Last week, Oklahomans had the misfortune of witnessing one of the most ridiculous state board meetings that I’ve seen in my two decades as a journalist.It starred Republican leaders: Gov. Kevin Stitt and House Speaker Charles McCall, the newly minted head of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services and a team of officials from our state mental health department.Together, they decided an early Festivus holiday – or at least an airing of grievances if not any feats of strength – was necessary against our elected attorney general and a mental health settlement agreement that he negotiated on behalf of taxpayers.Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against airing grievances. After all, I do it frequently in my weekly columns.The problem is that rather than posting a social media video or issuing a strongly worded press release that outlined their concerns, they determined that a public board meeting was the perfect place to hold a melodramatic, theatrical performance.Let me set the scene for you. Oklahoma charges its fourmember Contingency Review Board with a serious mission. State law grants its three voting members — the governor, House speaker and Senate president pro tem — the power in certain emergency situations to make decisions in place of the entire Legislature during the interim.It’s so powerful that it rarely meets.The reason the board cited for calling this particular meeting was very serious. Our state is facing allegations that we’re violating the constitutional rights of indigent defendants who are deemed incompetent to stand trial. We’re accused of warehousing them like goods in our county jails and ignoring the necessity of court-ordered competency restoration so that they can assist in their own defense.Unsurprisingly, we got sued. The Attorney General’s Office has reached a settlement agreement that the agency argues could potentially save taxpayers a ton of money by avoiding trial in federal court.Attorney General Gentner Drummond knows what every other sane taxpayer knows. If we go to trial, this is an indefensible case that we’re going to lose. He’s trying to mitigate the financial damage.But instead of having a serious, organic conversation about the merits of the settlement, Oklahomans got a carefully contrived, scripted performance.On one side of the table sat Stitt, seemingly ticking off a lengthy list of prepared questions for his self-appointed mental health commissioner.Across the table sat our mental health commissioner, Allie Friesen, who “coincidentally” appeared to have her own prepared answers ...
