TULSA, Okla. — Attorney General Gentner Drummond says losing the AG election in 2018 gave him plenty of time to prepare.
“I did hit the ground running,” he said. “But I have an excellent cadre of highly devoted attorneys.”
Drummond kept his original focus by taking over several state spending investigations, including the tourism department’s contract with Swadley’s restaurants, Epic Charter Schools and pandemic spending.
On balancing McGirt, it’s a complicated process but he says he’s had great success with the five tribes.
“We are negotiating aggressively with two of them to find a resolution to which tribes can exercise sovereignty and the state can make sure we are investigating and prosecuting bad people,” he said.
Drummond made headlines for calling on Richard Glossip’s death sentence to be vacated and adds that he feels for the families involved for the lengthy ordeal.
“I hate that, it breaks my heart to watch every time there’s an appeal,” Drummond said.
Recently, Governor Kevin Stitt replaced Ryan Walters as Secretary of Education after Drummond issued an opinion that holding that post and state superintendent at the same time was against the law. He also issued an opinion stating the Oklahoma State Board of Education can not make rules without the legislature’s approval. This opinion came after Walters passed several rules regarding library books and sex education.
“I know that Oklahomans don’t like when the federal bureaucrats expand their reach and effect Oklahomans,” Drummond said. “Similarly, we should be outraged when our local bureaucrats expand their reach beyond what the legislature has permitted to make rules outside their lane.”
Where Drummond plans to stay in his own lane? When 2News asked for his comment on Walters threatening to sue the Biden Administration over proposed changes to Title IX. He says the appropriate process is to issue opinions when asked by the legislature, rather than be a “proactivist AG.”
Thursday afternoon, Drummond issued another formal opinion. This one affirms a recent report by the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency that found $3 billion of state funds were spent without proper oversight.
In a press release, he issued the following statement:
“Given the entirety of the legislative scheme, this office concludes that OMES is required to maintain oversight and responsibility for all agency acquisitions," he wrote. "This necessarily includes routinely verifying an agency’s claim that an acquisition is statutorily exempt. This determination is consistent with the intent of the (Central Purchasing) Act, which ultimately is to protect the public at large by promoting economy in government and reducing the likelihood of fraud.
“To permit blanket exceptions without requiring oversight by OMES would provide sweeping and carte blanche authority to administrative agencies, risking that they might irresponsibly discharge their trusted duties to care for taxpayer funds. This was certainly not the intent of the Legislature; that intent requires concluding that OMES has a duty to ensure ‘that government officials are accountable to the public and are discharging their duties competently and responsibly,’ including by overseeing exemptions of all kinds.”
“The LOFT report on the State’s purchasing system is a solid examination of what unthinkably has been allowed to become a seriously flawed process,” he said. “It appears as though reforms are needed to ensure accountability and oversight of taxpayer funds. It is incredulous to think no one questioned what we now know was occurring within the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department or that an executive branch agency was exempted from an $18 million purchase, despite the law plainly limiting the exemption to purchases not exceeding $250,000.”
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