Feb. 3, 2020
February 3 marked the start of the 57th Oklahoma Legislature’s second regular session. With more than 4,500 pieces of legislation up for consideration, it’s going to be an extremely busy session. The day began with Gov. Kevin Stitt’s annual State of the State address which included his proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
This session, I’ll be authoring 20 bills, seven of those bills are carry over bills from last session.
Here are some of the bills I filed this session:
SB 1624 shortens the time period before which a taxpayer may file a protest against any alleged illegality of the county budget submitted to the State Auditor and Inspector from 15 days to 5 days.
SB 1625 authorizes destruction of court records related to a domestic relations case in which a minor child is involved after twenty years, and records related to a domestic relations case that does not involve a minor child after 10 years. Records pertaining to protective orders may be destroyed one year after the case was dismissed and no further action taken in the case, or ten years after the order was issued.
SB 1661 requires unwanted debris to contain items that identify an individual person before a rebuttable presumption is created as it relates to a person who deliberately places or discards garbage or other deleterious substance on any public or private property. The measure also shifts the managing authority for the reward fund related to enforcing this law from the board of county commissioners to the county clerk. The measure provides anonymity to any person reporting a violation.
SB 1672 authorizes volunteer firefighters to equip their personal vehicles with emergency flashing red or white lights provided the local fire chief authorizes the mounting of such equipment. The authorization for such equipment must include a signed, written statement of use by the volunteer firefighter from the local fire chief.
Under SB 1705, beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, the assessment(s) required to graduate from a public high school with a standard diploma will be selected by each school district from a list of Board-approved assessments that have received peer review approval for high school assessments pursuant to the Every Student Succeeds Act. The official state assessment(s) will be the one(s) selected by a majority of school districts over the previous three years. Each school district will notify the Board in writing of its preferred assessment(s) by August 1 of each school year. School districts that don’t notify the Board of their preference will use the official state assessment(s).
SB 1729 relates to the duties of county purchasing agents and procedures for county government operations. It also modifies certain exception from bidding procedures.
SB 1732 would authorize the board of county commissioners to establish a supplemental identification program for county resident veterans and expend funds toward county veteran programs or benefits.
SB 1748 would create a definition and criteria for the term “primarily engaged” as it relates to inpatient hospital services. It would require the State Commissioner of Health to review current law and rules relating to posting of signage by hospitals. SB 1748 would also require a hospital with an emergency department to adopt certain policies and post certain information in the emergency department and on the facility’s website.
SB 1768 would allow a health district to be comprised of multiple county health departments operating under agreement to share resources to enhance health outcomes for the member counties, providing costs are allocated in proportion to resources utilized by each county. It would also allow the board of health or board of county commissioners of any county to contract with the board of health or board of county commissioners of any county or the State Department of Health to provide the county any and all public health services.
SB 1772 would allow a hospital that has ceased operations and has relinquished the hospital’s license but is seeking to reopen and obtain a new license from the State Department of Health to receive an exemption to hospital building codes established by rules of the State Commissioner of Health if they meet certain qualifications.
SB 1802 modifies requirements for the destruction of certain court records including protective orders and domestic cases.
Again, this year, I’ll be serving as the Vice Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education as well as the Agriculture and Wildlife, Appropriations, Education, and Veterans and Military Affairs Committees.
At the State Senate, I can be reached by writing to Senator Chris Kidd, State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 427, Oklahoma City, OK 73105, emailing me at kidd@oksenate.gov, or by calling
(405) 521-5563 and speaking to my assistant Suzanne Earnest.