Coates, Leftwich Tee Off On CIB

From The Senate Communications Division ~ Senate Business and Labor Committee co-chairs, Senators Debbe Leftwich and Harry Coates, are furious with the actions taken by the Construction Industries Board (CIB) Thursday during its July meeting and are considering requesting an audit of the agency. The legislators, while pleased to see a permanent administrator hired, were disappointed by the board’s decision to retain Jerry Regier as the board’s Interim Administrator.

“We’re glad to see the board finally make a decision on a permanent director. Maybe now they can get on with the business at hand,” said Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City.

Coates said he was appalled by the CIB’s willingness to waste the taxpayers’ and industry’s money especially during such uncertain economic times.

“This is a clear manipulation of our state’s retirement system. It has allowed a bureaucrat to tap into the state’s retirement system at a time when we can’t afford to provide state employees a raise nor retired educators an adequate cost-of-living increase,” said Coates, R-Seminole. “We believe that the actions of the CIB are a textbook case of governmental sprawl that occurs when we create new agencies and don’t provide adequate oversight. If the CIB has enough money to make these kinds of hiring decisions, perhaps they should consider reducing the costs of licenses for Oklahoma’s hardworking trades people and contractors.”

The legislators were also bothered by the turnout for the meeting. In 2007, Coates authored SB 2131, effective July 1 of this month, to decrease the number of board members from eleven to seven in order to ensure that most, if not all, of the members attended the monthly meetings. The pair, therefore, did not understand why only five board members were present for such an important vote for the agency regarding the immediate firing of Regier. The final vote was 3 to 2 to keep Regier. The legislators questioned why two of the members did not show up for the job they were appointed to do and were concerned that they were possibly persuaded, by those who favored Regier’s continued employment, to not attend the meeting in order to ensure the outcome of the vote.

Since bringing the actions of the CIB to light earlier this month, the legislators have received numerous emails and phone calls from state employees and private citizens concerned about the situation. Based on the information they are receiving, Leftwich and Coates believe an audit may be in order.

“Since this whole thing started, several people have contacted our offices and brought forth alarming information. We believe it’s in the best interest of the state and, quite frankly, the new director for us to request a performance audit of the CIB,” said Leftwich.

Coates further said the situation has brought to light the need for greater oversight and possibly new laws to help prevent such inappropriate hiring practices among state agencies in the future. He pointed out that the previous administrator was fired in November giving the board seven months to consider applicants for the permanent position and then chose to hire both a temporary and permanent administrator within two weeks – a situation Coates believes stemmed from a lack of proper oversight.

“We still believe that Mr. Regier and others orchestrated his hiring solely for the purpose of making him eligible to draw state retirement. It’s just too strange - they claimed they needed a temporary administrator because of the backlog of work. Obviously they were behind because they took way too long to fill the position. And why did it take them so long when they had so many highly-qualified applicants?” said Coates.

“We find it ironic that within a week of the situation being exposed, they were able to hire a permanent administrator. This whole mess has made us realize that besides requesting an audit, we also need to look at our state laws to see how we can prevent these types of shenanigans from happening in the future. At the very least we’re going to keep a closer eye on this agency.”

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Regier Retained By CIB In 3-2 Vote

Jerry Regier has been retained as interim administrator of the Construction Industries Board despite a call by two legislators that he not be hired.

The board voted Thursday to retain Regier despite criticism that he got the job as a favor to qualify him for retirement benefits.

The vote by the Construction Industries Board was 3-2 against a motion to fire Regier, who has been defended by board Chairman Larry Shea.

The board also voted 4-1 to hire a permanent administrator at a salary of $85,000 a year, but did not release his name pending further negotiations with the candidate.

Regier defended himself from charges made by Senators Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, and Harry Coates, R-Seminole.

Regier said he is trying to clear up a backlog of work because of delays in hiring an administrator. He said rumors that the board hired him as a favor were not true. "This is a sham job, and none of you did this as a favor for me," he said. "I was asked by you, the board, unanimously to come and assist for an intense short period. I serve at the pleasure of the board. I will serve as long as you ask me to, and if you decide you do not want me to serve, then I am done and you can run this operation yourself until you get a new administrator."

