Welcome to the Oklahoma House of Representatives

OKLAHOMA CITY – Reps. Kevin West, R-Moore, and Tom Gann, R-Inola, today issued statements regarding Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett, who has been accused of sexual molestation and public drunkenness. The two said they are considering filing a writ of prohibition against Hiett, asking the courts to intervene to protect the public interest. "Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett’s admission of public drunkenness, alleged sexual assault, alleged harassment and his alleged drunk driving should be enough for any decent individual to disqualify himself from cases at the OCC involving the victims or witnesses to his alleged crimes," the lawmakers said in a joint statement. "Multiple news articles report that these complaints include employees and representatives, including attorneys, of public utility companies the OCC regulates. "Hiett should have removed himself from voting in the August 27 meeting, but instead he cast the deciding vote to approve a $31 million rate increase for Oklahoma Natural Gas customers," they continued. "The victim and witnesses to Hiett's June 9, 2024, sexual assault at a Minnesota conference are allegedly ONG employees. If that is not enough, ONG is being represented by the law firm that hosted a reception in Oklahoma City, where Hiett is alleged to have sexually harassed two female OCC employees and to have driven home drunk. Hiett has not publicly denied any allegations made against him." West questioned Hiett's impartiality. "Oklahomans deserve better," West said. "Corporation commissioners are considered quasi-judicial in some of their cases, like utility fuel cases that require a state officer to rule, and legislative in others, like utility rate cases. Under Ethics Rule 4.7, an officer must disqualify him/herself in any case, legislative or judicial, in which 'a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts [would] question his or her impartiality.'" Gann said, "I spent 15 years in internal auditing, and I can tell you this conflict goes beyond mere appearance—it's a clear conflict in fact as well. Hiett obviously used poor judgement by not disqualifying himself in ONG’s recent rate case as he should have." There are four fuel cases worth over $1 billion for public utilities currently pending at OCC. They involve ONG (PUD2024-000047), Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) (PUD2024-000040), Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corporation (PUD2024-000046) and Summit Utilities of Oklahoma (PUD2024-000042). Fuel adjustment cases, also known as purchased gas adjustment cases, are judicial. The lawmakers assert that when cases are judicial, commissioners must behave like judges and follow the  Code of Judicial Conduct . "The OCC is supposed to examine the utility’s fuel purchases and determine whether they were fair, just, reasonable and prudent before allowing those costs to be passed on to customers," West said. "We need commissioners who can use sound judgement and are free from bias. How can Commissioner Hiett make such judgements when his actions allegedly involving people in these cases prove otherwise?" Similar to State Ethics Rule 4.7, Title 5 O.S Section Rule 2.11 of the Code of Judicial Conduct requires Hiett to disqualify himself in judicial cases in which "the judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned." Instead, Hiett voted on July 31 to approve three procedural orders in ONG’s judicial fuel case. On Aug. 27, Hiett voted to approve seven more orders in the judicial fuel cases for PSO, AOG and Summit. "Like ONG, PSO is also represented in its $554 million fuel case by the same law firm that hosted the reception," the representatives said. "Both State Ethics Rules and the Code of Judicial Conduct are laws, and failure to follow them is a violation of state law." OCC has hired outside counsel to perform a "confidential fact-finding" investigation into the commissioner's misconduct, but instead of handling "behavior of a criminal nature," like violations of state law, this firm instead promises to refer the latter to the state attorney general's office. "This seems like a way to slow play the investigation, allowing Hiett to continue voting on these matters in which he cannot remain objective. How convenient," the representatives said.  "Any party to an OCC case with direct knowledge of illegal conduct by Commissioner Hiett who has not yet officially reported it or filed a civil lawsuit against him has leverage over Hiett in their cases before him at the OCC," they said. "The threat always exists that if he doesn’t rule in their favor, the illegal conduct could be reported, or a civil lawsuit could be filed. His impartiality is unquestionably tainted." West added, "The victims of this disgrace and bias in these judicial cases are not the utilities, but the millions of Oklahomans who are being unfairly disadvantaged in the votes in which Hiett has a perverse and legally prohibited incentive to give the utilities what they want. If Commissioner Hiett continues with this reckless behavior, it may become necessary for legislators to file a writ of prohibition requiring the courts to determine whether intervention is necessary to protect the public interest." 

OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, today issued the following statements about the recommendations of the Oklahoma State Work Permits and Visas Task Force, which was created by Gov. Kevin Stitt via an executive order signed April 30. "I recently was notified about the work of Governor Stitt's Oklahoma State Work Permits and Visas Task Force, which was charged with evaluating and making recommendations to allow immigrants to have visas, permits and documentation to pursue the American dream, contribute to our workforce, and for Oklahoma universities and industries to recruit and legally retain global talent without fear of unnecessary deportation or separation from family safely and legally. "I lack the vocabulary skills to properly express my anger on this order. The American dream is swiftly being stripped from our children by our own U.S. and state governments. The Oklahoma State Work Permits and Visas Task Force plan appears to do just that: steal Oklahomans’ American dream and give it to illegals. Your state government is greatly concerned about illegals attending college while our own children can no longer afford to obtain a college education. Governor, how about a task force to lower college tuition for Oklahomans? Does Oklahoma really need to recruit illegals to colleges and industries? Why is Oklahoma ignoring our own children and our own workforce? We have thousands of Oklahomans in prisons. Statistics show an inmate trained in an industrial skill is approximately 66% less likely to return to crime, but we offer little training for inmates. We very likely have the worst prisons in the nation, but let’s ignore our prisons and concentrate on bringing more illegals into our state. Couldn’t we establish a task force to teach students the importance of work and earning a living? How about offering Oklahomans incentives to attend college, technology training or to enter the workspace? Governor, don’t incentivize illegals to come to Oklahoma, attend our schools, take our jobs, and hijack Oklahomans’ dreams. Instead, let’s work to stop Oklahoma students and our labor force from leaving our great state to improve earnings. "Republican’s platforms claim less government and promoting more local government. Yet, I have watched as Republican leadership has grown government more and more while vastly reducing local services. This task force is recommending creating an Office of New Oklahomans to promote interagency coordination and collaboration on issues impacting non-citizens. Once again, we see government growth in action. The task force recommended a new office but failed to report how they intend to fund this new agency to sponsor illegals. If we are going to create a new office, what if we create an office to identify illegal use of state resources? For instance, how much does it cost to educate illegals? How much does incarceration of illegals cost our state? How much do illegals cost our state in terms of medical or human services resources? What is the true cost of illegals on our state budget?  "The task force communicates with one-hundred dollar words, but let me enlighten with the five-cent meanings. The task force recommends empowering employers to help navigate visa types, legal requirements, costs, and credentialing processes, helping international talent to get connected with employment opportunities. That means the government is going to make it legal to give illegals your job. The task force recommends optimizing efficiency for an international talent navigation credentialing processes. That means legalizing policies to allow illegals to work in Oklahoma. The task force recommends issuing driving privilege cards to non-citizens. This means giving illegals a driver’s license. "I believe Oklahomans want illegals deported, but our state government chooses to focus on how to improve the lives of illegals. Oklahoma has massive government problems. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services has numerous allegations of state facilities allowing physical and sexual abuse of children, placing children in abusive homes, and illegally removing children from homes. The Department of Corrections is likely the worst correctional department in the nation with countless human rights' violations ranging from stabbings, overdoses, murder, covering up rape, locking inmates in cages, withholding food and water, and no bathroom privileges. District attorneys allegedly are using fraudulent illegal fees to fund their offices. Oklahoma is reported to be a red state, but we are one of the most over-regulated states. What is being done about dark money destroying our state’s elections? Many of our state agencies are entangled in alleged misconduct or illegal behavior. With all these issues directly affecting Oklahomans, why concentrate on how to improve the lives of illegals? "I understand this is a difficult subject. There are many good, hard-working people illegally in Oklahoma. I personally know of families I would be proud to see become citizens. We might discuss having a family sponsor an illegal immigrant for the purpose of work or even citizenship. Helping people who have proven to be good neighbors and hard workers is a very different conversation than giving illegals a driver’s license, helping them attend college, giving them jobs, and promoting illegals to come to our state. The border crisis has created a national catastrophic disaster, and Oklahomans must do our part to combat the invasion of our nation. I encourage Oklahomans to obtain a copy of the task force report and see if it makes you as angry as it did me."

Reps. Trey Caldwell, R-Lawton, Daniel Pae, R-Lawton, Rande Worthen, R-Lawton, Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin, and Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin, today sent an urgent letter to Secretary Paul Ziriax formally requesting an investigative audit into the August 27 runoff election for Comanche County sheriff. The legislators expressed serious concerns following reports that multiple ineligible voters received a ballot for the Republican runoff election for Comanche County sheriff. The legislators said this clear breach of electoral protocol occurred despite at least one voter contacting the Comanche County Election Board regarding the incorrect ballot, with the issue not realized until after the ballot had been cast. According to an August 29 report by KSWO-TV 7News, the secretary of the Comanche County Election Board acknowledged the distribution of an incorrect ballot on election day. She also allegedly said that once a ballot enters the system, there’s nothing they can do about it.  In the letter, the legislators emphasized, "Given the importance of ensuring free and fair elections, we are deeply concerned that other ineligible voters may have received an incorrect ballot. A transparent investigation is crucial to maintaining public trust in our electoral process. "We have been advised that State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax has dispatched members of the State Election Board staff to the county election board to assess the situation. We ask the secretary to step in and ensure that a thorough review and audit is made of the situation and that appropriate action is taken if these allegations prove to be true." Citing Okla. Stat. tit. 26 § 1-104, the legislators reiterated that voters may only vote using the primary ballot under the party in which they are registered, stating, "no registered voter shall be permitted to vote in any Primary Election or Runoff Primary Election of any political party except the political party of which his registration form shows him to be a member…" The legislators said, “The right to vote is a fundamental expression of our American freedoms, and it must be fiercely protected to ensure the integrity of the November 5 presidential election. We must guarantee that each voter's voice is safeguarded and that every aspect of our electoral process remains secure and trustworthy." Read the letter here .