While still declining to resign his statewide elective post, Todd Hiett relinquished his chairmanship of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission today as questions linger about who will conduct an investigation into allegations he got drunk and groped an energy industry employee at a conference earlier this summer in Minneapolis.
“I take these allegations very seriously,” Hiett said. “I have publicly apologized for my actions and have taken immediate steps to address the issue by seeking treatment.
I respect the call from my fellow commissioners for accountability. I have always supported accountability and transparency as a public servant. I will cooperate fully with any personnel investigation being conducted by the appropriate body.”
A pair of Kansas Corporation Commission employees made written reports (embedded below) alleging that an “extensively intoxicated” Hiett repeatedly rubbed a man’s arm and crotch in a group setting.
“It felt like, given the fact this was a commissioner, it required we make a graceful exit and not cause a scene. Hiett was basically sitting there looking ahead or down with a sort of glazed look in his face,” one KCC wrote. “I then saw his hand go down to [redacted]’s upper thigh and begin touching his thigh. Again, very quickly he moved from [redacted’s] thigh to [redacted’s] lap and placed his open palm on [redacted’s] lab (sic) and groin area. (…) I was horrified. [Redacted] was visibly horrified himself and removed the commissioner’s hand from his lap.”
In 2005, Hiett became the first Republican speaker of the Oklahoma House in 80 years, leaving office two years later when he could not seek reelection because of legislative term limits. In 2014, he won election to the Corporation Commission, a three-member body that regulates electric and gas utilities in Oklahoma, as well as activities related to the petroleum industry and transportation services.
In 2020, Hiett’s reelection campaign received more than 74 percent support in lightly contested Republican primary and general elections. He cannot seek a third term in 2026 because of term limits, and he has rebuffed calls to resign despite the allegations against him.
“I remain committed to serving my constituents and to fulfilling my duties with dedication and professionalism,” said Hiettt, who has said he cannot recall what occurred in Minneapolis that brought the allegations against him. “I ask for the public’s understanding and patience as any appropriate investigation proceeds and as I work extra hard to reassure people’s trust in me.”
But during the commission’s regular meeting Wednesday, Hiett announced he was stepping down as OCC chairman and also as the commission’s representative on the Southwest Power Pool Regional State Committee, a post that requires out-of-state travel. He made the announcement just before commissioners were to take up items dealing with allegations against Hiett at a meeting of the Mid-America Regulatory Conference on June 9.
Vice Chairwoman Kim David agreed to fill both posts.
“I want to say that I really appreciate the words that you’ve given today,” David told Hiett. “I have always respected the work that you’ve done for the state of Oklahoma, and I was, I was not planning on calling for your, for you to step down from these two positions. I was going to really wait and leave that up to you because I know that I feel — I feel that you truly do need to step back and get the healing that you need and to be able to come back and work for the people of the state of Oklahoma once again and finish your term out with dignity.”
Hiett’s motion passed unanimously, although Commissioner Bob Anthony, a Republican like Hiett and David, issued a statement after the meeting repeating his call for Hiett to resign from the commission.
“My position has not changed,” Anthony said. “Commissioner Hiett’s alleged sexual assault against the attorney of a company that appears before this commission is also an assault on this commission. The only possible remedy to our compromised constitutional legitimacy and judicial integrity is for Commissioner Hiett to resign. It is completely unethical and unacceptable for him to continue to vote on cases impacting the employer of his victim and/or witnesses, as he did last week. Frankly, it is completely unacceptable for him to continue to occupy a seat on this commission period.”
Anthony has clashed with Hiett on different issues over the years, including Anthony’s claim that Hiett’s service on the board of Spirit Bank threatens “the very lawfulness of the commission process.” On Wednesday, Anthony spoke in favor of investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against Hiett.
“As long as he refuses to resign, the Corporation Commission has an obligation to do everything in its power to limit the further damage Hiett is able to inflict on this agency,” Anthony said in his statement. “Removing him as chairman was an important and necessary first step. Replacing him as the OCC’s representative to the Southwest Power Pool (involving regular travel to out-of-state meetings) was another.”
If approved, the OCC-funded investigation would look into reports that an intoxicated Hiett groped a man during a meeting of the Mid-America Regulatory Conference. Anthony has said the man works with a entity that conducts business before the OCC.
David, who last week called for Hiett to take a leave of absence, said after Wednesday’s meeting that his resignation as chairman is a good step.
“I do appreciate the fact that Commissioner Hiett is stepping back to truly get the help that he needs,” she said. “The stress of this job is not an environment to be able to heal and get that help, so I’m thankful that he’s willing to do that.”
No action was taken on other Hiett-related agenda items submitted by Anthony. One proposed ensuring that no OCC records are destroyed related to the situation, and another would have provided a clear set of parameters and costs for any investigation commissioned by OCC.
David said the wording of Anthony’s motion on OCC records needed to be clarified and that the agency already had been looking into individuals and law firms who could conduct an investigation.
