OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (The Oklahoma Post) — Jan. 1, 2026
There are three kinds of silence in Oklahoma.
One is the kind that comes before a tornado. That eerie, breathless quiet when the birds stop singing and the air pressure drops and everyone knows something terrible is about to happen, but nobody wants to say it out loud. You stand in your yard, looking at the green sky, and you know. Everyone knows.
The second is the kind that follows when someone in the elevator has clearly farted but everyone pretends not to notice. You know what happened. They know what happened. Everyone is complicit in the fiction that nothing has happened, even as the evidence hangs in the air between you and the third floor.
The third is the institutional kind. The kind that arrives wearing a badge that says Communications, and then politely explains, in the tone reserved for explaining things to children and journalists, that your news release will not be distributed “at this time.”
The same way the Oklahoma Ethics Commission’s Guardian campaign finance database was conveniently offline during critical litigation periods, and nobody thought to mention it. You can almost hear the stapler clicking, sealing your words inside a manila folder labeled: Not Helpful to Lobbied Leadership. Or to the Attorney General defending himself in federal RICO allegations. Or to anyone named in a pending grand jury petition. Possibly with a little frowny face drawn in the corner.
Here is the deal…they all are stinky situations and are silent. Rep. Justin Humphrey is not buying it. And for once, neither am I.
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The $43 million hole, and the sudden urge to “restructure”
Humphrey took to Facebook on Sunday to say what the House communications office would not: “The Oklahoma House Media refused to put my news release out to the state.” The release he wanted distributed? A warning that $43 million disappeared from ODMHSAS, no one has been arrested, and the state’s solution is to privatize mental health services and restructure. House Media’s job, Humphrey wrote, is to “protect a few individuals called Leadership. To hell with the truth.”
If you follow Oklahoma politics long enough, you learn that “restructuring” is a spiritual term. It means everything and nothing, often simultaneously. It can mean efficiency. It can mean layoffs. It can mean arrests or forgiveness. It can mean that someone has a PowerPoint presentation and wants desperately to use it, having spent a weekend learning transitions and possibly buying new reading glasses specifically for this moment.
In spring 2025, public reporting laid out what providers and lawmakers were seeing on the ground: ODMHSAS facing a $43 million shortfall, providers warning about cuts, and the agency freezing certain practitioner payments while trying to stabilize its finances.
The word “stabilize” doing a lot of work there, the way “restructure” does. The way a politician’s smile does when the budget numbers stop adding up. Lawmakers formed a House select committee to review the agency’s finances, and hearings were tense enough that you could almost smell the burnt coffee and legal pads.
Reports described legislators walking away with more questions than answers after CFO testimony. Which, if you think about it, is the opposite of what a CFO is supposed to provide. Humphrey’s argument is basic, and that is why it lands: you do not outsource your way out of a missing money problem. Not before the receipts show up. Not before someone explains where the money went, preferably with charts and a willingness to make eye contact.
What “privatization” looks like in the real world
The privatization conversation is not hypothetical. In late 2025, ODMHSAS publicly announced an RFP as a “fact finding step” to explore whether a private operator could run certain state facilities, while saying no decisions had been made.
Media reporting around the same time described the agency exploring privatizing some behavioral care centers.
You do not have to be anti private sector to be pro accountability. But if government is going to hand off public services, especially behavioral health services that keep families intact and people alive, then the public gets to ask: who gets the contract, what are the metrics, what happens to access, and what did we learn from the last financial crater?
That is good stewardship. That is the difference between being a responsible adult and being the person who cut the cheese.
Oklahoma law does not treat “the public” like an inconvenience
Here is what Oklahoma’s Open Records Act says, in plain English: the whole point is to ensure the public can access and review government records so citizens can “exercise their inherent political power.”
And it gets sharper. Oklahoma law imposes a specific duty on every public body and public official to keep and maintain complete records of the receipt and expenditure of any public funds, reflecting all financial and business transactions.
