As Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners consider financial relief for Oklahoma Gas and Electric over its natural gas costs endured during the February winter storm, a former legislator interjects again his belief that Commissioner Todd Hiett should be removed from office over a conflict of interest.
Dr. James Michael Ritze, once a Republican Representative who served 10 years in the House for Tulsa and Wagoner Counties filed a public comment in the OGE relief case (PUD 202100072).
He said the utility’s legitimacy of securitization cases and the affordability of utility bills for millions of ratepayers “are both threatened by the Oklahoma Attorney General’s failure to act against blatant public corruption.”
Ritze attempted last summer to become involved in a Supreme Court case in which he claimed that Commissioner Hiett should be forced out of office because he also is a Director at the SpiritBank in Tulsa.
Ritze contended then that by serving as a Director of SpiritBank and Spirit Holding Company, Hiett undertook fiduciary duties to the bank in violation of the state Constitution. The former legislator was removed from the case by the court.
The court eventually ruled if Hiett were to be removed from office, the proper efforts would have to be taken by the District Attorney or the Attorney General. It did not rule on the legality or constitutionality of the claims made against Hiett by Ritze and another former legislator, Mike Reynolds of Oklahoma City.
In a September 20, 2021 filing with the Corporation Commission, Reynolds called on Attorney General John O’Connor to “stand up for the law and the Constitution and against brazen public corruption.”
O’Connor has never commented publicly about the case. Commissioner Hiett has denied wrongdoing and explained he recuses himself from any financial decisions made by the bank that might involve oil and gas operations and other energy matters that might also eventually involve the Corporation Commission.