Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond on his first 100 days in office

Posted: Apr 17, 2023 / 06:27 PM CDT

Updated: Apr 17, 2023 / 06:34 PM CDT

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – After his first 100 days in office, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond explained on Monday the progress he’s made and what’s in store for the future.

“Well, I only had 208 weeks so I covered each week, we’ve got a large agenda to accomplish,” Drummond said in an interview on Monday.

Part two of the interview:

Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen & Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT)

In April, AG Drummond issued a formal opinion affirming a recent report by the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) that found shortcomings in state purchasing oversight.

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In March of 2020, officials say Swadley’s Bar-B-Q entered into an exclusive contract with Oklahoma State Department of Tourism and Recreation to provide restaurants at five state parks. That contract was terminated in April 2022 after Swadley’s was accused fraudulent activity and improper bidding practices.

In January, AG Drummond announced he would be working alongside the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to look into the state park restaurants scandal.

State Rep. Ryan Martinez, R-Edmond, requested the opinion after the LOFT report found state agencies spending more than $3 billion without oversight during Fiscal Year 2022.

Drummond discussed LOFT on Monday and the ways his office is working to develop more oversight when it comes to state spending.

“So we have the Central Purchasing Act and we have OMES and that’s the responsibility of that director to oversee state expenditures so the exceptions have swallowed the rule. So, they have overseen $538 million, but yet $3 billion slipped through the cracks, not to say it’s been misspent, but it has just not been accounted for nor has it been reviewed or audited.” said Drummond.

Oklahoma Education

In January, Gov. Kevin Stitt re-appointed Superintendent Ryan Walter to hold the position of Secretary of Education. Oklahoma Senator Greg Treat later asked Drummond if Walters could hold both offices at the same time.

Drummond responded to Treat in a letter dated March 7 saying that he could not.

On Monday, Drummond discussed his opinion on Supt. Ryan Walters and the Board of Education’s decisions regarding offensive library books.

“I’m not a policy maker, I’m just the umpire who calls balls and strikes,” Drummond said.

“We in Oklahoma complain that the federal government and its bureaucracy overreaches, well we have state government that has bureaucracy that overreaches and in this case, the State Board of Education went outside the boundaries and started acting like the legislature. I was asked by a legislator to render an opinion, I did, they went too far, foul ball.”

Drummond added that all public schools have been responsible and have removed offensive books from libraries.

Richard Glossip

Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma death-row inmate, was convicted of murder for the 1997 death of motel owner Barry Van Treese, though Glossip wasn’t the actual killer.

The man who killed Van Treese, Justin Sneed, testified that Glossip hired him for the murder.

In January, AG Drummond ordered an independent counsel to review Glossip death penalty case. Drummond’s execution delay request was later approved by a district judge.

Drummond noted on Monday that there were details that were not originally disclosed and that is why he requested for the case to be reviewed.

“The most severe and significant thing that a state can do is take the life of one of its citizens.” Drummond said. “In this instance, we have to air toward the most conservative approach. There were certain facts that weren’t disclosed during the trial and when you look at the totality of the evidence, this is something we need jurors to revisit and I’ve asked for the Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate the judgment, send it back to Oklahoma County.”

Illegal Marijuana Grows

Shortly after AG Drummond took office in January, he announced priorities he planned to address while in office.

One of those priorities was eliminating illegal marijuana growing operations in the state. According to Drummond, rural Oklahoma has been plagued by a rush of illegal marijuana growing operations.

“These operations are in direct violation of our laws,” Drummond said in January. “I look forward to partnering with law enforcement agencies across the state to rid Oklahoma of illegal operations that threaten public safety and damage rural communities. Rural Oklahoma cannot keep paying the price for those who circumvent the law.”

On Monday, Drummond talked about why he feels it’s important to get illegal marijuana grows under control.

“So, if we don’t get our arms around illegal grows right now, we will have no compelling reason for our children and grandchildren to stay in the state. We have lost control” said Drummond.

“So, the legislature recognizes that, my office has been empowered to do some great things and we’re going to coalesce with Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and other state agencies to find not just the illegal grow, but the people behind the illegal grow to take not just their guns and their cars and their plants, but also their money and their land.”

Tribal Relationships

Also on that list of priorities was to improve relations with Oklahoma’s Native American tribes.

“Oklahoma’s relationship with our great tribal nations has been damaged by divisive rhetoric and combative litigation,” Drummond said in January. “Oklahoma must forge commonsense agreements with our tribal brothers and sisters that respect their sovereignty and ensure public safety. This is very simple and achievable; we all want good people protected and bad people in jail.”

On Monday, Drummond gave an update on how his office has been working to achieve that.

“It’s going well, we’ve done a lot of damage with our Native American brothers and sisters in Oklahoma and, you know, these 39 tribes are us.” Drummond said. “I’ve been spending the last 100 days reaching out to tribal leaders and negotiating with their designees to find a solution to the criminal justice disconnect between the Oklahoma investigatory and prosecution side and the Native Americans.”