A $43 million shortfall is not a rounding error. It is not a whoopsie. It is not the financial equivalent of forgetting where you parked. It is the kind of number that should have a paper trail so obvious that a sleepy intern could follow it with a highlighter and a sense of dread, the way one might follow breadcrumbs in a forest, except the breadcrumbs are invoices and the forest is lined with filing cabinets that smell faintly of fear and burnt coffee.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s Open Meeting Act declares the public policy of the state is to “encourage and facilitate an informed citizenry’s understanding of the governmental processes and governmental problems.”
So when people say “Do it in daylight,” they are not being poetic. They are quoting the philosophy of Oklahoma law. They are asking for the bare minimum, which is apparently too much to ask.
When citizens say “Byrd needs to do her job,” the truth is: the Legislature has already assigned it.
Oklahoma statutes lay out the State Auditor and Inspector’s duties and powers, including examining books and accounts of public entities under certain requests and circumstances.
So yes, a full accounting is not only reasonable. It is aligned with how oversight is supposed to function when a public agency’s finances stop adding up. When the numbers start looking like someone played Twister on the budget and then left the room.
When the watchdog pleads poverty
Of course, accountability requires resources. And here is where the irony gets so thick you could spread it on toast. In late December, Auditor Byrd’s office announced that over three dozen high-profile audits have not been released because of funding and staffing cuts. Her office’s budget, according to Oklahoma Voice, has been slashed from $6.3 million in 2002 to $5.4 million in 2026. Staff has been cut by 25 percent while demand for investigative audits has doubled.
Among the unreleased audits: the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and its dealings with Swadley’s Foggy Bottom Kitchen, follow up on the Ethics Commission sitting on reports because of the OKDHS connection, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, and multiple school districts and local governments. Some of these audits were requested before 2020. They are still sitting in someone’s filing cabinet, waiting for the budget gods to smile.
So let me make sure I have this right. The state auditor says she cannot release audits about questionable spending because her office does not have enough money. Meanwhile, a state agency loses $43 million, and that audit gets released. The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority faces questions about an $8.2 billion program, and that audit sits unreleased. The Department of Tourism allegedly overpaid a restaurant company by millions, and that audit waits in line. It is almost as if some financial disasters are more convenient to investigate than others.
Byrd’s spokesman told reporters the office has to prioritize audits “where there is suspected wrongdoing.” Which raises the question: what does $43 million in missing funds qualify as, if not suspected wrongdoing?
The timing is curious. Byrd is running for lieutenant governor. ODMHSAS is a mess that everyone agrees needs attention, and releasing that audit makes her look like she is doing her job. But the Turnpike Authority audit, requested by the attorney general in March 2023, remains in limbo. The Swadley’s audit, involving a scandal that made statewide headlines, also unreleased.
When the watchdog says it cannot afford to bark, you have to wonder who is holding the leash.
When every door is locked
So here is the practical question that keeps you up at night: what does a citizen do when every accountability mechanism has a conflict of interest?
The State Auditor says she cannot afford to investigate certain scandals. She is running for lieutenant governor.
The Attorney General, who could prosecute, is running for governor.
The Ethics Commission’s Guardian database, which tracks campaign finance, was mysteriously offline during critical periods when these connections might have been scrutinized. Who’s office is SUPPOSED to be investigating Drummond, hasn’t.
The agencies implicated have their own reasons to stay quiet. And the House communications office will not distribute information that makes leadership uncomfortable.
So when the auditor will not audit, the prosecutor will not prosecute, the ethics enforcers will not enforce, and the people’s representatives will not represent, what exactly is left?
The answer, apparently, is you. You are left out. Standing in your kitchen on a Thursday evening, reading a Facebook post from a great lawmaker who was refused by his own colleagues to distribute a press release about $43 million in missing public funds. Read that five more times.
This is a failure of a system designed with checks and balances that only work if the people operating them care more about the public trust than their next election. The question is: who benefits from a system where everyone with the power to demand accountability is too busy running for something else?
What an informed citizenry looks like in 2026
An informed citizenry is not a vibe. It is a paper trail.
It looks like hearings where lawmakers demand specifics, not slogans.
It looks like provider meetings where people say, out loud, that cuts are hitting real services.
