After more than three hours of discussion in executive session, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission unanimously voted Tuesday to terminate the employment of the regulatory agency’s administrative director, Brandy Wreath, with a “confidential” severance agreement and no public explanation.
“I have no comment at this time,” Chairwoman Kim David said after the meeting.
Commissioner Brian Bingman offered a similar “no comment,” shrugging his shoulders while exiting the underground tunnel below the Will Rogers Memorial Building. David repeated the phrase when asked what the public should make of the commissioners’ decision and subsequent silence.
Commissioner Todd Hiett found a few words to say.
“Tough day,” Hiett said. “The vote speaks for itself.”
Asked if Wreath had been told what precipitated his termination, Hiett responded:Â “You’d have to ask him if he knows.”
As the three statewide officials tasked with regulating petroleum exploration, public utilities and other industries hurried out of the building, Wreath stayed behind in the auditorium where dozens of OCC employees had camped out all afternoon.
“I’ll say the inside part out loud,” one woman told Wreath. “It’s bullshit.”
Others were in tears and shocked, saying they had no idea their director’s job was in jeopardy until Tuesday’s meeting agenda was posted Monday.
“I prayed for you all night,” another woman said.
Wreath hugged her and tried to reassure his former coworkers.
“It’s OK. It’s OK. No fear,” he said. “I’ve already documented things with really important people to make sure.”
At one point, Wreath and a pair of employees noted the irony that the day’s grave decision coincided with the arrival of new signs for the parking lot.
“I saw that when I pulled in today. I nearly wept from that,” Wreath said. “You finally have handicap parking.”
Asked what the three commissioners told him about the situation when he briefly joined their executive session, Wreath replied, “They didn’t say anything.”
“They just said that I could resign or they would terminate me, and either way, there was the severance package that they’d do on the separation. And I said, ‘I will not willingly leave my people.’ I’ve worked too hard to be here for them, and I, you know — what’s the termination going to do to me that hadn’t already been done by the years?”
Wreath, who joined the agency in 2006, served as director of its Public Utility Division before being promoted to director of administration in June 2022. Since then, he said the commissioners had never reviewed his employment before.
“The way I’ve always operated, and I’ve said it to them many times, if there’s anything you ever need from me that you’re not getting, all you’ve got to do is ask,” Wreath said. “And I respect these three (commissioners). There’s nothing that they would need for me, as long as it’s not illegal, immoral or —”
The 10 or so employees surrounding Wreath said in unison, “Unethical!”
“— I would do it for them,” Wreath said.
Wreath: ‘What we do is not popular’
Minutes before Tuesday afternoon’s meeting began, Wreath sat by himself on the front corner of the underground auditorium’s theater rows. Slowly, groups of OCC employees rose from the rear of the auditorium and assembled behind him.
“Is this the friends and family row?” one woman joked.
Wreath blushed and grew emotional.
“I love you guys,” he said.
When David, Hiett and Bingman entered the room, the four-dozen OCC employees and other observers stood. In less than a minute, the trio voted to enter executive session to review Wreath’s employment — the only substantive item on the regulatory body’s final meeting agenda of 2025.
“So, how was everybody’s Christmas?” Wreath eventually asked to break the ice among his somberly assembled coworkers. “Anybody have good new year’s plans? I don’t have anything to do.”
A noted Batman enthusiast who was approaching his 20-year anniversary with the Corporation Commission next year, Wreath witnessed a variety of controversies, including the securitization of 2021 Winter Storm Uri debt that remains in litigation before the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He also repeatedly drew the ire of former Commissioner Bob Anthony, who criticized administrative pay decisions under Wreath in a November 2024 dissenting opinion that alleged “a possible OCC coverup of Commissioner Hiett’s misconduct.”
Wreath, however, touted the employee compensation increases seen under his administration during a 20-minute professional eulogy and motivational speech he broke into during the lengthy executive session.
“I know y’all’s resumes, Y’all could go make a lot more money. You’re not here because it’s easy. No one is here because it’s easy,” Wreath said. “You’re here because it’s hard work that someone has to do, and y’all have chosen to do it, and I’ve watched you do it. I’ve watched the field inspectors go against guys with billions saying, ‘You’ve got to do the right thing.’ I’ve seen our enforcement officers go out there and say, ‘You’ve got to follow the law and get your permits and pay your taxes.'”
Wreath said he has received “death threats” while serving as director of administration for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
“What we do is not popular. I’m never surprised when someone doesn’t like what we’re doing because we’re regulators,” he said. “But y’all do it because the good guys in industry deserve for us to make sure the bad guys don’t ruin their name. We’re here to make sure industry can do their job and do it well.”
Commissioners voted to make Jim Marshall the interim director and to pay him the same salary Wreath had made. While David made the motions to return to open session, terminate Wreath and hire Marshall, none of the motions received a second before the commissioners voted.
Watch Brandy Wreath speak to employees during executive session
