A long line of white state cars parked next to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s headquarters at the Jim Thorpe building will soon to be part of another surplus auction by the state government.
They won’t be part of the July 7 Surplus and Save auction scheduled by the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. The July 7 event, as reported earlier this week by OK Energy Today, will include office furniture, equipment and supplies to be sold at an online auction.
“Those vehicles will be part of an online surplus auction in the near future. They are not included in the July 7 auction,” explained Trey Davis, spokesman for the Corporation Commission.
He explained decals, lights and other add-on equipment will have to be removed from the vehicles before they will be available for auction.
The auction of the fleet of cars is the result of an executive order signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt on May 8 as part of his re-initiation of “an aggressive push to downsize the state fleet.”
The governor, in his order said the decision was made “after it was brought back to my attention that at least hundreds of state-owned vehicles were being underutilized and were unnecessary to the performance of government functions.”
Stitt said since he started the original push, the state was able to downsize its fleet of vehicles by more than 350 vehicles.
“—and I am confident there is more work to be done in this context,” he said in announcing the order.
The Corporation Commission has a fleet of 232 vehicles, according to its response to the order. At least 127 are in the commission’s Transportation Division where at least 42 will be put into surplus and sold.
A new administrative order was put into effect in 2023 in which the division’s CLEET Motor carrier Enforcement Officers were required to park their cars at weigh stations and Ports of Entry.
The Petroleum Storage Tank Division has 21 vehicles and will keep them in 2024 because its inspectors are assigned to carry out inspections, testing, calibration and compliance of fuel and fuel storage facilities.
The commission’s Oil and Gas Division will go from 78 vehicles in 2023 to 97 in the coming year as field inspectors use them to perform their tasks of rig and well inspections, well plugging, saltwater disposals inspections and environmental safety, pollution and nonpollution complaints.
The date for the eventual auction of the surplus vehicles has not been released by OMES.
