Tulsa County Commissioners are exploring expanding citizen access to public information like the state Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT). The Tulsa County effort proposed by current Commission Chairman Lonnie Sims (R-Dist.2) is named Office of Government Efficiency and Transparency (OGET) and would be tasked with alerting County Government and the public of national, state, and local changes that could potentially impact County services and maintain regular reporting on programs and services provided by Tulsa County.
As Republicans dig out from 100 years of Democrat control in Oklahoma, transparency and accountability have been a common theme and differentiating approach earning constituent support statewide. The LOFT portal allows anyone to research policy ideas, reports, and agency recommendations.
The vision statement for LOFT commits the effort to, “provide timely, objective, factual, non-partisan, and easily understood information to facilitate informed decision-making and to ensure government spending is efficient and transparent, adds value and delivers intended outcomes.
“LOFT will analyze performance outcomes, identify programmatic and operational improvements, identify duplication of services across state entities, and examine the efficacy of expenditures to an entity’s mission. LOFT strives to become a foundational resource to assist the State Legislature’s work, serving as a partner to both state governmental entities and lawmakers, with a shared goal of improving state government,” the statement concludes.
Commissioner Sims said, “Tulsa County’s OGET would align with President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as well as the state’s LOFT program. The point is to move accurate information clearly and concisely among constituent groups, increase efficiency of government, grow public understanding, and address questions on specific programs and services.”
While Tulsa County has a main online portal and some individual offices also maintain portals to their specific areas of responsibility, there is no offering at the County level tracking, compiling and tracking progress of programs available on an easy-to-use dashboard.
Commissioner Sims said, “That’s what we want to do. It is a GET INFORMATION effort both for the County Commission and for the public.
The draft job description describes the role as focusing on “advancing the transparency, performance, cost-effectiveness, and service quality of county operations, with a strong emphasis on fostering collaboration and streamlining processes to better serve Tulsa County residents.”
