medical examiner's office. Officials at the agency testified during a preliminary hearing that they felt pressured to hire Leftwich even though they felt she wasn't qualified.

Christian campaigned for the Senate seat but pulled out of the race when the investigation was announced. He was not charged and was re-elected to his House seat.

Prosecutors allege that Terrill and Leftwich also conspired together in the bribery scheme. But defense attorneys invoked a legal guideline known as Wharton's rule to argue against the conspiracy charge. The guideline prohibits the prosecution of just two people for conspiracy to commit an offense if it takes at least two people to commit the offense.

Defense attorneys have said Terrill didn't have the authority to promise Leftwich a job, and that Leftwich wasn't technically a candidate for re-election because she never filed the required paperwork with the state Election Board. Terrill left the Legislature last year.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Leftwich had raised and spent campaign funds in the months and years prior to the 2010 election and announced her withdrawal from the race only after a bill creating the job at the medical examiner's office was passed at the end of the 2010 legislative session.

Defense attorneys have said the actions of Terrill and Leftwich were constitutionally protected because they were acting in their official capacity as legislators. But prosecutors claim many conversations involving the alleged plot occurred outside the lawmakers' official duties.

Terrill and Leftwich deny the bribery allegations. Bribery is punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.





Have a good week.  Give me a call at 918.671.6860 if I can be of help in any way

                  Steve Lewis

 
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2012 DEADLINES
 

This Week's News
State Expenditures Available
DHS Centers
Food Stamp Requirements
GOP-Backed Workers' Comp
Morning-After Pill
Public Health Agencies
Shannon Eyes Workers' Comp Bill
Power Balance Debated
Lawmakers Face Bribery Trial