OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Kevin Stitt addressed the media April 16, dedicating most of his time to speak on state-issued mental health contracts.
He also gave some insight into the Wildfire Response Working Group, which he ordered to be formed.
MENTAL HEALTH
2 News Oklahoma reporter Emma Burch first told viewers about cuts to Grand Mental Health, Family and Children Services, and CREOKS.
Leaders from the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and the Oklahoma Management and Enterprise office sent letters to the agencies indicating cuts.
Gov. Stitt is making promises, saying the cuts are part of a process to reallocate money, promising Oklahomans should expect the same level of services currently provided.
“I wanna assure Oklahomans we are providing the same dollars. We’re not cutting any kind of services,” Gov. Stitt said,” There are some contracts that we’re certainly going through, that maybe the [request for proposal] process wasn’t done accurately, and so we wanna [release the proposals again].”
In previous instances, Gov. Stitt expressed frustrations with the way private agencies were spending state dollars, specifically pointing to the salaries of agency leadership. He said Oklahomans deserve to have their tax dollars spent more fairly and responsibly.
“Sometimes, when you have people at agencies that have been there for 30 or 40 years, they’re moving the ball pretty good, they understand how [the capitol] works and they’re paying every invoice so nobody squawks,” Gov. Stitt said.
WILDFIRES
2 News Oklahoma continues to push for answers from Governor Stitt surrounding the state’s wildfire response.
April 8, Gov. Stitt announced the formation of the Oklahoma Wildfire Response Working Group.
The group, according to the governor’s office, will include leaders from state agencies, the private sector, former firefighters, and educational institutions. The goal of the group is to refine and improve the state’s wildfire response for future incidents.
“There’s been several retired firefighters that have come forward to help [Secretary Blayne Arthur], that she’s actually going to be interviewing to put as an interim role over forestry,” Gov. Stitt said, “Just to give her perspective and really help hire that full time replacement.”
Gov. Stitt said things are moving quickly with relation to the working group. The group is expected to provide him a full report within 6 months of formation.
Moreover, in mentioning a full-time forestry director, the Governor indicated a change of tune, from his previous comments, proposing an elimination of the entire forestry department.
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