Representative Tom Gann

R

District 8

Hi, I'm Tom Gann and I represent the people of Oklahoma's 8th District.


representative

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Mar 12, 2026
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$1.77B ONG Storm Bonds, $98M Rate Increases Challenged at OK Supreme Court

OKLAHOMA CITY – Reps. Tom Gann, R-Inola, and Kevin West, R-Moore, on Wednesday filed a brief asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to overturn $98 million in rate increases for Oklahoma Natural Gas (ONG) well as $1.77 billion of the utility’s ratepayer-backed bonds. All were approved by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) with votes by embattled OCC Commissioner Todd Hiett who was accused of groping an employee of the utility at a conference in Minnesota in June 2024.  Charges were never filed, and the Ethics Commission dismissed a complaint against Hiett in May 2025. Wednesday’s brief asks the Supreme Court to review the Ethics Commission’s legal determinations in that case. Payments for the bonds, issued to cover costs incurred by ONG during February 2021’s Winter Storm “Uri,” have been collected as “Winter Event Cost Recovery” charges on customers’ bills since 2022. The OCC has also approved an additional rate increase for ONG of between $20 million and $41 million every year since the bonds were issued. If not overturned, the rate increases will continue in perpetuity; the monthly bond charges are scheduled to continue for another 22 years.  Gann and West’s brief tells the Court that the OCC failed to perform lawful audits of ONG’s bonds in every rate case since the bonds were issued. They also argue ONG’s original 2021 “Uri” costs that were securitized into the ratepayer-backed bonds were never audited either. The representatives assert the audit failures are fatal in all four cases, making the OCC’s orders void.   Wednesday’s brief was the third such request to the Court. Gann filed a similar brief asking the Court to overturn $250 million in rate increases and some $700 million in ratepayer-backed bonds that the OCC had approved for Public Service Company of Oklahoma ( PSO ). In December, with Rep. Rick West, R-Heavener, Gann and Kevin West also asked the court to overturn a $127 million rate increase and $760 million in winter storm bonds for customers of Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company ( OG&E ). Those cases are already in the Court’s hands. To date, this brings the totals officially challenged to $475 million in rate increases and more than $3.2 billion in bonds. The appeals ask the court to order everything wrongly collected to be refunded to the utilities’ customers. Wednesday’s brief says “$140 million in illegitimate rate increases and $300 million in illegitimate bond charges” have already been collected from ONG’s customers.  Oklahoma utilities PSO, OG&E, ONG and CenterPoint/Summit paid some of the highest natural gas prices in U.S. history during two weeks in February 2021, incurring some $2.8 billion in debt. Interest and other expenses added another $2 billion, bringing the total cost of the bonds being paid by Oklahoma utility customers close to $5 billion. Gann, a former internal auditor for the Tulsa International Airport, said he believes that "When Oklahoma law requires an audit, the Accountancy Act says it has to be done by independent, licensed CPAs following nationally recognized standards, and that did not happen."  “Although all three of us voted against the securitization legislation in April 2021, we do not believe the intent was for the utilities to audit themselves, or for the Corporation Commission to make up its own definition of the word ‘audit.’” Kevin West said. “The apparently fraudulent audits are inexcusable. The law requires real audits, and the Accountancy Act defines auditing standards for a reason.”  In addition to the individual appeals of each utility’s rate case, the representatives filed a similar Supreme Court appeal against the OCC’s approval of $1.5 billion of ONG, OG&E and PSO’s 2023 fuel costs. That brief , filed on December 18, 2025, alleged the OCC had allowed an employee, believed to have dropped out of college as a sophomore, to perform required audits of utility companies collectively worth more than a billion dollars, including in the challenged OG&E and PSO rate cases. [ 12/9/2025 press release .] At the start of this year, the OCC terminated its top two administrators – the director of administration and the chief operating officer who was also the chief of communications – without explanation, but with “confidential” severance packages now revealed to exceed $200,000 and $100,000, respectively. The person believed to have dropped out of college also continues to testify about audits in OCC utility cases.  “Fundamentally, these appeals are about upholding the Constitution and the rule of law,” Rick West said. “We are saying audits must be done by CPAs, and State Ethics Rules say if a reasonable person would question Hiett’s impartiality in these cases, he must not participate. But Hiett continues to cast votes approving billions of dollars of increases for these utility companies without performing the required audits. We expect the Court to overturn these votes and to order Hiett and the OCC to follow the law.” The full Brief in Chief for the ONG rate case appeal can be read online here: https://oscn.net/dockets/GetDocument.aspx?ct=appellate&bc=1064718136&cn=CU-123348&fmt=pdf ONG, the OCC and the Attorney General’s Office have 40 days to respond. The progress of all the appeals can be followed on the Oklahoma Supreme Court website. PSO rate case ($250m rate increases; $700m bonds; all briefs filed):    https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=122861 ONG, PSO & OG&E CY2023 fuel cases ($1.5 billion; first brief filed; last due mid-March):    https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=122991 OG&E rate case ($127m rate increase; $760m bonds; all briefs filed):    https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123021 ONG rate case ($98m rate increases; $1.3 billion bonds; first brief filed; last due mid-June):    https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123348 ONG 2024 fuel case ($390 million + $888m for 2021/2022; briefs this summer):    https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123588 OG&E 2024 fuel case ($925 million + $1.9 billion for 2021/2022; briefs this summer):    https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123608

