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In her final days in office, State Superintendent Janet Barresi has hired several new employees, comprising $653,000 in base salary costs, and promoted others within the State Deparment of Education. The Tulsa World shared an interview with incoming Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who is being sworn in today. Former Democratic state Sen. Jabar Shumate, who resigned from his office this week, has been hired by a national school-choice organization with close ties to the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
In a surprising decision that could turn Oklahoma workers’ compensation law upside down, a Pottawatomie County district judge ruled Friday that an injured tire worker can sue his employer for negligence. The Oklahoma prison system is well over inmate capacity, which could give the state Parole Board the authority to consider early parole for nonviolent inmates. Over the past two years, about 20 percent of Department of Corrections employees have been fired because they simply stopped showing up for work. A judge ordered the Canadian County Board of Commissioners to go back to funding the county juvenile center with a sales tax established in 1996. The Oklahoma attorney general had previously said the tax revenue was authorized to be used for financing the construction of the building but not ongoing programs and services, except maintenance workers and janitors.
In the latest OK PolicyCast, we talk with an attorney from a organization that provides free civil legal assistance to low-income Oklahomans. Oklahoma House Minority Leader Scott Inman said his caucus will “stick a flag” in middle-class issues such as public education, health care and the “fiscal hypocrisy” of the ruling Republicans during the upcoming session. Oklahoma lawmakers have filed various bills that would reduce regulations on weapons, including allowing transport of a pistol in a car without a license and keeping shotguns or rifles in cars on school property. A bill to allow teachers to say “Merry Christmas” has been introduced for the upcoming session, even though teachers are not currently prohibited from saying “Merry Christmas”. While considering a similar bill last year, the House was tied up in a heated, 90-minute debate over whether the Kwanzaa holiday should be added to it.
Support is growing among Republican leaders to have every other legislative session dedicated exclusively to writing the budget. On the OK Policy Blog, Steve Lewis said that this proposal would be a huge power shift to the governor. The future of Oklahoma’s Space Industry and Development Authority is uncertain as lawmakers debate whether the agency actually contributes to aerospace development or is just a financial drain. A new position has been created in the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to resolve problems and complaints for foster parents. More than 500 tribal officials, employees and citizens discussed development and sovereignty issues at the winter meeting of the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes. The Department of Agriculture is determining if an investigation is warranted of animal welfare complaints against Oklahoma State University.
The Number of the Day is Oklahoma’s median household income in 2013. In today’s Policy Note, The Atlantic discusses how Georgia’s efforts to cater to the needs of corporations has left it with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.
In The News
Outgoing Oklahoma schools superintendent Janet Barresi goes on 11th-hour hiring spree
State Superintendent Janet Barresi has been busy hiring and promoting employees from within the Oklahoma State Department of Education in her final days and weeks in office. All told, her new hires total about $653,000 in base salary costs, and the salary increases that accompanied promotions, not counting one executive’s unknown bump in pay, total $62,000. On Monday alone, five new employees with salaries totaling $290,500 were hired. Among them is the executive director of the new Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, with a salary of $90,000.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Hofmeister prepares to enter the fray as next state superintendent
Expectations for a political newcomer are rarely as high as they are for Joy Hofmeister, who on Monday is set to succeed one of the most unpopular politicians in recent Oklahoma history. Can the new state superintendent from Tulsa salvage the controversial reform efforts put forth by her predecessor Janet Barresi, particularly amid financial uncertainty and a worsening teacher shortage? Hofmeister says she is optimistic enough to have taken on the myriad challenges in the first place, but also realistic enough to know workable solutions will require time, hard work and overcoming great political dysfunction and outright opposition.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Former state Sen. Jabar Shumate joins school-choice organization
Former Democratic state Sen. Jabar Shumate, who resigned from his office this week, has been hired by a national school-choice organization that committed $125,000 to last year’s legislative elections. The American Federation for Children announced Friday that Shumate has become director of its state organization and national director of legislative affairs. The organization says it is committed to school choice, which it defines as public funding of private-school attendance through vouchers and scholarships. Working with the American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, the AFC is responsible for much of the model legislation dealing with such initiatives.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Ruling could upend Oklahoma’s workers’ comp system
In a surprising decision that could turn Oklahoma workers’ compensation law upside down, a Pottawatomie County district judge ruled Friday that an injured tire worker can sue his employer for negligence because the injury was “foreseeable.” State Supreme Court appeals are expected. Workers’ compensation attorney Bob Burke, who is representing injured tire worker Darrell Duck, said Pottawatomie County District Judge John. G. Canavan Jr. has issued a monumental ruling that challenges the foundation of Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation system. “The sloppy drafting of that law in 2013 has caused so many problems,” Burke said. “It has really created a crisis now.”
