OKPOLICY.ORG
The sour relationship between Gov. Kevin Stitt and Attorney General Gentner Drummond made news again last Friday when Drummond withdrew from Gov. Stitt’s lawsuit to recover COVID-19 era funds from Florida company ClassWallet.
In 2020, the Trump Administration released $39.9 million in Governor’s Emergency Educational Relief (GEER) Funds to Oklahoma to get money to educational agencies most significantly impacted by the pandemic or necessary for emergency educational services.
Instead of distributing all the funds through the Oklahoma State Department of Education, then headed by State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, Gov. Stitt awarded a no-bid contract to distribute $8 million in “Bridge the Gap” funding to the non-profit Every Kid Counts Oklahoma, whose then-executive director was Ryan Walters. Stitt later appointed Walters Secretary of Education.
A federal audit found Oklahoma failed to follow program rules and properly oversee its first GEER allocation. The audit found the $8 million Bridge the Gap Digital Wallet program lacked oversight and safeguards against fraud, allowing parents to purchase miscellaneous items like furniture and televisions when the funds were supposed to provide learning materials for students.
Although federal auditors determined that monitoring the funds was the state’s responsibility, then Attorney General John O’Connor – appointed by Stitt – filed a lawsuit against ClassWallet under Stitt’s direction, claiming the company had violated their contract. Auditors also found that state officials had access to ClassWallet’s platform and spending information, but no one from Oklahoma checked it until the program was nearly over.
After Drummond defeated O’Connor in the 2022 election for attorney general, the new attorney general dismissed the lawsuit against ClassWallet saying that it had no merit. However, in 2023, Stitt, by virtue of an Oklahoma statute providing that “the Governor shall have power to employ counsel to protect the rights or interests of the state in any action or proceeding, civil or criminal…” hired private legal counsel and refiled the lawsuit.
A different statute designates the attorney general as the chief law officer for the State of Oklahoma. It also provides that in any action in which the interests of the state or the people of the state are at issue, if the attorney general deems it advisable and to the best interest of the state, he may take and assume control of the prosecution or defense of the state’s interest therein. So, Drummond again assumed control of the ClassWallet lawsuit and tried to have it dismissed.
But in the meantime, the Oklahoma Supreme Court – in a different, contentious lawsuit involving the governor and the attorney general – ruled that, because the Oklahoma Constitution states that “[t]he Supreme Executive power shall be vested in a Chief Magistrate, who shall be styled ‘The Governor of the State of Oklahoma,'” the governor, not the attorney general, has final control of the litigation.
The defendant had caused the case to be removed to federal court, and a federal judge was scheduled to rule Monday on the state’s motion to have Drummond removed as a counsel for the state, which set the stage for his withdrawal from the case on Friday.
Whether the federal judge would have totally removed the attorney general from the case is anyone’s guess. But apparently Drummond determined that he no longer wanted to waste time and resources on a case he felt should never have been filed. So, he withdrew saying in a news release that the lawsuit against ClassWallet was baseless from the outset and every credible review of the matter has made that clear.
It’s hard to argue with the Supreme Court ruling that the governor has ultimate control. After all, when two statewide elected officials disagree on a legal issue, and the statutes give them both the authority to protect the interests of the state, someone must be in charge.
Given the Constitutional provision making the governor the “Supreme Magistrate” he should probably be the one in charge, right or wrong. Ironically, Gentner Drummond may be happy about that Supreme Court ruling if he is elected governor next year.