It looks like public reporting about contract cancellations and leadership defending decisions under scrutiny.
And it looks like insisting that any “restructuring” does not become a magic trick performed while the audience is told not to look at the hands. While someone in the back whispers that everything is fine, the budget is fine, please do not ask about the $43 million.
Rep. Humphrey’s warning may irritate the people who prefer smooth headlines and quiet hallways. But his core demand is what the law and the public interest both require: stop rushing toward privatization until the missing money question is answered in full, with documents, and with accountability.
Because if you cannot account for $43 million, you have not earned the right to start rearranging the system like it is a bookshelf.
Written and edited by Robbie Robertson
SOURCES
Primary Sources:
Rep. Justin Humphrey statement calling the plan “tragic” Bryan County Patriot, Dec. 29, 2025 https://bryancountypatriot.com
“Funding, staffing cuts hamper release of special Oklahoma audits,” Oklahoma Voice, Dec. 26, 2025. https://oklahomavoice.com/2025/12/26/funding-staffing-cuts-hamper-release-of-special-oklahoma-audits/
ODMHSAS Financial Crisis Coverage:
Oklahoma Department of Mental Health freezes practitioner payments while facing $43 million shortfall KOSU, April 4, 2025 https://www.kosu.org/health/2025-04-04/oklahoma-department-of-mental-health-freezes-practitioner-payments-while-facing-43-million-shortfall
Providers say they face cuts amid $43 million Oklahoma mental health department shortfall KOSU, April 2, 2025 https://www.kosu.org/health/2025-04-02/providers-say-they-face-cuts-amid-43-million-oklahoma-mental-health-department-shortfall
‘Pulling in opposite directions’: Budget hole triggers Oklahoma mental health system pain points NonDoc, April 3, 2025 https://nondoc.com/2025/04/03/pulling-in-opposite-directions-budget-hole-triggers-oklahoma-mental-health-system-pain-points/
LOFT: ODMHSAS still has $27.4 million ‘unexplained’ from shortfall recalculation NonDoc, April 28, 2025 https://nondoc.com/2025/04/28/loft-odmhsas-still-has-27-4-million-unexplained-from-shortfall-recalculation/
Privatization Coverage:
Oklahoma mental health department explores privatizing some behavioral care centers Oklahoma Voice, December 2025 https://oklahomavoice.com/2025/12/17/oklahoma-mental-health-department-explores-privatizing-some-behavioral-care-centers/
OK Lawmakers ask if privatizing Behavioral Health Centers is the answer KFOR, December 2025 https://kfor.com/news/oklahoma-legislature/ok-lawmakers-ask-if-privatizing-behavioral-health-centers-is-the-answer/
Legal Authorities:
Oklahoma Open Records Act, 51 O.S. § 24A.2 https://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2022/title-51/section-51-24a-2/
Duty to maintain financial records, 51 O.S. § 24A.4 https://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2022/title-51/section-51-24a-4/
Oklahoma Open Meeting Act, 25 O.S. § 302 https://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2022/title-25/section-25-302/
State Auditor and Inspector duties and powers, 74 O.S. § 212 https://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2022/title-74/section-74-212/
Oklahoma Constitution, Article 2, Section 22 (speech and press) https://law.justia.com/constitution/oklahoma/article2.html
Oklahoma Constitution, Article 2, Section 3 (assembly and petition) https://law.justia.com/constitution/oklahoma/article2.html
First Amendment, U.S. Constitution https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/
Additional Background:
Timeline: how Oklahoma lawmakers removed Mental Health Commissioner amid budget crisis News on 6, May 31, 2025 https://www.newson6.com/story/683b2b6e637c51567caf54b2/timeline-how-oklahoma-lawmakers-removed-mental-health-commissioner-amid-budget-crisis
Decision to end 300 mental health contracts will ‘directly affect thousands’ in Oklahoma NonDoc, September 3, 2025 https://nondoc.com/2025/09/03/odmhsas-cuts-to-300-mental-health-contracts-would-affect-thousands-in-oklahoma/
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