 | As we await the first 6 performance audits that were commissioned by the Agency Performance & Accountability Commission(APAC); it would be helpful to understand the private sector members of the commission. Jeff Raymond of Oklahoma Watch recently published an excellent set of biographies on each of them. None of these members are being paid for their work, including monthly meetings at the state capitol.
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 J. Michael Adcock Adcock is a Shawnee attorney and chairman of the Unit Corp. board of directors. He has extensive experience in banking, serving as the chair of Arvest Bank in Shawnee until January 2018, when it became part of Arvest Bank in Oklahoma City, according to Bloomberg. Adcock manages a private trust that has investments in real estate, oil and gas, and other areas. He also owns Central Disposal LLC, a solid waste management company that serves Shawnee and Prague. Adcock has given more than $20,000 to state races since 2012. More than $15,000 of his contributions have gone to the Unit Corp. political action committee. He also gave $1,000 to former Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett’s gubernatorial bid and $750 to Sen. Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee.  Jeff Hutson Hutson is internal audit manager for First Fidelity Bank. He is an Edmond resident.  Robert Sullivan The Tulsa oilman, who owns Sullivan and Company, served as chairman of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association in 2012 and ran for governor in 2006. He lost in the Republican primary to eventual nominee, former U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook, wo lost in the general election to incumbent Gov. Brad Henry. Sullivan’s campaign centered around government size and efficiency, particularly the state Department of Education. Robert Sullivan “I am determined to shrink the size of state government,” he told the Tulsa World in a 2006 story on his candidacy. To do so, Sullivan said, he would eliminate the state income tax and reduce state government through attrition. Sullivan has advocated for the oil and gas industry, both through OIPA and as the owner of an independent oil and gas company. In June 2012, he testified before a U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee about what he saw as “personal agendas” and regulatory overreach at the Environmental Protection Agency. Sullivan has been a regular donor to state races in recent years. He gave $1,500 to Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb’s gubernatorial campaign; $2,000 to Oklahoma Deserves Better, which opposed 2016’s State Question 779, which proposed a sales tax hike for education; and $10,000 to Unit Corp’s political action committee. (Fellow commission member J. Michael Adcock also has a Unit Corp. connection. He serves as the chairman of the oil and gas company’s board of directors.) Sullivan has given more than $37,000 since 2012. Sullivan is on the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs board of directors, as is fellow commission member Dr. Douglas Beall. Sullivan also serves as a special advisor on economic development to Gov. Mary Fallin. Sullivan directly addressed the role of the private sector in addressing government inefficiencies in a July 2017 column in the Tulsa World. “If more private sector planners and managers can be drawn into the process of helping to solve our state’s problems, perhaps we can all enjoy more effective results in state governance,” he wrote. |  Appointed by House Speaker Charles McCall: Dr. Douglas Beall Beall is chief of radiology services at Clinical Radiology of Oklahoma and is on the staff of Oklahoma Spine Hospital. He is a former Air Force major and serves on the OCPA board. Beall has donated approximately $7,500 since 2015 to state candidates and PACs, including $2,700 to Pinnell and $2,504 to Lamb. Doctors with the Oklahoma Spine Hospital have made hundreds of thousands of dol  TC Burgin Burgin is a CPA and president of an Oklahoma City accounting firm. He serves as chair of the Insurance Committee with the Oklahoma Society of Certified Public Accountants. He has donated $510 to an accounting industry PAC and two Republican legislative candidates since 2015. Thomas Richards  Tom Richards Richards is a certified public accountant and a managing director of Triton Value Partners Southwest, a consulting and equity firm that works with a range of industries. “We tell it like it is even if management doesn’t want to hear it,” the Triton website says. Richards previously was the executive vice president of operations and chief financial officer of Express Services. He also served on the staffing company’s board. Richards has served on the boards of The Children’s Center Rehabilitation Hospital in Bethany and Oklahoma Christian School in Edmond. He is the chief financial officer of the Meat House, an Edmond meat market, and AmeriClaim, an insurance claims-adjusting firm. |  Appointed by Senate Pro Tempore Mike Schulz Bob Anderson Anderson is a former commissioner of the Oklahoma Tax Commission. Former Gov. Henry Bellmon appointed him in 1987. Then-Gov. Frank Keating reappointed him in 1995. Anderson was the agency’s first Republican commissioner, The Oklahoman reported. He left the Tax Commission in 2001. Anderson is an Enid native and served in the state House of Representatives from 1969 to 1982. He was part of a tax reform task force in 2002 that recommended lowering the state’s income and capital gains taxes while raising taxes on cigarettes, gasoline and certain professional services.  Jay Cowart Cowart is an Altus resident and a cotton co-op vice president. He is the secretary of the Oklahoma Cotton Council and has a degree in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University. Cowart gave $75 to Lamb’s gubernatorial bid and $1,350 to a cotton industry PACs.  John O’Connor Tulsa attorney John O’Connor was recently nominated for U.S. District judge in Oklahoma. O’Connor is a shareholder in the Hall Estill law firm. He has concentrated his practice in the areas of corporate and business law. He serves on the board of Oklahoma State University-Tulsa and is past president of the Rotary Club of Tulsa. O’Connor has donated $3,550 to state races since 2012, including $1,250 to Attorney General Mike Hunter’s reelection campaign and $1,000 to Matt Pinnell’s campaign for lieutenant governor. He also gave $1,000 to Kevin Hern, a candidate for Tulsa’s 1st congressional district, and $2,000 to U.S. Sen. James Lankford. |
