"He's acting like a king": Lawmaker sues Oklahoma governor
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - A lawmaker has filed a lawsuit against Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt claiming overreach.
The lawmaker is Representative Andy Fugate (D-Del City). It's in response to the governor's executive order that sent state workers back to the office and put a stop to remote work.
"He's acting like a king," said Rep. Fugate.
The lawsuit is looking for a preliminary injunction as soon as possible. It challenges the order, stating that Stitt "simply doesn't have the power under the Oklahoma Constitution to make such a law. It's entirely within the purview of the legislature."
The order was signed at the end of 2024 but its due date to bring workers back to the office ended on February 2, 2025.
"The governor's executive order has a direct cost to taxpayers. It has a direct cost to human capital. And it is an erosion of the separation of powers established in our constitution," said Rep. Fugate.
In January, the Oklahoma Department of Health Commissioner Keith Lee told the Senate that the cost to bring back workers to the physical office would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Lee also made it clear that they could try to find the funds through possible federal means if they could.
News 4 reached out to DHS on Friday to see if they have the numbers on employees before and after the order's end date. They said they are working on getting that information.
The lawsuit claimed that "DHS (with more than 6,200 employees) had nearly half (44%) of its workforce teleworking in fiscal year 2024. This practice arose partly from early pandemic office closures and embedded social services placements across the state."
Fugate claimed that "according to Oklahoma's Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) budget documents for fiscal year 2024, nearly 30% of their employees worked fully remote, and 60% were on a hybrid schedule. With the new order, these arrangements face curtailment."
News 4 reached out to OMES to confirm this and to see the fiscal impact. They responded that they have until March 31 to gather all of the agency's data surrounding this and are continuing to get responses from around the state.
Governor Stitt responded to the lawsuit and said:
"Typical big government, democrat behavior by Rep. Fugate. Suing to let people stay home and not work? That's insane. State employees work for the taxpayer. The data is clear, employees are more productive and accountable when they are working in the office. For the good of the taxpayer, work from home is over."
"He wants to make this into some partisan issue. It's not. If this is the right policy for the state of Oklahoma, the legislature can enact it. That's our job," said Rep. Fugate in response.