New governor pledges to tackle old problems
Just after noon Monday, Kevin Stitt became an insider.
After more than 18 months on the campaign trail touting his business experience as the remedy for what ailed Oklahoma, Stitt put his hand on the Bible and officially took possession of the state’s problems.
The new governor said in his inaugural speech that state government wasn’t the answer to all those problems, but his administration will be measured by the progress Oklahoma makes in education, criminal justice reform, infrastructure and economic diversity — areas that are at least partly under the purview of the state.
“As I begin serving today as your next governor, let me tell you where Oklahoma’s turnaround starts for me: accountability,” Stitt said in his 15-minute address on the south steps of the Oklahoma Capitol.
We know we can be, and should be, a top-ten state.” Gov. Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma’s 28th governor
He will be held accountable, as Gov. Mary Fallin could attest as she left office Monday with dismal approval ratings.
Stitt is the first governor since Democrat David Walters, who took office in 1991, not to have any elective office experience. Walters was at least familiar with some of the mechanics of government. He had served on the Human Services Commission and worked for former Gov. David Boren and at the University of Oklahoma.
Stitt, 46, is a complete political novice.
That was true of some of his campaign aides. And it is true of some of the Stitt people soon to become state employees.
John Budd, a former executive at Sonic Corp., will be Stitt’s chief operating officer, and he is taking over as acting director of the state’s biggest financial and IT office after a longtime aide to Fallin was shown the door.
His general counsel pick, Mark Burget, also made his career in the
private sector.
Stitt promised on the campaign trail that he also would hire some insiders, and he has done so, among them former state Rep. Michael Rogers to be his secretary of state and former state Sen. Mike Mazzei to be his secretary of budget.
Stitt knows what it’s like to be a CEO. He built a national mortgage company that employed about 1,200 people who, presumably, followed his orders.
He now will learn what it’s like to be a chief executive of a state in which a department head, state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, recently said, “I don’t take orders from Governor Fallin on public education.”
Hofmeister, who was sworn in Monday for another four-year term, was on the platform applauding after Stitt said, “Our current system gives agencies too much independence from the voter. They have the ability to ignore executive orders, skirt around laws passed by the Legislature, hide pockets of money and protect their own interests by hiring lobbyists.”
Hofmeister and the board of education chose
to ignore an executive order from Fallin about classroom expenditures.
But Hofmeister is not independent from voters. She was elected, as were the heads of departments like Labor, Insurance and even the Treasury.
There are other leaders in the executive branch who, like those elected in the legislative branch, have their own constituencies.
Stitt focused a lot during his campaign on replacing agency heads and getting more control over the executive branch.
What he may find is a lot of people saying they don’t take orders from him.
Stitt’s inaugural speech had many of the same elements of Fallin’s two inaugural speeches:
improving education, reducing incarceration, streamlining government and recruiting more businesses. His vision was her vision, and the vision of many governors that preceded them.
Stitt can expect power struggles with those who have competing visions or just different approaches. He will have to learn government,
then learn to navigate it. There likely will be a first gubernatorial veto and, possibly, a first veto override that makes it crystal clear how power is distributed.
It remains to be seen how long Stitt will continue to talk about running government like a business. The perspective may quickly look different from the inside.