Rules governing campaign finance and lobbying activities could be changing in Oklahoma, but not as much as the head of a recent task force on the topic would like.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s massive expansion plans have increased in cost, and so could the tolls drivers already pay starting Jan. 1.
While those state agencies mull their changes, some of the most conservative lawmakers in the Oklahoma House of Representatives are still fighting on multiple fronts to force Todd Hiett to recuse from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s consideration of major utility rate cases.
Learn more about those topics below.
Ethics Commission getting new online system, hears rule amendments
A new state database used for reporting and tracking campaign financial information and lobbyist registrations is expected to be ready for use by the end of June 2025.
The Oklahoma Ethics Commission on Dec. 6 gave the agency’s executive director, Lee Anne Bruce Boone, formal approval to sign a contract with RFD & Associates of Texas to replace the outdated and antiquated “Guardian” electronic campaign filing system. Founded in 1986, RFD is focused on partnering with public sector clients to design, develop and implement technology solutions to automate business processes, according to its website.
The Guardian System had been scheduled to lose functionality after July 1, 2024, because the software and services firm Civix had decided to shelve the underlying software used to operate Oklahoma’s reporting system. With July 1 landing in the middle of the 2024 election cycle, the Ethics Commission’s prior director, Ashley Kemp, had called the looming expiration a “nightmare” scenario. In December, the commission approved hiring an attorney to pursue potential litigation with the company. But after Boone was hired in December, she reached out to Civix and struck a short-term solution that extended the software support for the Guardian System through Feb. 28, 2025.
Boone said the RFD system should be easier to use for candidates, committees, lobbyists and the public.
“It should be accessible on your phone,” she said. “It should hopefully eliminate some duplication of effort, as far as like when people type in addresses and transferring them over.
Legislators this year appropriated $1.2 million for the Ethics Commission to spend on the new system. Boone told commissioners Friday the agency’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year includes another $1 million, one-time appropriation to pay for the rest of the implementation.
“When we got the money last year, we knew it wouldn’t be enough,” she said. “We knew that was kind of the starting point, but the Legislature didn’t want to show our hand of what the total bucket was, because then supposedly all the vendors would bid that amount, which makes sense.”
Commissioners also held a public hearing on 13 proposed ethics rule amendments, several of which were generated from a final report of a campaign finance task force created by Gov. Kevin Stitt. Recommendations included eliminating limits on how much money candidates can accept from individuals, but that idea was not among those advanced as possible rule amendments. Over the summer, commissioners conducted three working group sessions, in which a quorum of the five-member Ethics Commission was not present, to look at recommendations directed specifically at the commission.
“Rather than choosing to do absolutely everything the task force recommended, the commission chose what they had consensus on, and so that was where the rules proposal came from, as well as suggestions by lobbyists and suggestions by commissioners as well,” Boone said after the meeting. “I don’t think that previously there had been consensus by the commission to move forward with that entire recommendation.”
Attorney A.J. Ferate, a former Oklahoma Republican Party chairman who led the governor’s task force, spoke to the Ethics Commission board and said he was disappointed all of the task force’s recommendations were not being developed into proposed rules. He said change is needed to combat the impact of independent expenditures, the “dark money” efforts that can support or oppose candidates while often hiding the sources of their virtually unlimited financing.
In Oklahoma’s 2022 statewide election cycle, independent expenditures significantly outpaced contributions made to candidate committees, Ferate said.
“The rules that are before you today will not accomplish what you are trying to do because you didn’t choose to adopt all of the rules,” he said. “It is much wiser for this commission to do nothing this session and come back and do more if it’s unwilling to go as far as the task force recommended. Everything was intended to be fit together so that it actually worked in harmony, but what you’ve done is you’ve attempted to counterbalance that by being extra restrictive, which is what previous administrations of this commission have done. Frankly, I think what you may hear from others on some of this stuff — and I know, because I’ve heard it from [Washington] D.C. — is you’re going to get legally challenged on some of this stuff because you didn’t actually contemplate how it all works together effectively.”