Oklahoma prison population level could mean early release for some inmates
The Oklahoma prison system is well over inmate capacity, which could give the state Parole Board the authority to give early parole consideration to nonviolent inmates, a corrections official said Thursday. State prison facilities, including community corrections and inmate work centers, are at 116 percent capacity, Laura Pittman, deputy director of institutions, told the Oklahoma Board of Corrections. State prisons alone are at 119 percent capacity. The state’s overall prison population is more than 28,000. According to state law, once the prison population is over capacity the state Pardon and Parole Board can begin considering nonviolent offenders for parole who are within 6 months of their release dates.
Records show state’s trouble in retaining corrections officers
Out of more than 250 Department of Corrections disciplinary records from the past two years, about 20 percent of employees were fired because they simply stopped showing up for work. And those numbers don’t include DOC officers who quit their jobs by giving notice. For an agency facing prisons over 100 percent capacity with only about 65 percent of the staffing level necessary to run them, workplace frustration appears to be at an all-time high.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Canadian County juvenile justice center to be funded with sales tax revenue, for now
A judge Thursday ordered the Canadian County Board of Commissioners to revert to funding the county juvenile center with a sales tax established in 1996. Meanwhile, a dispute over the purpose of the funds generated by the tax heads to voters. In his ruling, Oklahoma County District Judge Roger Stuart said a county sales tax of slightly more than a third of 1 cent can continue funding the Gary E. Miller Canadian County Children’s Justice Center in El Reno. The attorney general had said the tax revenue was authorized to be used for financing the construction of the building but not ongoing programs and services, except maintenance workers and janitors.
OK PolicyCast Episode 18: An ‘emergency room’ for legal assistance
Each week the OK PolicyCast brings you the most important news about Oklahoma and what it means. This week, we speak with April Merrill, an attorney with Legal Aid Oklahoma, a non-profit organization that provides free civil legal assistance to low-income Oklahomans throughout the state. She’ll tell us about what it’s like serving as part of Oklahoma’s “emergency room” for legal assistance.
Listen to the podcast from Oklahoma Policy Institute.
Democratic House Leader Scott Inman calls out ‘fiscal hypocrisy’ of Republican majority
Oklahoma House Democrats will “stick a flag” in middle-class issues such as public education, health care and the “fiscal hypocrisy” of the ruling Republicans, Minority Leader Scott Inman of Del City said Friday. “The policies of the Republicans that they say are for the middle class only help a select few,” Inman told the Tulsa County Democratic Party’s monthly luncheon. “I believe the pendulum will swing … if we stick a flag in the ground, if we stand for something and do what’s right.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Lawmakers file bills reducing restrictions on guns
Oklahoma lawmakers have filed various bills that would reduce regulations on weapons. Lawmakers return to the state Capitol in February to begin considering measures and drafting a fiscal year 2016 state budget. Sen. Joseph Silk, R-Broken Bow, has filed Senate Bill 88, which would allow a person to transport a loaded or unloaded pistol in a car without a gun license. Silk is also the author of SB 89, which would allow for shotguns or rifles to be left in parked, locked cars on public or private elementary or secondary school property.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
‘Merry Christmas’ bill gets introduced again in Oklahoma Legislature
Lawmakers will wrestle with a variety of weighty issues when they begin meeting next month, but they also will find time to ponder more ethereal concerns, like trying to ensure teachers still can say “merry Christmas.” Measures also have been introduced to allow clergymen to refuse to officiate same-sex marriages and to allow public schools to hold religious studies classes. Recently, an Oklahoma lawmaker drew national attention with a bill prohibiting people from wearing hoods to disguise themselves in public, even though there is already a state law on the books to punish people who wear disguises while committing a crime.
