Tulsa World
By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau
Published: 10/8/2010 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 10/8/2010 5:44 AM
OKLAHOMA CITY - Members of a legislative panel grilled state agency representatives Thursday about legal costs and the practice of hiring outside attorneys.
The House Judiciary Committee, at the request of Rep. Mark McCullough, R-Sapulpa, is studying agency legal costs. McCullough said it is an area of government that has not received much scrutiny.
The study was "not meant to be a vendetta or witch hunt to make people look bad," he said.
State agencies might be able to reduce some costs if staff members in the Attorney General's Office handled the court cases and legal issues, McCullough said.
Charlie Price, a spokesman for Attorney General Drew Edmondson, said: "Every year we go to the Legislature and ask for more money and more people. It has been an ongoing issue for us for some time."
Gay Tudor, chief of the general counsel section for Edmondson's office, said her agency could handle many of the agencies' legal functions but would need more staff to do so... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Fri, October 8, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski