Five hearings in, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is still unable to identify the exact needs of its ever-shifting budget shortfall, and lawmakers say they are running out of time to help.
"I'm at a point where I don't think we're getting down to any significant number and we've been doing this for months," said Sen. Paul Rosino, R-Oklahoma City, co-chair of the committee investigating the department. "If we continue down this path, then the people of Oklahoma, they're the ones who suffer."
The agency is responsible for overseeing all state-funded mental health and substance abuse services, including many providers who work with people who don't have insurance. It's essential to the fabric of Oklahoma's behavioral health care system, which is already stretching at its seams.
Now, the department's more than 2,000 employees are also threatened by financial mismanagement and inconsistencies, as Commissioner Allie Friesen testified on Monday, there isn't enough money to pay them through June.
She said employees will be paid this Wednesday, but the fiscal year's three remaining pay periods, each running about $6 million, can't be met with the remaining budget.
Friesen and other agency officials have been peppered with questions about the department's deficit, need for a supplemental appropriation and budget request for the upcoming fiscal year for weeks now, but repeatedly asserted meeting payroll wouldn't be a concern.
Lawmakers say the blame can't all be placed on the previous administration. Speaking to the press last month, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert said they are questioning Friesen for a reason.
"I think there has been a lot of blame cast on previous [administrations], but, look, [Friesen] was there last year for the budget for FY 25 as well as for the budget that's being requested for FY 26, and so that's why we're talking to the commissioner about this," he said. "She was the commissioner this time last year. She's the commissioner this time this year, so she's the one we're talking to to get some answers."
Still, Friesen points at those who came before her, or were hired before she took over in January 2024.
She blamed delayed payroll revelations on an unnamed staff member who "intentionally withheld" information about department finances. She said they have since resigned.
"We are, for the first time in a very long time, uncovering the full depth of financial instability that has been hidden under layers of dysfunction," Friesen said. "What we're discovering is not just poor accounting – it is abuse, negligence and likely corruption."
Also leaving is interim Chief Financial Officer Skip Leonard, who failed to meet lawmaker expectations during his confused testimony. His contract expires this week and Friesen said he will "no longer be serving in that capacity."
On Monday, Friesen was instead joined by newly hired Mike Rupke. Like Friesen and Leonard, Rupke worked at INTEGRIS Health before starting at the department. In the 35 days, he's been part of its "operational excellence division," Rupke said he's become "skeptical over every bucket that exists within the agency and their financing overlay."
He said the agency has manipulated vacancy rates at state-run facilities for years and has made massive expenditures for non-state mandatory contract vendors. Both discoveries are tallies on a growing list of financial negligence.
Friesen told lawmakers the numbers she could provide were "fluid" and asked for help from the House and Senate fiscal teams.
Friesen has welcomed multiple probes into her agency, but Rep. Mark Lawson, R-Sapulpa, who has been chairing the committee since it started, said her request for help should have come sooner.
"If the department would have come forward with that approach in the beginning, it would have been a much, much different conversation and we wouldn't be where we are today," Lawson said.
He and Senate Chair Rosino affirmed the Legislature will meet its required deadline to pass a budget with the best information available, and that they will make sure state employees are paid.
"We are here to fulfill our constitutional obligations. We will deliver a balanced budget, and we will do it by the end of May," Lawson said.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
