Following a trio of new gubernatorial appointments with connections to Department of Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton, the commission overseeing the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has scheduled a special meeting in January to discuss director Aungela Spurlock’s “performance” after she recommended that the Legislature consider restructuring her governing body.
Spurlock provided a PowerPoint presentation for a Sept. 11 Senate Public Safety Committee interim study on boards and commissions of law enforcement agencies. The recommendations included reducing gubernatorial appointments on the OSBI Commission from all seven positions to just one. Spurlock said the change would result in a more robust commission structure.
“Right now, while it is very unusual to have the appointments that we have in the way that we have, I think there’s potentially some outside influence in that,” Spurlock told lawmakers. “I have no reason to suspect that they aren’t there for the right reason, which is to support us in our mission.”
During a Nov. 20 meeting of the OSBI Commission, Commissioner Jerry Cason, a retired Oklahoma Highway Patrol chief who was appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt in August to the commission, requested a special meeting before the commission’s next quarterly meeting in February.
“We need to have a meeting before our next meeting, an executive session meeting, to discuss some issues that may tend to disrupt the commission,” Cason said. “I think we all have some issues we would like to discuss in an executive session with the director as it relates to performance. And I think that that meeting needs to occur before the next quarterly meeting.”
With two members absent — Chairman Vic Regalado and Vice Chairman Bryan Smith — the commission approved Cason’s motion by a vote of 5-0.
Cason’s request seemed to blindside Spurlock, although tension at OSBI has simmered for the two years since Spurlock succeeded former director Ricky Adams, a prior Oklahoma Highway Patrol chief who recruited OHP troopers to join OSBI during his tenure.
At their Aug. 21 meeting, OSBI commissioners conducted an employment review of Spurlock, the agency’s first female director, during a lengthy executive session. When the commission returned to open session, Regalado said high employee survey participation indicated that “things are going in the right direction.”
But Regalado was absent from the Nov. 20 meeting, and Cason’s request for a special meeting included a reference to “performance” amid continued rumors about OSBI employee unrest.
“If one or more of the commissioners has any concerns about the director’s performance, those details have not been shared with us,” Hunter McKee, OSBI’s public information manager, said by email. “We only became aware when the request was made at today’s meeting. Director Spurlock looks forward to participating in the performance review process and is confident that whatever the questions or concerns, they can be positively addressed at the next meeting. Until then, OSBI will continue to provide excellence in service for our stakeholders and fulfill our mission of protecting Oklahoma one partnership at a time.”
After the meeting, Cason declined to get into specifics about his request, but he said it was spurred by Spurlock’s presentation at the Senate interim study. Cason said commissioners want to know whether there is “an issue” and that “we’re all running on the same cylinders.”
“There just needs to be some clarification as to what [this is] about,” he said. “Where did this come from? Where are we going? That type of thing.”
A special OSBI Commission meeting has been announced for 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, at OSBI headquarters, 6600 N. Harvey Place, in OKC.
Spurlock proposes reducing governor’s appointees from 7 to 1
OSBI commissioners are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. Statute says one must be a chief of police, one must be a sheriff, one must be a district attorney and the other four are to be lay members.
During the Senate interim study, Spurlock didn’t call for changing the makeup of the OSBI Commission, but she did recommend that each member be appointed by a different entity:
- The police chief member would be appointed by the Oklahoma Association of the Chiefs of Police;
- The sheriff member would be appointed by the Oklahoma Sheriff’s’ Association;
- The district attorney member would be appointed by the District Attorneys Council;
- One lay member would be appointed by the Senate;
- One lay member would be appointed by the House;
- One lay member would be appointed by the Attorney General’s Office; and
- One lay member would be appointed by the governor.
All would have to be confirmed by the Senate.
Spurlock’s PowerPoint presentation was read by OSBI Commissioner Ron Cunningham, whose term expires next year. Cunningham is the only holdover that former Gov. Mary Fallin appointed to the commission.
Currently, commissioners serve staggered terms and can serve more than one term. Usually, the seven-year terms mean commissioners serve a few years together, Cunningham said.
But two commissioners resigned this year, and the term of another commissioner expired. As the member representing police chiefs, Joe Prentice resigned from the commission after he retired as chief of police in Okmulgee. The Village Police Chief Russ Landon was appointed to replace Prentice. Cason was appointed to replace Tim Turner, who resigned after winning the House District 15 seat this election cycle. Stitt appointed Jeff Van Hoose to replace former University of Central Oklahoma President Roger Webb, who served one full term after being appointed to the commission to fill an unexpired term in 2013.
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“We have a group of great commissioners since I’ve been on,” Cunningham told the interim study. “But an unusual occurrence that kind of sidestepped the staggered process envisioned by — we believe envisioned by — the legislation was we had three commissioners go off almost at the same time, and so it kind of sidestepped the staggering process. So that’s why we, you know, gave this a little more thought.”