Commission looking at OKC law firm to conduct investigation
Three weeks after allegations against Hiett were first reported by Nolan Clay of The Oklahoman, members of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission have been unable to provide the public with clarity about how the situation would be investigated.
The agency first sought assistance from the Office of Attorney General to conduct the investigation, but one day after the OCC’s July 31 meeting last week, Deputy Attorney General Thomas Schneider told Corporation Commission general counsel Patricia Franz that the state’s top law enforcement official would not be investigating the allegations against Hiett.
“The Office of the Attorney General has decided to decline handling the investigation,” Schneider wrote in an Aug. 1 email to Franz. “Please proceed with your plan of hiring an outside, independent investigator.”
On Monday, Aug. 5, NonDoc asked David whom potential victims or witnesses behavior should contact to report information regarding Hiett’s behavior.
“Good question,” David said by text message. “AG gave us written notice that they are not investigating. We are requesting an investigator from the civil services division of OMES. However, they only investigate where employees are concerned. It looks like Commissioner Anthony is going to request that we hire an independent investigator.”
At 12:33 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7 — about an hour before the start of the OCC meeting — Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s chief of staff, Trebor Worthen, responded to an email from David by saying Drummond’s office had revised its position.
“You are authorized to state that the Office of Attorney General stands ready to accept any complaint of criminal wrongdoing, and will take appropriate action,” wrote Worthen, a longtime political consultant who served in the House with Hiett 20 years ago. “Reports may be made to Agent (Gerard) Dauphinais via phone (…) or email.”
David announced Worthen’s updated directive during Wednesday’s meeting.
“I have a copy of an email from the attorney general today that says I’m authorized to state that the Office of the Attorney General stands ready to accept any complaint of criminal wrongdoing and will take appropriate action,” David said.
Brandy Wreath, OCC’s director of administration, told commissioners the agency has talked with several investigators and law firms recommended by state agencies. Wreath said some have declined to consider a contract to review the Hiett inquiry, but he said the agency will be talking Thursday with an Oklahoma City law firm about conducting an investigation.
“This is a law firm that does large amounts of legal work like this for the state of Oklahoma and has represented numerous parties around the state for things of this nature,” Wreath told commissioners.
David, elected to the Corporation Commission in 2022, said after the meeting that the agency will make it known when an investigator or firm is hired.
“I would assume as soon as we have hired somebody, it will become public knowledge so that we want to ensure that anybody who is a victim or a witness knows who to contact,” she said.
Meanwhile, a frustrated Anthony, who is serving his 35th and final year on the commission, told commissioners during the meeting that he intends to start his own investigation.
Anthony’s post-meeting statement said he has filed a notice of inquiry/examination/inspection “of past corruption and improper conduct involving the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, its staff and individual commissioners.”
‘That makes no sense to me’
The Hiett situation’s investigative uncertainty has renewed questions about how Oklahoma handles high-profile allegations of misconduct and corruption. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, an agency facing its own turmoil, must receive a formal request from officials to investigate any situation in the state.
During David’s final year as a state senator in 2022, she authored a bill pushing “unification” of state law enforcement agencies. The bill proposed a new “Public Integrity Division” that would be granted investigative authority currently unavailable to OSBI.
Chip Keating, a former Oklahoma secretary of public safety, supported David’s bill, which was amended in the House and died in a conference committee amid concerns it granted too much power to the governor and undermined the OSBI Commission.
Reached Wednesday, Keating questioned why OCC would retain a private law firm to conduct an investigation, and he called the idea “a misuse of taxpayer money.” At the time of Keating’s remarks, David had yet to announce Drummond’s sudden willingness to investigate the situation as attorney general.
“Why are we hiring law firms when we have OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) or the AG that should at least do this?” Keating asked. “Now the commission is going to engage a law firm to investigate one of their own? That’s not an independent investigation. And what are they going to do with the findings? They’re not even a prosecutorial arm. It’s just the tail wagging the dog.”
Keating, a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper who has pushed for better training facilities, better mental health resources and structural reforms among state law enforcement agencies, called the confusion around how to investigate Hiett “nonsense.”
“This is precisely why we need consolidation to professionalize all of our law enforcement functions in the state and precisely why we need an independent inspector-general-type division within the state of Oklahoma that’s fully autonomous,” Keating said. “I encourage our elected officials to pick up the work that we did two years ago. It addresses (…) the need for this and not needing a requester agency to do these kinds of investigations.”
Keating said he is puzzled by the initial hesitancy the Attorney General’s Office showed toward investigating Hiett.
“That makes no sense to me,” he said. “That seems strange and odd. Criminal misconduct potentially occurred here based on the allegations, and why the AG would sit mum on this is beyond me. If the AG has a conflict and can’t, then they should be requesting the OSBI. So, for them to just flat decline and not flip it to the requestor agency, something stinks here.”
Kansas Corporation Commission employee complaints on Hiett
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Open in new tab (Correction: This article was updated at 3:50 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, to correct reference to how Senate Bill 1612 died in 2022.)
