Good morning, early birds! The Office of Management and Enterprise Services, one of the state's largest agencies, has a new director: Steven Harpe, who was serving as deputy director of technology.
Former director John Budd will focus all his attention on being Oklahoma's first chief operating officer, a position Gov. Kevin Stitt originally appointed him to just over a year ago before also giving him the responsibility of overseeing OMES.
Harpe was one of Stitt's original appointees in April to the remade Board of Corrections. He left that post in late in the summer when he joined OMES. Harpe previously served as chief information officer at Gateway Mortgage Group, the company founded by Stitt.
He also has worked on technology issues for companies such as American Airlines, Sabre, HireRight, Capital One, and CGI, as well as the US Navy & Marines.
OMES has been a challenge for the Stitt administration. You may recall the agency initially told lawmakers last year it faced a $23 million shortfall that they had been able to whittle down to a $15 million supplemental request. Eventually, the agency was able to eliminate that.
One of the results, however, was an increase in IT costs being passed on to agencies. Lawmakers have been hearing about those increased in their budget hearings, including those held Wednesday.
Stitt's office filed its response Wednesday to the federal gaming lawsuit filed by the the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. The response argues a plain reading of the compacts indicates they expired Jan. 1, rather than auto-renewed.
Oklahoma Health Care Authority staff told its governing board Wednesday they limited their legislative requests this session in anticipation of other bills and a vote of the people that will change the work they do, whether its Stitt's healthcare proposals or Medicaid expansion.
My heat is once again working after the thermostat was replaced. I only briefly considered breaking up some furniture and starting a fire to keep warm. All those years as a Boys Scout, you know.