Feb 17, 2026
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Final OG&E, PSO Brief Filed with OK Supreme Court

OKLAHOMA CITY – On the fifth anniversary of February 2021’s Winter Storm “Uri,” appeals challenging more than $1.4 billion in bonds and $377 million in rate increases impacting the customers of electric utility companies OG&E and Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) are now in the hands of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.  Tuesday, Reps. Tom Gann, R-Inola, Kevin West, R-Moore, and Rick West, R-Heavener, filed the final brief in their appeal of a 2025 Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) order approving a $127 million rate increase for OG&E without a CPA-led audit of the utility’s 2021 Winter Storm "Uri" bonds. The lawmakers’ OG&E appeal was made a “companion case” with a similar appeal Rep. Gann filed challenging bonds and $250 million in rate increases for PSO, meaning the Court intends to consider the two appeals together. Now that all the briefs have been filed, a decision could come at any time.  “We have asked the court for a lot,” Kevin West said. “We not only asked the justices to overturn the OCC’s rate increases and orders authorizing OG&E and PSO’s 2021 Winter Storm 'Uri' bonds. We have asked the court to require the OCC to follow state ethics rules and to follow state laws that require audits to be conducted by licensed CPAs.” Another brief the representatives filed on Dec. 18, 2025, in a related appeal alleged the OCC had allowed an employee believed to have dropped out of college as a sophomore to perform required audits of utility companies collectively worth more than a billion dollars, including in the challenged OG&E and PSO rate cases.  “The OCC’s past violations of the law have far-reaching consequences, especially since they are ongoing, impacting current cases,” said Gann, who has seven more OCC utility case appeals pending at the Supreme Court, challenging some $11 billion in utility charges by ONG, OG&E and PSO. All were approved by the OCC with votes by embattled OCC Commissioner Todd Hiett. Gann, West and West’s appeals accuse the OCC of violating ratepayers’ due process rights by permitting Commissioner Hiett to participate. OG&E and PSO were represented in these cases by attorneys who hosted a 2023 party where Hiett allegedly sexually harassed two female OCC employees and drove home drunk. The lawmakers argue that state ethics rules prohibit Hiett from participating in OCC cases involving victims/witnesses of his alleged criminal conduct. Although the Ethics Commission dismissed a complaint against Hiett in May 2025, the representatives’ appeal asks the Supreme Court to review its interpretation of the law. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who statutorily represents ratepayers in utility cases before the OCC and Supreme Court, defended Hiett’s participation in a brief the AG filed on January 27, 2026. “Parties to legislative rate cases are not entitled to due process,” the attorney general wrote [on page 31]. An earlier motion by the attorney general to dismiss the lawmakers’ OG&E and PSO rate case appeals was denied by the Supreme Court. “The court could choose to address all the OCC’s violations of law in these first two appeals, or just some or none,” Gann said. “The more issues it tackles now, the longer it will probably take to get a decision. But the clearer the court is in its first decision about which laws the OCC is required to follow, the fewer appeals it will ultimately have to decide.” Oklahoma utilities PSO, OG&E, ONG and CenterPoint/Summit paid some of the highest natural gas prices in U.S. history during the two-week “Uri” cold snap in February 2021, incurring some $2.8 billion in debt. Interest and other expenses added another $2 billion, bringing the total cost of the winter storm bonds being paid by Oklahoma utility customers close to $5 billion.  Payments for OG&E and PSO’s bonds have been collected as “Winter Event Securitization” and “Winter Storm Cost Recovery” charges on the monthly bills of their customers since the bonds were issued in 2022. Those bond payments are scheduled to continue for another two decades and are required to be audited as part of the utilities’ rate cases. The representatives say that hasn’t happened. The lawmakers’ “reply” brief filed Tuesday addresses arguments made by OG&E, the OCC and the attorney general in defense of the challenged rate increase order and winter storm bonds. All three defense briefs argue that the OCC’s Public Utility Division audits do not have to be performed by licensed CPAs. “This Court should reject Appellants’ [Gann, West and West’s] contention that all rate-case audits must comply with the Oklahoma Accountancy Act and uphold the [OCC’s] Final Order as proper,” the attorney general wrote in his January 27 brief [page 19]. “Imagine the consequences of that,” said Rick West. “Imagine the financial chaos that would break out across state government if the court says it’s okay for state agencies to make up their own definition of “audit” and allow any staffer to do them, the way the OCC did. The Department of Mental Health would be a drop in the bucket compared to what would happen next.” The lawmakers are optimistic about their appeals, believing both the law and the facts are overwhelmingly on their side. “This matter is urgent,” the representatives’ brief tells the court.  “Having already paid hundreds of millions of dollars of these illegitimate charges, these utilities’ captive customers have suffered enough.” Reps. Gann, West and West’s newest “reply” brief can be read online here: https://oscn.net/dockets/GetDocument.aspx?ct=appellate&bc=1064376140&cn=CU-123021&fmt=pdf The progress of all the appeals can be followed on the Oklahoma Supreme Court website: PSO rate case: https://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=122861 OG&E rate case: https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123021 ONG, PSO & OG&E CY2023 fuel cases: https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=122991 ONG rate case: https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123348 ONG CY2024 fuel case: https://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123588 OG&E CY2024 fuel case: https://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123608