Asked if he thought the OSBI Commission is even necessary since the governor currently appoints all seven members, Cunningham defended how the governing body has worked.
“I think regardless how you’re appointed you have to come together as a group, and I’ve seen it happen as we’ve rotated our commission members. There were people on there when I came on and they did not isolate me because I was a new Mary Fallin appointee,” Cunningham said. “They mentored me, taught me how to be productive, and I see the same thing in the people we have now. I mean, they’re new and there’s questions to be answered, but I haven’t experienced a cliquish-type thing. We work together.”
Pressed further on whether the governor could push a policy through because he appointed all the commissioners, Spurlock interjected.
“That’s always possible,” she said. “Everything’s possible, but at the end of the day, I think what the commissioner referred to is we have seven people that are coming together that have ethics, No. 1, and have the desire to serve the mission of the OSBI because, as others have alluded to, it in some instances becomes a full-time job. It is a heavy lift managing things in the way that needs to be managed, so I think they do provide us that insulation. And I think certainly there’s a potential for there to have been an agenda and appointments or any of those things, but I think we have to trust the process.”
Spurlock said the OSBI Commission’s duties include appointing the OSBI’s director, hearing complaints against the agency or any of its employees, making recommendations to the director of any action necessary as a result of their review of an investigation conducted upon a complaint received, establishing a program of training for agents, and requiring the director to advise the commission on the progress of pending investigations.
“Me and my staff are entirely responsible for the operational decisions of the organization,” Spurlock said during the interim study. “In fact, that is not my commission’s function.”
The commission was created in 1976 after then-Gov. David Hall — who at the time hired the OSBI leader — fired the agency’s director over its investigation of him. The OSBI Commission provides the director insulation from undue influence, Spurlock said.
“While we may not have those concerns with this administration, we have had some very legitimate and real concerns over our history where directors and agents have lost their jobs for doing their job,” Spurlock said. “And so, I think that insulation does help us just remain steady in what we’re doing, continue to do things without fear of reprisal. So that’s very important and, of course, we’re in a unique situation with all the new appointments, but typically based on that staggered structure, it is a stability for our agency and our organization.”
OHP-OSBI clash within the agency?
Behind the scenes and at the Oklahoma State Capitol, tension between Spurlock and Tipton has become a talking point, with Tipton’s connections to the three new OSBI commissioners raising some eyebrows. Jockeying over the concept of state law enforcement unification has lingered for years, and a bizarre series of events over the past year only fueled allegations that Spurlock plays favorites while leading OSBI, an agency that lacks authority to initiate criminal inquiries on its own.
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Concerns about how OSBI can only investigate matters if it is requested to do so by another law enforcement agency or state official resurfaced this summer amid confusion over whether anyone would look into allegations that Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett committed sexual battery against a man at a conference.
Tipton, an OHP captain who had three decades of experience when Stitt appointed him public safety commissioner in 2021, acknowledged in July that he knew all three new OSBI commissioners and recommended them to Stitt.
While he worked with Cason within the Department of Public Safety, Tipton said he also knew Landon because both are in law enforcement and that he met Van Hoose because the house he bought had been built by Van Hoose’s son.
“I think the governor utilizes both the Cabinet secretary over public safety, his Cabinet secretary, and me as the governor’s public safety expert, I guess, is the way he would look at me,” Tipton told NonDoc in July. “I mean, I don’t want to claim that I’m the expert, but he utilizes his people that he’s either appointed or that he works with on public safety issues to consult with him on anything to do with public safety. And, of course, those commissions fall under public safety.”
On the topic of OSBI, Tipton said the concept of bringing all state public safety agencies into one department needs to be pursued — again — because among other things it could reduce duplication of operational and administrative duties.
“There’s a lot of redundancies that could be, you know, more streamlined under one state law enforcement agency,” he said. “So I think that it makes sense from a taxpayer standpoint and efficiency and government standpoint. I think there’s a lot of areas that make sense. I know how problematic it is. I know the downside of it, too, especially when it comes to OSBI and why they were created to have that independent investigatory side. I believe that there’s other states that even have more of a unified state law enforcement effort and still have those investigations that can be handled independently.”
State survey shows mixed opinions from OSBI, DPS employees
satisfaction and engagement with various aspects of employment at Oklahoma state agencies. (Screenshot)
According to the 2024 Oklahoma State Employee Engagement Survey, agency leaders at both OSBI and DPS have detractors in their ranks. Survey responses within both agencies were provided to NonDoc under the Open Records Act.
