Leftwich Authors County Reform Bill in Senate

State Senator Debbe Leftwich announced on Friday that she will be principal Senate author of a bill to allow Oklahoma and Tulsa Counties to operate under home rule. Leftwich and House principal author
Mike Shelton, DOKC, said House Bill 9 was the result of citizen outrage over the move by two of Oklahoma Countys three commissioners to disband the county budget board.
I specifically went to Rep. Shelton when I heard he had a vehicle for this for a couple of reasons. First of all, I heard from a lot of county and state elected officials when that incident occurred. More importantly, I heard from a lot of citizensa lot of taxpayers in my district and around the county that were terribly upset, said Leftwich, DOKC.
The lawmakers explained that the measure would establish a member commission to head county government for Oklahoma and Tulsa Counties if eight elected county officials approve a resolution calling for creation of the commission. Each commissioner would then appoint two members, with the county clerk, court clerk, treasurer, assessor and sheriff each naming two members.
I worked for many years in a small state agency of 0 to 0 employees with not more than a three to five million dollar budget. We had at least eight people that had the final say in that budget. But youre looking at 0 million that this county operates withto only have two sole people in control of it I think is just a horrible mistake, Leftwich said. We have got to put a stop to this train before it has a wreck.