'We have put ourselves in grave danger:' Ethics Commission urges lawmakers to increase funding

Chronically underfunded and facing ongoing staffing shortages, the new executive director of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission is calling on state lawmakers to restore the agency's funding to what it was back in 2016.

Lee Anne Bruce Boone, who began her job as the Ethics Commission's executive director just last week, told state lawmakers Thursday the agency couldn't really do its job with its current level of funding.

“It’s just not possible with the staff and resources that we have," she said.

Bruce Boone succeeded Ashley Kemp, who resigned her post as chief last year. In her resignation letter, Kemp repeated her longstanding complaint that state lawmakers have refused to adequately fund the Ethics Commission. Legislators only gave the state agency $687,950 for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Bruce Boone asked for a funding increase of $149,273 to bring the commission's funding level back to its high in 2016. She also asked for $1.2 million for software needs, a one-time amount of $150,000 to fund the commission's political subdivision enforcement account and $177,000 to fund two positions: a director of compliance and a compliance officer.

She said the $1.2 million request was a one-time request for FY 25.  While the other line-items, she said, represent operational requests totaling $476,673. The request for funds to the agency's political subdivision enforcement account was needed because it "was created in 2014 but has never been funded or staffed."

New commission leader outlines budget needs

Bruce Boone made the request during appearances at two pre-session budget hearings with members of the Oklahoma House and Senate. She said the agency had a lot of backlog, and restoring the funds to the 2016 levels was necessary "just to ensure that we're getting compliance and investigation reviews more timely."

"Our resources have not been sufficient to maintain the needs of the commission and what’s been happening," she said.

Records show that agency's appropriated funds have fluctuated wildly since 2019: $710,000 for FY 2019; about $716,000 for FY 2020; $688,000 in both FY 2021, FY 2022 and FY 2023.

Created in 1990 by a state question that made the agency part of the Oklahoma Constitution, the Ethics Commission gathers, processes and maintains campaign finance reports for candidates for state offices. The commission also compiles information on lobbyists, monitors state employees’ compliance with ethics rules and enforces those ethics rules.

The commission is overseen by a five members. The commissioners are also responsible for hiring and firing the agency's executive director. Commissioners are appointed by leaders of the Oklahoma House and Senate, the governor, attorney general and chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

Though a great deal of the commission's information in available on-line through its website, Bruce Boone told lawmakers the vendor for the website announced it would no longer support the software, forcing the agency to scramble to ensure campaign data and information would be available for the upcoming election cycle.

Bruce Boone said the commission needed $1.2 million for software — paid out over several years — to ensure the continued operation of the commission's website.

"The most important issue is with the guardian system and its hosting and maintenance," she said. "The vendor (said) it intended to cease hosting and maintenance on July 1, 2024, but that is still in flux, as recently as this week."

Agency facing challenges over website

She said the agency was negotiating with the vendor to extend that deadline "possibly through February 2025." She said the challenge for the agency would come after the February 2025 deadline when the agency as transitions to a new online system.

"(We are) requesting a one time appropriation to ensure we don’t go back to paper," she said. "We want to make it safe, available to the public and easy. That's the short term challenge in one way. We have long term challenge here, as well, what do we do after that. What do we do beyond February 2025."

State lawmakers seemed receptive to the request. State Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, said it was lawmakers' fault the commission was struggling to maintain services.

Some lawmakers support call for budget increase

“We have put ourselves in grave danger,” Gann said, “not only with the lack of funding to the Ethics Commission but with the election cycle of 2018. I would hope that we would fully fund the commission this year and give them (what) they need to get up to speed on the new technologies."

State Sen. John Haste, R-Broken Arrow, chair of the Senate's Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government and Transportation, praised the work by by the commission. "Every time I've called up there, I've gotten answers," he said.

Haste said lawmakers understood the need to upgrade the system's website. He also praised the commission for its efforts to help educate candidates for office. "(Education) would, in itself alleviate certain challenges. I applaud that type of approach," he said.

Friday morning Bruce Boone told the commission she was pleased by the meetings with lawmakers.

"I was really pleased with how it went," Bruce Boone told the Ethics Commission's members at their regular January meeting. "There were a lot of questions and comments on possibly raising our funding."

The meeting was the new executive director's first since starting Jan. 4. She is only the fourth person to hold the position. She takes over as the watchdog agency is shifting its focus more toward educating politicians, lobbyists and political action committees rather than investigating them.

Commissioners Friday dismissed two ethics complaints and one ethics case.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New Oklahoma Ethics Commission director asks for more funding