OSBI’s job satisfaction score of 82.6 percent was better than the statewide satisfaction score of 75.8 percent and was one of the highest scores among the 15 agencies grouped together under the governor’s Public Safety Cabinet. In comparison, employees of the Department of Public Safety, most of whom are with the Highway Patrol, responded with a 69.7 percent satisfaction rate.
Data for the survey were collected electronically through a web-based survey from March 26 to April 12. The survey contained 53 items. Respondents indicated their agreement with 47 of the items on the following Likert scale.
In a July 15 email obtained by NonDoc that Spurlock sent to OSBI employees, she stated she was pleased with the responses of the 191 people who participated in the survey, roughly 55 percent of the agency’s total staff.
“Our score of 83 percent puts us over the average and in what is generally considered to be the very high satisfaction range. This speaks volumes regarding the professionalism and dedication each of you brings to the OSBI,” Spurlock wrote. “But we won’t stop here! There have been changes over the last two years in expectations, accountability, and processes and I am cognizant that change is rarely easy even when it is necessary. Thanks to each of you for doing your part to ensure we are a premier agency and that we support each other and the state each day. I know with this continued effort our momentum will not slow.”
Asked if Spurlock had a formal comment on the survey findings, McKee, the agency’s spokesman, said, “We don’t have any additional information at this time.”
Among the OSBI employees who filled out the survey, open-ended responses varied widely when they referenced Spurlock or morale at the agency. Responses were anonymous, and included:
- “Greatest director ever since I have been employed as an agent.”
- “Overall morale is terrible. Very hostile work environment, multiple complaints all reported to supervision in vain.”
- “I am happy with the direction OSBI is going. Our leadership impresses teamwork between our divisions. The attitude of the OSBI is better than I’ve seen in my nearly 30 years.”
- “The basic drop in morale and accountability is directly related to leadership changes within the recent past. Core values of trust, integrity and respect are lost.”
- “They have ran off good employees simply because they did not like them. The director has had several opportunities to motivate and increase morale, but has failed to do so. At a recent awards banquet, the director took the opportunity to complain that she was being compared to previous directors and the only ‘shoes’ she could fill are her own, rather than lead the agency in a very self-serving ‘speech.'”
- “For the past year-year and a half, there has been very little to no communication from the director and/or deputy director to its employees. This has not always been the case. When the previous director (Ricky Adams) served as director, there was communication from the top to the bottom and an open-door policy to the director. This is absolutely not the case at the present time nor has it been the case since the present director entered the director position. The agency’s moral is probably at its lowest its (sic) been for that of the past 20 years.”
- “I find it quite concerning that this agency still perpetuates the regressive train of thought that having tattoos / non-natural hair colors / piercings means that you can’t be professional and competent at your job. It is imperative that the agency update those outdated, regressive policies in order to combat that type of thinking instead of supporting it.”
- “Our agency’s lower level supervision is great but our agency administration is problematic. Our director and deputy director don’t care to listen to alternative ideas or view points. They prefer to hear only the things they want to hear. They also react harshly without first looking into the situation. Resources do not seem to be fairly distributed and training funds were cut from some but extra provided to those that say what administration wanted to hear. Discipline within the agency appears to be unfairly administered or at least inconsistently applied. There has also appeared to be an intentional attack on employees or leadership that was threatening to them. A quick review of recent retirements or resigns would show the amount of experience being lost. Employees are afraid of the current administration and do not trust that they have the agency or its employees in their best interest.”
Among the 461 DPS employees who answered the survey, responses also varied widely when discussing Tipton and OHP leaders. In particular, several responses included comments that the Highway Patrol is too focused on its emergency response and tactical teams:
- “The administration in this department is more concerned with the ERT and TAC team than the field troopers. The administration does not care if they take the whole ERT to an event for 10 days in a row and leave only a few troopers to cover multiple counties every day. The ERT and TAC team get preferential treatment over anyone else.”
- “I think the agency would likely re-enter ongoing aimlessness and chaos if we were to lose our current commissioner. He should be kept as the head of DPS.”
- “Agency lacks moral’s (sic) and accountability.”
- “Morale in this agency needs a revamp and needs tremendous improvement!”
- “The political environment in [Oklahoma] is not conducive to acting in the best interest of the agency but to meeting political agendas. This is not good business practice.”
- “In my 25 years at DPS, I’ve seen many commissioners, asst. commissioners and OHP chiefs come and go, and I have to say this is absolutely the best administration I’ve had in my career. They listen, react and make necessary changes for the betterment.”
- “I fully believe I work for one of the best departments in the state of Oklahoma. With that being said, there is some much needed improvement with technology, leadership, communication, and key positions that are insufficient in providing the best service to the citizens of the state.”
- “Leadership positions based on good ole boy politics never amounts to a successful outcome historically over the long run…ever!”
Review the full survey responses of OSBI employees
Review the full survey responses of DPS employees