As considered by the Ethics Commission, the rule amendments include proposals that would:
- Add a new definition for foreign national, including “political caucus committee” as a type of political party committee;
- Clarify the definition of “independent expenditure”;
- Prohibit contributions by foreign nationals;
- Increase the floor for mandatory reporting of a campaign contribution from $50 to $200;
- Add a telephone number that must be answered by a person physically located in Oklahoma more than five hours per day;
- Remove the requirement that a lobbyist or lobbyist principal physically attend an event — such as a dinner, concert or sporting event — provided to a legislator or state official;
- Increase the allowable aggregate total of meals and other gifts provided to an individual by a legislative liaison or legislative lobbyist from $500 to $750 in a calendar year; and
- Shorten the blackout period to receive a complaint alleging an ethics rule violation so that it concludes after the primary election if that election determines a race’s outcome.
Ethics commissioners are expected to vote on the proposed rule amendments at their next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 10. Commissioners must submit any rule proposals to be considered by legislators by the start of the upcoming legislative session, Monday, Feb. 3.
With $1.2 billion of bond approved, OTA looks at hiking tolls
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority expects to enter the bond market quickly after it received conditional approval Dec. 6 from a state oversight board to issue nearly $1.2 billion in second senior lien revenue bonds to fund more of its long-range expansion program. The action allows OTA to continue design work, property acquisition and construction on projects.
The Oklahoma Council of Bond Oversight, which determined that the requested bond funds are for public functions, voted 4-0 to approve OTA’s request. It will become the second debt issuance for the OTA’s 15-year ACCESS Oklahoma program, the price tag of which recently increased from $5 billion to $8.2 billion because of inflation and legal delays last year and political opposition by the City of Norman and area residents who stand to lose their homes to one leg of the expansion.
The money raised through the bond sale will be used to continue widening the Turner Turnpike between OKC and Tulsa from four to six lanes and other projects of the Advancing and Connecting Communities and Economies Safely Statewide program, said OTA executive director Joe Echelle.
“Our goal is to widen the entire Turner Turnpike,” he said after the meeting. “I think the all-in cost for ACCESS is about $2.5 billion for the Turner Turnpike, so this will get us (…) the three projects that are ongoing (…) to completion, as well as allow us this next year — about a year from now — to start a section here on the west end of the Turner Turnpike doing the widening. And our goal is to start on each end, maybe have a place in the middle where we can work toward the center. You can’t put the whole thing under construction at one time. It’s already difficult to widen a very busy and active roadway, so if we are able to break that up into some shorter projects, get people to pay attention, apply their brakes, and slow down for just a few miles and bear with us while we try to accelerate these construction projects and get them done quickly, that will improve the safety in the area.”
Echelle said he’s hopeful the OTA can finish widening the Turner Turnpike in the next 10 years and be done ahead of the 15-year long-range plan.
“If we hadn’t been delayed through some of the lawsuits, we could have probably done it all together in 10 years, which would put us about eight years out now,” he said. “But we had some delays early on, so that’s just part of the variables we have to solve for every day.”
According to the Council of Bond Oversight, the bond issuance will not be a debt of the state of Oklahoma and will be repaid by turnpike revenues and revenues of the Turnpike Trust Fund.
With the bonds approved, the OTA’s board is set to meet Tuesday and consider increasing tolls to pay rising ACCESS Oklahoma costs. As outlined in the resolution and “Exhibit A” starting on Page 12 of the board’s 270-page agenda, the Turnpike Authority hopes to raise systemwide toll revenue 15 percent with increases slated to begin Jan. 1, 2025. The resolution calls for an automatic 6 percent toll increase every two years after that.
The OTA increase proposed for Jan. 1 would include a 20 percent hike on Turner Turnpike, Will Rogers Turnpike, Kilpatrick Turnpike and Kickapoo Turnpike tolls. Increases on the H.E. Bailey Turnpike, the Muskogee Turnpike, the Indian Nation Turnpike and the Creek Turnpike would be closer to 15 percent. Tolls for the Cimarron Turnpike, Chickasaw Turnpike and Cherokee Turnpike would increase between 10 percent and 11 percent.
With about a dozen people opposed to the expansion project attending its meeting at the State Capitol, the Council of Bond Oversight also approved OTA’s request to issue up to $456 million in refunding second senior revenue bonds.
When Richard LaBarthe, an attorney for Oklahomans for Responsible Transportation, tried to address council members, he was told public comments were not allowed.
