OKPOLICY.ORG
Sen. Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, Chair of the Senate Economic Development, Workforce and Tourism Committee, has been working more than two years to revamp Oklahoma’s economic development efforts, and the result was passage in the Senate last week of her Senate Bill 987. The bill will create a new governance structure for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce employing the expertise and perspective of private citizens to be appointed by the Governor, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate President Pro Tempore.
SB 987 creates a nine-member Oklahoma Department of Commerce Board, four members appointed by the Governor and two each by the Speaker and Pro Tempore. The Secretary of Commerce, also appointed by the Governor, will chair the board. Two of the legislative appointments must be from municipalities of 50,000 or less. One of the gubernatorial appointees must be “an economic development practitioner from this state,” and one must be from a municipality of 50,000 or less.
To qualify for appointment, a member must have at least five years of experience working in the private sector and possess expertise in at least one of a laundry list of areas such as marketing, international commerce, law, information technologies, and biotechnology. The board will set policy for the Department of Commerce and appoint and set the salary of the CEO who will serve at the pleasure of the board, not the governor.
The Department of Commerce was initially created as part of the Economic Development Act of 1987, designed to help bring back and diversify Oklahoma’s commodity-based economy from the depth of the energy crisis during the 1980s. As part of that Act, there was created an entity called “Oklahoma Futures.” It consisted of 23 members, including the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker, President Pro Tempore, the presidents of the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, the Director of the Department of Commerce, and a wide variety of citizens.
Oklahoma Futures was to function as an economic development advisory board for the Department. However, the Director was appointed by the governor. Oklahoma Futures fell into disuse, primarily, I think, for lack of interest by the elected members because it had no real supervisory power. It was repealed in 2002.
SB 987 is similar to Oklahoma’s traditional boards with specified terms and real policymaking and appointment authority. The governor’s authority is through the appointment of the board majority, the quality of his ideas, and his bully pulpit. The bill marks a change in direction from the past few years when the legislature has eliminated or limited the powers of boards and commissions and given the governor hiring and firing power over agency directors and board members.
The bill is designed to give the state consistent, professional leadership for its economic development efforts. It will be interesting to follow the bill as it moves to the House where Rep. Mike Osburn, R-Edmond, is the principal House author and whether it receives the support of Gov. Stitt. He may want to preserve his prerogative to hire and fire boards and agency directors at will, which he seems to exercise regularly.