Idea For Budget-Only Oklahoma Legislative Sessions Gains Steam But Would Need A Vote Of The People
Support is growing among Republican leaders to have every other legislative session dedicated exclusively to writing the budget. With as many as 3,000 bills filed every year, rank-and-file legislators complain they have little time to dedicate to working out Oklahoma’s annual spending plan. A proposal last year to send the issue to voters passed the House with bipartisan support, but was derailed in the Senate.
Best budget reform is to quit gambling on tomorrow’s revenue (Steve Lewis Capitol Update)
Recently Governor Fallin has been including in her remarks a statement to the effect that the state’s budget process needs to be “reformed.” The topic has become timely because of frustration with the fact that there seems to be less money available to the legislature for meeting the state’s needs even while the economy is perceived to be expanding — at least this was the case before the present budget hiccup contributed to by the downturn in oil prices.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
State’s space agency could be grounded
Bill Khourie’s passion for his small government agency is such a labor of love that he often spends weekends in the summer mowing grass at its 2,700-acre property. Also, the Oklahoma Space Industry and Development Authority isn’t budgeted a groundskeeper. Khourie, the agency’s long-time director, says he labors for free to keep up the land surrounding a 3-mile runway here because he believes in the future of the agency and its mission to build Oklahoma’s space and aviation industry.
Read more from the Claremore Daily Progress.
New DHS ombudsman to handle foster parents’ problems, complaints
A new position has been created in the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to resolve problems and complaints for foster parents. Lisa Buck, a longtime foster parent and professional advocate, has been named the foster care ombudsman within the Office of Client Advocacy. The position pays $62,000 a year. The Office of Client Advocacy is an independent, investigative and advocacy office within DHS intended to promote client safety and the professional delivery of services by the agency.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Sovereignty issues discussed at Inter-Tribal Council meeting in Tulsa
More than 500 tribal officials, employees and citizens converged on a Tulsa hotel Thursday and Friday for the winter meeting of the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes. Formed in 1949 and revived in 2012, the organization provides a way for five of Oklahoma’s largest Indian nations — Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole — to collaborate on projects and issues faced across the board, such as education, infrastructure, employment and health care.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Federal agency looks into animal welfare complaints against Oklahoma State University
The Department of Agriculture is determining if an investigation is warranted after an Oklahoma State University employee used a .22-caliber rifle to euthanize a rabbit under veterinary treatment, and a dog was run over and killed during an out-of-state military training exercise, said Tanya Espinosa, agency public affairs specialist. An animal rights group filed a complaint with the federal agency in late December. Friday, Espinosa said the agency was looking into possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
Read more from the Stillwater News Press.
Quote of the Day
“I want everybody to really let those figures soak in. That we are at 116 percent in state beds, but we are funded for 67 percent in staffing. That is a, well, it’s a formula for disaster, as we all know who are sitting in this room.”
-Oklahoma Board of Corrections member Linda Neal, speaking about the crisis in Oklahoma’s state prisons. Prisons going so far over capacity could give the state Parole Board the authority to consider early parole for some inmates (Source: http://bit.ly/1C7OuUL).
Number of the Day
$45,690
Oklahoma’s median household income in 2013, up 6.7% since 2008.
Source: Pew Charitable Trusts
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
What’s wrong with Georgia?
Georgia, home to Fortune 500 heavyweights such as Home Depot, UPS, and Coca-Cola, had the highest unemployment rate in the nation in August, September, and October. This may seem surprising, since Georgia was named the best state to do business in both 2014 and 2013 by Site Selection magazine, largely because of its workforce-training program and low tax rates. But those who follow the state’s economy say the state’s troubling economic figures are directly related to Georgia’s attempts to paint itself as a good state for corporations.
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