Attention all referees, life guards and traffic cops! Oklahoma lawmakers want to talk with you about wasteful spending in state government.
Via an obscure local political blog:
Three House members want state employees to let them know of any waste, fraud or abuse within state agencies. State Representatives Kevin Calvey, Bobby Cleveland and Tom Gann made the call for whistleblowers to email tips about possible mismanagement of funds.
“Our many hardworking and diligent state employees and vendors are as concerned about wasteful state spending as most Oklahomans,” said the representatives in a statement. “We encourage these whistleblowers to contact us at kevin.calvey@okhouse.gov, bobby.cleveland@okhouse.gov, and/or tom.gann@okhouse.gov with tips on exposing wasteful spending. We imagine the House Special Investigative Committee as a whole will also invite such tips, and we look forward to working with other members of the committee.”
Yeah, that's right. If you notice any wasteful spending in state government, contact the people who work in the most accountable and efficient part of our government – the Oklahoma legislature. I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of things and make sure everything is swept under the rug as quietly as possible. They'll also keep their sources confidential:
Calvey promises protection for the whistleblowers who come forward.
“I will protect the privacy of all whistleblowers,” said Calvey. “That will be my priority concern, and I’m confident my colleagues will also keep sources confidential.”
I'm a natural skeptic, so forgive me for not trusting the word of a man like Kevin Calvey, a hypocrite who voted to double-ban assisted suicide but also threatened to set himself on fire. If Calvey wants to win over a whistleblower's trust, he should take things a step further and introduce legislation that will prevent District Attorneys from prosecuting whistleblowers, just like he did for lawmakers in 2015:
Representative Kevin Calvey (R – Oklahoma City) wants to make it official and make it illegal to arrest any state officials accused of a public offense.
Representative Calvey has introduced House Bill 2206, which would prohibit Oklahoma’s district attorneys from prosecuting state officials, granting that power exclusively to the state’s Attorney General. This would exempt lawmakers from prosecution of nearly any crimes that are normally handled at the local level...
Rep. Calvey, said that he filed the bill because there is “malicious prosecution” of politicians. He cited the prosecution in Texas of former Gov. Rick Perry. But Calvey is in Oklahoma, and Perry is no longer in office, though he is fighting an abuse-of-power indictment that he says is politically motivated.
While Calvey says he doesn’t think anything “so outrageous” would happen in Oklahoma, he adds “who knows who will get elected to those offices in the future? I do think it’s just better to prevent that kind of thing from ever arising… The point is to not allow a locally elected official to effectively have undue influence over statewide policy.”
In the name of Ralph Shortey, Bryce Marlatt, Kyle Loveless, Rick Brinkley and all our other disgraced lawmakers, I'm glad Calvey's law never passed.
Anyway, I guess if you have any secrets about Oklahoma government you'd like to share with three theocratic ideological conservatives, let them know. If you do, be sure to BCC (tips@thelostogle) us so we can get to the bottom of it, too.
