At the end of this month, the Oklahoma County Social Services Department is disbanding, but the Senator who authored the bill spurring the dissolution says the legislation he pushed is not being correctly interpreted.
The county’s Social Services Department has historically operated the Oklahoma County Pharmacy, Homeless Services and the Gatekeeper Program for the elderly. After October 31, the overarching structure housing those programs will no longer exist.
Senate Bill 1931, which passed the last legislative session, repealed laws “relating to the care of indigent persons by the county and county commissioners.”
With authorizing statutes no longer in place, Social Services Department Director Christi Jernigan-Marshall said the job she has worked for the last 34 years will no longer exist.
Bill author Sen. Chris Kidd, R-Waurika, said the closure of the Oklahoma County Social Services Department was not his intention, nor was it necessitated by law.
“[The county] could offer these services still. We just removed the mandate,” Kidd said. “Simple as that, black and white, they can offer those services that they want.”
He said he wanted to repeal the mandate because he knew indigent care was something his home county, Jefferson County, couldn’t afford.
“You could say that language became obsolete in July of 1936 when Article 25 was added to the Constitution, which created the state welfare program,” Kidd said. “Therefore, no counties needed to offer that service and no counties did unless they wanted to.”
Cleveland County Commissioner Jacob McHughes, who brought the bill to Kidd and Rep. Josh Cantrell, R-Kingston, made a similar argument.
“These laws were put in back in 1910 probably when we had a handful two or three indigent but as we examined it, and you look at the layers of state and federal government, there's programs out there that are available right here in the state of Oklahoma,” he said.
The bill sailed through the legislature to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s desk in April when he signed it.
Jerrnigan-Marshall worked with Commissioner Joe Blough to amend the law before it passed in an effort to keep her office open. She said they contacted District Attorney Vicki Behenna’s office for a formal opinion about how the county needed to proceed.
“The reply, the gist of it, was that the county has to have specific statutory authority for any services that they provide,” Director Christi Jerrnigan-Marshall said. “So any activity that was specifically authorized by statute and then repealed, then is no longer authorized.”
Behenna’s office declined to comment.
“I would refer you to the Board of County commissioners because that decision was made by them,” spokesperson Brook Arbeitman said.
Jerrnigan-Marshall said the ruling from the DA removed Oklahoma County commissioners’ ability to keep the office open.
“There was not a decision left for them to make,” she said.
Kidd argues there are things done in counties all the time that aren’t expressly outlined by law.
However, Oklahoma follows Dillon’s Rule. That is a legal principle that limits local governments to the powers that state governments explicitly grant them.
This means that if a local government wants to do something — like set taxes or offer a service — it can only do so if the state has clearly allowed it.
Commissioner McHughes, who raised the issue, acknowledged that counties are somewhat limited in what they can do in Oklahoma.
“If it's not in the law, we're not supposed to do it,” he said. “So that means that we don't have that commitment. Going forward, we don’t have to do those programs because it's not in the law. And that's no disrespect to any other county.”
Meanwhile, the Tulsa County Social Services Department is staying open.
County officials cite a portion of the state constitution to “continue serving our community members in need.”
The section says counties “shall provide” provisions for people in need “as may be prescribed by law, for those inhabitants who, by reason of age, infirmity, or misfortune, may have claims upon the sympathy and aid of the county.”
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