Stitt settles into office
Gov. Kevin Stitt spent his first full day in office attending events, receiving staff briefings and getting settled into his Capitol office, while his new acting director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services began evaluating the agency’s performance.
Stitt expects to have his first cabinet meeting this week, work on his executive budget and consider potential executive orders related to agency accountability, according to staff.
“You won’t see the governor out in public right away because he really wants to get into the details of the budget,” said Donelle Harder, a Stitt spokeswoman who is working in the secretary of state’s office.
On Monday, hours after being sworn in as governor, Stitt named former Sonic Corp. executive John Budd the acting director of OMES, the state’s central finance agency.
Budd is Stitt’s chief operating officer, a position created by Stitt to oversee agency accountability reforms that are central to the governor’s agenda.
The governor’s office currently has
11 employees. They spent Tuesday unpacking their new offices on the first floor of the state Capitol, setting up computers and beginning to plan Stitt’s schedule.
Stitt’s office also includes his newly hired policy director, Samantha Davidson, a former lobbyist for Oklahoma-based Global-Health who also previously worked as a policy adviser for the state Senate Republican caucus.
Stitt also plans to tour several state agencies in the coming weeks.
“He really wants to meet employees, shake their hands,” Harder said.
Tuesday morning, Stitt participated in an inaugural prayer service at a church in Moore where he credited God for his journey to the governor’s office.
“Nothing in the natural (world) says I’m supposed to be right here,” Stitt said. “But when God puts something on your heart and he asks you to do something it requires faith in action.”
Tuesday afternoon Stitt hosted a group of pastors for lunch at the governor’s mansion, where he spent Monday
night with his family.
On Tuesday, Stitt’s wife and six children traveled back to their private home in Tulsa where they will live for the next several months.
Stitt said it continues to be a surreal experience as governor, including waking up in the governor’s mansion.
“I walk down (the stairs) and the staff was down there cooking breakfast and I had my long johns on and I asked, ‘Am I allowed to have my long johns on?’” Stitt said with a laugh. “They said, ‘We’ve seen every governor in their underwear, sir, you’re fine.’”