“It’s unfortunate that this body, whatever they are, has the word oversight in its title,” Labarthe said. “They’re clearly a rubber stamp, just like so many of our boards and committees in the state. It’s very disturbing, and the public needs to appreciate just how bad it is.”
Labarthe said he’s unsure what steps the group will take next to oppose OTA’s expansion project, especially the southern route scheduled to pass through eastern parts of Norman.
Randy Carter, a member of Oklahomans for Responsible Transportation, also panned the council’s action.
“I’m not in the slightest bit surprised about this decision,” he said after the meeting. “It was a rubber stamp before we even got here. It was an exercise in showmanship.”
This is the second request to issue bonds for the ACCESS Oklahoma plan as well as refinancing outstanding bonds from 2017 and 2020 for potential debt service savings. The first $500 million worth of bonds were issued last October.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in August 2023 that OTA has the legislative authority to issue bonds and build three new turnpike routes intended to complete the Oklahoma City “outer loop” and provide a reliever route for pass-through traffic from the southern Interstate 35 corridor. The ruling also confirmed that the proposed routes are within locations authorized by the Legislature.
OTA anticipates requesting additional bond funds about every 18 months to two years to pay for the estimated $8.2 billion program, Echelle said.
Major projects in the ACCESS program to be undertaken during 2025 include:
- Widening east- and westbound John Kilpatrick Turnpike to six lanes between Eastern Avenue (mile marker 132) and I-35 (mm 136) starting in January. A $14.7 million contract was awarded Nov. 7 by the OTA board to widen the John Kilpatrick to six lanes within existing right-of-way by reconfiguring the grass median. Additionally, the eastbound John Kilpatrick ramp to northbound I-35 will be improved with a 12-foot acceleration lane to I-35 and adding a 10-foot shoulder. Work is expected to be completed in fall 2025, weather permitting;
- Rehabilitating the Creek Turnpike bridges over Haikey Creek at mile marker 15;
- Work on the Indian Nation Turnpike interchange at Ragan Road (mile marker 22) near Indianola;
- Work on the Indian Nation Turnpike interchange at State Highway 63 (mile marker 49) near Blanco;
- Work on the east-west connector Canadian River bridge (late 2025);
- Work on a John Kilpatrick Turnpike new interchange at County Line Road (very late 2025);
- Widening the John Kilpatrick Turnpike and a bridge from mile marker 116 to mile marker 120; and
- Work on the Turner Turnpike bridge at mile marker 154 west of Wellston.
During last month’s OTA meeting, Echelle told board members that the cost of the ACCESS Oklahoma program had increased by nearly $3 billion based on what it will take to fund and construct projects through 2037.
“This new estimate factors in 60 percent inflation in material and labor costs since the program’s announcement in December 2021 and anticipates future inflation,” Echelle said during the Nov. 7 meeting. “The highway transportation industry is not tracking inflation-wise with the cost of a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk. We are experiencing a higher inflation rate, and there are lots of causes to it. Everything in this plan is more expensive, and I do mean every line item is more expensive than when we estimated this three years ago.”
Legislator fails to force Hiett’s disqualification from certain utility cases
An administrative law judge for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission disagreed with Oklahoma House Rep. Tom Gann’s interpretation of agency definitions, striking a blow in his latest attempt to have Commissioner Todd Hiett disqualified from hearing rate cases involving the state’s largest utilities.
Administrative Law Judge Carly Ortel ruled Dec. 5 that a filing by Gann (R-Inola) in a hearing to review a fuel adjustment clause application by Oklahoma Natural Gas failed to rise to the level of a formal complaint and instead should be treated as a public comment.
Her ruling thwarted an attempt by Gann, who has asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to prohibit Hiett from taking part in rate cases for certain utilities, to bring up allegations of sexual misconduct by Hiett as a part of the hearing.
Gann, who was not present at the hearing, also lost in his bid to have the allegations against Hiett be interpreted as a change of circumstances since ONG filed its fuel adjustment clause application. But Ortel ruled that OCC rules restrict change of circumstances strictly to matters dealing with the procurement or pricing of fuel.
Gann filed four objections with the Corporation Commission since September arguing that Hiett should be disqualified from hearing certain rate cases because of a “change of circumstances” since ONG’s fuel adjustment clause was initially approved.
