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Last week, former OSDH
Chief Financial Officer Mike Romero tendered his resignation via letter that he
immediately made public. This letter made some very strong false accusations
against multiple members of the OSDH Leadership team. Although we have always
tried to be positive and forward-looking as we right the course of the agency,
due to the serious nature of many of the statements in Mr. Romeo’s letter, and
because we operate in fact, not baseless innuendo, we are providing the
following response.
Over the past few weeks,
OSDH Leadership has become aware of multiple concerns regarding our Chief
Financial Officer Mike Romero’s administration of OSDH's Financial Services
division. Specifically, we became aware of procurement delays, instances
in which posting payments are 3-4 weeks delayed, and receivables and payables
are not timely addressed. On January 26, 2018, OSDH was notified the Oklahoma
Employment Security Commission is terminating our ability to pay reimbursement
costs for former OSDH employees who receive unemployment benefits. OSDH failed to pay approximately $26,343,
including one invoice due as recently as November 27, 2017.
Information relevant to
these and other significant issues was not being elevated by Mr. Romero to
either the Interim Commissioner or others for review or action. As
leadership began a dialogue with Mr. Romero to address these issues, he began
reacting defensively and aggressively, as is evidenced by his January 28, 2018,
response to Denise Northrup’s memo. The memo detailed the proper payroll
processes OMES and OSDH Leadership, including Mr. Romero, had previously agreed
upon. Mr. Romero's independent response to a memo addressed to Commissioner
Doerflinger was shocking- never before had Romero voiced criticism of various
agency personnel and projects. Because of this out of character response,
Interim Commissioner Doerflinger asked Mr. Romero to meet with him in the
Commissioner's office on Wednesday, January 31st. The purpose for the in person meeting was to
gain an understanding of Romero's abrupt change in behavior and the issues with
Mr. Romero’s management of the Financial Services division.
As detailed in his
resignation letter, it was at this meeting Mr. Romero contends Interim
Commissioner informed him that his allegations in his responsive memo did not
coincide with the ‘testimony’ of another OSDH employee. Mr. Romero then
alleges OSDH General Counsel, Julie Ezell, must have breached some sort of
confidentiality in order for the Interim Commissioner to know the allegations
in Mr. Romero’s memo were incorrect. This allegation is categorically
false. Rather, multiple members of OSDH leadership were able to
immediately identify the factual errors and inconsistencies in Mr. Romero’s
responsive memo on the face of the document due to their knowledge of the OSDH
payroll process and all of the relevant facts of the past few months. This information is known to multiple people in the agency by virtue of their
job duties and as we work to correct errors made by the previous
administration.
Interim Commissioner
Doerflinger and Ms. Ezell are both very disappointed Mr. Romero made such
unfounded and threatening accusations against them as they have both worked
tirelessly to support Mr. Romero and the important work he has done at
OSDH. Regardless of current circumstances, Mr. Romero played a key role in
bringing to light financial problems at OSDH and the agency will always be
better off because of his intervention.
Equally disappointing is
the response of the Special Investigation Committee Chairman Josh Cockroft to
this series of events. Chairman Cockroft
was apparently eager to take as fact all of the allegations made by Mr. Romero
against Interim Commissioner Doerflinger and OSDH General Counsel Julie Ezell,
without any attempt to verify the accusations or engage Doerflinger and Ezell
in dialogue. After Mr. Romero’s
resignation, Chairman Cockroft indicates that Mr. Romero immediately came to
Chairman Cockroft’s office to discuss his resignation. Chairman Cockroft almost immediately took to
social media to spread false facts including stating that Interim Commissioner
Doerflinger was “shaking in rage towards a state employee for simply doing his
job.” Additionally, Chairman Cockroft
again raised the possibility of Ms. Ezell “sharing confidential testimony from
a grand jury proceeding” on social media without an attempt to first contact
Ms. Ezell to discuss the absurd allegation. Much faith and trust has been put into the Special Investigative
Committee to represent the interests of Oklahomans in making recommendations to
ensure the type of mismanagement conducted by previous OSDH administration does
not reoccur. It is deeply troubling that
rather than being focused on ascertaining the truth, the Chairman of the Committee
immediately takes as true slanderous allegations with no attempt to verify
their accuracy.
OSDH leadership is
continuing to work as quickly as possible to rectify the financial
mismanagement of the agency. Immediately, the agency will be beginning
the process to issue a request for proposals to engage a firm to conduct a full
financial audit in light of previous and recent concerns. Additionally, Chief Operating Officer Kim
Bailey will oversee the Financial Services division and work with the outstanding
staff in that division, as we work to identify and rectify all outstanding
issues. We will maintain our course of transparency and fiscal efficiency
as we continue our task of righting and right-sizing the agency.
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