OKLAHOMA CITY – State lawmakers will ramp up their efforts to monitor boards and commissions and even attend executive sessions of those groups, the leader of the Oklahoma House of Representatives announced this week. House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, said the initiative was necessary to increase legislative oversight of agencies, boards and commissions and to assess the performance of agency governing boards. The move follows actions by the legislature earlier this year which gave Republican Governor Kevin Stitt more authority to hire and fire state agency heads. “The Legislature has been too deferential and hands-off with these governing boards for most of state history, and the House is going to change that,” McCall said in a media statement announcing the program.
McCall said he was assigning House committees to “regularly monitor the governing boards of more than three dozen state agencies.” He said he would assign state representatives to attend governing board meetings as necessary, including “attendance at private executive sessions as authorized by state law” so lawmakers can be better informed and increase their watchdog roles over agencies. A provision in the state’s Open Meetings Act allows members of the legislature to sit in on executive sessions when the committee the lawmaker is serving on has oversight of the agency. “This is an important oversight component of the Open Meeting Act that we intend to start using,” the speaker said. “There are legitimate reasons for executive sessions, but when they are used for the wrong reasons, it is to the detriment of Oklahoma citizens.”
McCall said guidelines would be put in place to ensure confidentiality of executive sessions is maintained when a House member attends. He said lawmakers would not be able to publicly share information discussed in an executive session if the information is confidential. “However, if a representative observes something truly egregious, we will not hesitate to exercise our constitutional authority and independence as the situation warrants,” he said. McCall said the state has nearly 200 boards and commissions overseeing state agencies. Many have existed for decades, or even since statehood. Initially, a preliminary list of 40 boards will be monitored by legislative committee. He said House members will not attend meetings as participants or to direct action but, instead, to observe and use information gleaned to improve our policymaking while ensuring agencies are giving taxpayers the best return on their investment. “It will also heighten our ability to respond to constituent inquiries about agencies and services,” he said.