Jan 15, 2026
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Gann Announces ‘Open Legislature Initiative’ to Subject Lawmakers to Transparency Laws

OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, on Thursday announced a comprehensive transparency package aimed at bringing the Oklahoma Legislature under the state’s open meetings and open records standards, calling the move "necessary to restore public trust and end a culture of secrecy in state government." House Bill 3842 , which Gann is calling the Open Legislature Initiative, is formally titled the Legislative Transparency, Accountability, and Open Meetings Act of 2026 . In addition to requiring continued public notice and recording of legislative meetings for the Oklahoma House of the state Senate, the measure would mandate disclosure of lobbyist influence tied to legislation and prohibit nondisclosure agreements that interfere with lawmakers’ official duties. “The Legislature cannot demand transparency from every other public body while exempting itself,” Gann said. “If we expect open government, we must lead by example.” Gann said recent events have highlighted the need for reform. He pointed to criticism surrounding the Legislative Compensation Board, which met in executive session before approving pay raises, as well as growing efforts by other government bodies to secure exemptions from open-meeting requirements. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has received an exemption for some discussions, and county commissioners in multiple counties have sought similar treatment, he said. “When the Legislature operates outside transparency laws, it incentivizes others to do the same,” Gann said. “That is how secrecy spreads through government.” Under Gann's proposal, the Legislature and all committees, conference committees, task forces and working groups would be required to: ·      provide advance public notice and agendas; ·      allow public observation and recording of meetings; ·      post meeting records online within seven days; and ·      refrain from taking votes outside Open Meeting Act compliance. Under the bill, any legislative action taken in violation of the act would be invalid. The measure also would require lawmakers to file a Lobbyist Impact Statement if they have received campaign contributions, gifts or other benefits from lobbyists connected to legislation they sponsor. Failure to file the Lobbyist Impact Statement would constitute an ethics violation and carry criminal penalties. Lawmakers are currently required to submit campaign finance and financial disclosures to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Additionally, the bill would mandate that legislators disclose any nondisclosure agreements they sign, and any agreement restricting communication with constituents or legislative deliberation would be void. “Open meetings and open records are the ethical foundation of representative government,” Gann said. “Secrecy erodes trust, and trust is essential to a functioning republic.” Gann noted that a separate resolution, HR 1001 , is still eligible for consideration. That proposal would further guarantee additional recorded votes on legislation and prevent bills from being blocked without public accountability. “Oklahomans deserve to know who voted, who blocked a vote and why,” Gann said. If enacted, the Legislative Transparency, Accountability, and Open Meetings Act of 2026 would take effect July 1, 2026. It will be eligible for consideration in the Second Regular Session of the 60th Legislature, which convenes Feb. 2.