Political notebook: Deadline lightens legislative load

The emphasis is on “probably.”

Several thousand bills and joint resolutions went in the ditch on Thursday, the first deadline of this year’s legislative session. Measures not reported out of committee in their chamber of origin are considered dormant for the remainder of the session.

But just because their dead doesn’t mean the ideas behind them are. In the Capitol, it is said, no bill is ever really dead — especially the bad ones.

The next deadline is in less than two weeks — March 14 — when legislation not approved by the chamber of origin goes onto the discard pile.

As is often the case, many measures attracting alarmed headlines at the start of the session never made it out of the starting gate. That included a ban on no-fault divorce, calling animal control on school kids pretending to be dogs and cats, and licensing journalists and subjecting them to the PragerU version of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Also failing to launch were several bills to put the Ten Commandments in various locations, including the Capitol grounds, and several others trying to put the state on something like the gold and/or silver standard.

A large portion of bills failing to advance were unused shell bills and measures effectively dead since failing to make deadline last spring in the first session of the 59th Legislature. Another fairly large group were duplicates or near-duplicates of other bills that did advance.

Judge not: Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, skewered the latest attempts of some Republicans to diminish or eliminate the Judicial Nominating Commission, which was set up in the wake of the state Supreme Court scandal of the 1960s.

“The judiciary is a co-equal, independent branch of government,” Floyd said. “The reforms that have ensured the court’s independence and integrity in the last half century are at risk.

“This is a power grab that reinserts partisan politics into the judiciary and undermines the abilities of justices to make rulings based on the law. It is a dangerous proposition for the people of Oklahoma who are seeking real justice, independent of politics.”

On board: State Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, whose district includes Okmulgee, said he supports Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s efforts to get a federal judge to quash tribal charges against an Okmulgee County jailer.

The jailer was involved in a scuffle with Muscogee Lighthorse officers at the Okmulgee County jail in December.

More malfeasance: Almost $190,000 went missing from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office from 2016 to 2022, and another $95,000 funneled through a nonprofit operated within SCSO appears questionable, state Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd reported.

According to the auditor’s report, $187,340 paid into the accounts of county jail inmates disappeared. In addition, the sheriff’s office wound up paying more than $15,000 in late fees and finance charges because invoices were not paid on time.

Office Manager Megan Burgess was “removed” from her job during the audit and referred to prosecutors for possible charges.

Separately, it was learned that Sheriff Shannon Smith and others accessed funds from the Seminole County Deputy Fund, which was set up as a nonprofit operating out of the sheriff’s office.

The auditor’s report said that of $95,870 contributed to the fund, $88,867 in expenditures had no supporting documentation. Purchases that could be tracked included a a “55-inch TV with a 3-year protection plan, a Roku TV, a sound bar, a laptop computer, an ice chest, and fishing tackle.”

Smith resigned in August as part of a plea agreement that included a two-year suspension of his professional law enforcement accreditation credentials.

DEI season: The Oklahoma Senate last week advanced legislation banning affirmative action in the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife and Conservation — which, according to Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, currently has four Black and three Latino employees out of 341 total, and is nearly 80% male.

Dukin’ it out: The state agency overseeing boxing, mixed martial arts and other combat sports named Diana Fletcher as its next director.

Fletcher has been an inspector for the Oklahoma Athletic Commission the past 15 years and will replace Joe Miller, who is retiring.

Meetings and events: School board candidates from Tulsa and Catoosa will speak to the Heart of the Party, the Tulsa Chapter of the Oklahoma Federation of Democratic Women, at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Baxter’s Interurban Grill, 717 S. Houston Ave.

Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small is featured speaker at the Tulsa County Republican Men’s Club meeting, 11:30 a.m., March 13, at Oklahoma Joe’s, 6175 E. 61st St.

Campaigns and elections: State Sen. Cody Rogers, R-Tulsa, reversed course and said he will seek re-election in his west Tulsa district instead of the Tulsa County Commission seat being vacated by Democrat Karen Keith.

OkieWay, a political action committee formed to make independent expenditures on behalf of Luke Holland in the 2022 U.S. Senate primary, was fined $5,000 by the Federal Election Commission because of a filing infraction.

Bottom lines: Monday is Bob Wills Day at the Capitol. … Oklahoma Highway Patrol uniforms were rated among the “least sexy” among the nation’s state police by the Wealth of Geeks web site.

Clarification: An item in last week’s Political Notebook left out the contact information for the Republican Women’s Club of Tulsa County’s scholarship program. Email jkbridenstine@gmail.com.

— Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa World

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