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Wesselhoft Rips Coates, Leftwich

Rep. Paul Wesselhöft, R-Moore, issued the following statement today in response to calls for the firing of Jerry Regier, interim director of the Oklahoma Construction Industry:

“It has been appalling to read the recent attacks on one of Oklahoma’s most honorable sons, Jerry Regier. State Senators Debbe Leftwich (D) Oklahoma City, and Harry Coates (R) Seminole have called into question the merits of the Oklahoma Construction Industry Board’s (CIB) hiring of Regier as its interim director.

“Jerry Regier has an impressive history of success and accomplishment guiding and resurrecting countless programs and agencies. Amongst his accomplishments, Mr. Regier was the founding President and driving force behind the Family Research Council; an early Washington, DC watchdog organization. In Oklahoma, he took the reigns of the Department of Health and Human Services at a time of crisis, righted the ship, and uncovered numerous ghost employees. He appointed me to head Oklahoma’s new abstinence initiative, in which we successfully lowered the teen and out of wedlock birth rates.

“For the State of Florida, he restructured the Department of Children and Families, successfully reducing a backlog of 30,000 social services cases and increasing adoptions by some 150 percent. He put in place a new foster care system which had literally lost children in the past.

“One must wonder why Senators Leftwich and Coates would call for the ouster of the man who in 2001 was named Administrator of the Year in Oklahoma by the American Society of Public Administration (Oklahoma Chapter). They had not said one word about the CIB for the past 8 months since Boyd West had been fired as the Administrator…so why now? Clearly it seems to be politically motivated.

“As the Chairman of the Industry and Labor Committee, in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, I understand the critical need for quality leadership within our construction industry at this point in time. Jerry Regier is the right man, at the right time for this post. He has been a problem solver in a wide range of administrative posts, from local government up to multiple Federal posts under three different Presidents. Many of these agencies were in states of crisis, and Jerry succeeded in bringing each situation encountered to a positive and productive resolution. There should be no doubt that a similar result will occur for the CIB should Mr. Regier be allowed to continue in his capacity as Interim Director. The Board should not allow these Senators to now become Administrators of an Executive branch agency, but should do what is right for the good of the CIB.”

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Legislators Seek Regier's Ouster

State Senators Debbe Leftwich and Harry Coates called on the Construction Industries Board (CIB) today to remove Jerry Regier as the agency's Interim Director. Regier was hired last week - a move the two legislators believe to be pointless.

"Senator Coates and I are adamantly opposed to the board hiring an interim director. There is no logical reason why they shouldn't have hired a permanent director. They're wasting time and money," said Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City. "We believe the board made an interim position to help Regier, a former CIB director, start drawing state retirement. That's unfair to the other applicants, and it wasn't a responsible move by the board.”

According to the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), Regier would not be eligible for state retirement without getting back on the state payroll. According to records, he requested a retirement calculation from OPERS on June 25 and was then hired by CIB on June 30.

"I'm so sick of the good 'ole boy system. This is a clear case of an agency losing sight of their responsibilities and bending the rules to help a friend. They wasted several months only to hire someone who will be there temporarily and then they'll have to go through the whole hiring process again and train a new person," said Coates, R-Seminole. "As a taxpayer, I'm sick of all the unscrupulous actions of state officials who do things such as this to help their friends. We have to do what we can to rid our state government of inefficient practices and this is a blatant example of one. It's just not acceptable."

If Regier had not been put back on the state payroll, he would have only been eligible to receive his personal contributions into the state retirement system. By CIB hiring Regier, they have unnecessarily cost the taxpayers an additional minimum of $1,236 per month to fund his retirement, Leftwich and Coates said.

The board will next meet on July 17, and Leftwich and Coates strongly urge them to hire a permanent director from their list of local qualified applicants.

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