Bill gives more authority to fire political appointees
Oklahoma’s governor and legislative leaders soon could have the authority to sack many of their political appointees at will.
House Bill 2316 would give officials broader authority to remove board members without cause, allowing appointments by the governor, House speaker and Senate leader to be under constant review.
The measure passed the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday and will be eligible for a floor hearing next week. If it advances, the bill would still have to be approved by a committee comprising both House and Senate members before returning to each chamber for a final vote.
State Sen. Eddie Fields, R-Wynona, said Wednesday the bill affects every agency, board and commission member except for a few whose appointment is spelled out in the state constitution.
Fields didn’t cite every group that would fall under the proposed law, but future Oklahoma Corrections Board members would be among those who could face dismissal.
The bill explicitly references the governing boards that handle unemployment, mental health services, Medicaid and tax collection, along with several others.
Board members occasionally clash with elected officials, sometimes over policy and sometimes over the selection of agency heads. In 2015, the Corrections Board took several months to adopt a directive from Gov. Mary Fallin about early release credits. Her memo encouraged the board to change how it doled out credits based on a 1999 law.
State Sen. Frank Simpson, R-Ardmore, said during the Senate Rules Committee hearing that another spat between a commission and the governor happened earlier this decade.
“In my first term, a commission openly defied the governor’s executive order,” Simpson said.
He was referring to Fallin’s executive order banning smoking on all state property. At the time, the Oklahoma War Veterans Commission pushed back on the order, but a compromise eventually was reached.
The bill passed the committee by an 8-3 vote.
State Sen. Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, sounded caution about the measure.
“I understand the need to be able to remove the members,” she said. “My concern is that if you remove them without any cause, then there’s a destabilization factor of members that never know if any decision they make is just not going to agree with (the governor).”
Floyd said board members could pick the politically correct decision rather than what’s best for the state.
Norman Republican Rob Standridge suggested that in a future version of the bill, if it advances, the removal option be limited to times after an election.
“Instead of just any time there might be a disagreement,” Standridge said.