“That ‘change of circumstances’ is the revelation of alleged criminal conduct by Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett of which ONG/ONE Gas, Inc. employees/agents representatives have been victim(s) and/or witness(es) or otherwise have direct knowledge,” Gann wrote in his Sept. 12 filing. “These new circumstances make the OCC’s monitoring and oversight of the application of ONG’s FAC a matter in which ‘a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts [would] question [Hiett’s] impartiality and in which Hiett’s ‘impartiality might reasonably be questioned.’”
Deborah Thompson, an attorney for ONG, argued Thursday that Gann’s letter was a comment and not a complaint that could be taken up by the OCC.
“People can identify a document the way they see fit outside a legal context, that’s very different than a legal analysis that’s associated with the operation of the statute, the commission rules and this proceeding,” she said. “So ultimately, my legal analysis leads me to state that it’s, at this point, considered public comment. No one has appeared to make an appearance or attempt to participate in the proceeding.”
In his letter, Gann wrote that because Hiett is a state officer and because monitoring and oversight of ONG’s fuel adjustment clause is judicial in matter, his past and continued participation in ONG matters violates state ethics and Code of Judicial Conduct rules. It’s unknown if Gann has filed a complaint against Hiett with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Several complaints have been filed with the Ethics Commission in recent months, but ethics commissioners and agency staff are prohibited from revealing the complaints’ subjects unless commissioners decide to file an action or reach a settlement agreement.
Former House Rep. Mike Ritze, a Republican from Broken Arrow, and his wife, Connie, also wrote a letter to the Corporation Commission raising the same objections as Gann.
“The OCC’s monitoring and oversight of the application of ONG’s FAC must be suspended so long as Commissioner Hiett refuses to disqualify himself, and his continued participation taints the proceedings,” the Ritzes wrote.
Commissioner Bob Anthony, who has asked Hiett to step down or disqualify from hearing certain rate cases, interceded for Gann during Thursday’s hearing and attempted several times to bring up the misconduct allegations against Hiett.
Ortel eventually became frustrated with Anthony’s interruptions and offered to turn the hearing over to the three OCC commissioners and let them hash out the matter. Anthony relented and allowed Ortel to reach a decision.
“This is not the proper forum to address those concerns,” Ortel said. “My authority in this matter and all matters that I preside over comes from the commission itself and is very limited in nature. That limited authority does not extend to recommending or not recommending the recusal of a commissioner.”
Ortel heard arguments for about 90 minutes before making her ruling against Gann’s requests. She then found that gas costs, which ONG passed through to customers last year, were properly calculated and recommended the three-member regulatory panel give its approval after a formal order is prepared, which could occur either later this month or early next month.
During the hearing, Anthony asked Deputy Attorney General Chase Snodgrass whether Hiett’s “appearance of impropriety” falls under a state ethics rule or code of judicial conduct violation.
“Let me be clear, the attorney general has not asked that any member of this commission recuse themselves from this case,” Snodgrass said.
Meanwhile, Gann and two other House members are waiting to hear how the Oklahoma Supreme Court will rule on their request for a writ of prohibition that would disqualify Hiett from voting on cases involving companies with direct knowledge of his alleged criminal conduct. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on their request last month. Gann and Reps Kevin West (R-Moore) and Rick West (R-Heavener) are asking the justices to decide whether to assume jurisdiction and take up the case.
Gann’s actions stem from allegations of misconduct made against Hiett this summer. The man whom Hiett allegedly groped at a conference in Minnesota in June reportedly works for a company regulated by OCC. A pair of Kansas Corporation Commission employees made written reports alleging that an “extensively intoxicated” Hiett repeatedly rubbed the man’s arm and crotch in a group setting. No criminal charges have been filed against Hiett, who has said he has no memory of the incident owing to his struggles with alcohol and that he is pursuing treatment. Since that allegation came to light, a report surfaced of misconduct allegations against Hiett a year earlier at a party in Oklahoma City. Hiett has refused Anthony’s calls for him to step down from the commission or recuse himself from hearing rate cases. He did resign in August as chairman of the commission, which oversees the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, a regulatory agency with emphasis on the fuel, oil and gas, public utilities and transportation industries.
