Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ is using a newly created unclaimed property office in western Oklahoma as a commuting hub to get back and forth to his office in the Capitol during the work week, according to GPS data from a state vehicle.
Russ opened the Clinton office in June 2025 as part of a plan to give rural residents a place other than Oklahoma City to ask questions about the state’s unclaimed property program. In December, he established another satellite office in Muskogee. One of the treasurer’s main job responsibilities is to administer the state’s $1.4 billion unclaimed property program.
But Russ also appears to be using the Clinton office as a commuting hub, with hundreds of trips in a state vehicle to and from the unclaimed property office and the Capitol in Oklahoma City in the past year.
Clinton is 85 miles from Oklahoma City. Russ lives in Cordell, about 15 miles south of Clinton.
Russ, a Republican who was first elected treasurer in 2022, is running for re-election. He faces term-limited State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd in the June 16 GOP primary.
Oklahoma Watch obtained GPS logs and fuel purchases tied to a 2024 Ford Expedition used by the treasurer’s office. More than 100 trips show the SUV reaching speeds exceeding 90 miles per hour. The logs recorded more than 960 trips in the past year.
State law requires an elected official or employee to get authorization from the Office of Management and Enterprise Services to use a state vehicle for commuting purposes. Russ’ office does not have authorization, according to responses to an open records request made in September and verified again on May 27.
Russ’ office did not answer detailed questions about the state vehicle and its use.
“The treasurer’s office has one fleet vehicle assigned to it, which supports four offices around the state that provide localized services to citizens, similar to other constitutional offices and statewide elected officials,” spokeswoman Lara Blubaugh said in a May 29 written statement. “The vehicle is used by the treasurer and staff to access each of those sites as part of the constitutional duties of the office.”
The GPS logs for the Ford SUV show most of the trips made to and from locations in western Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City area, even after the treasurer’s office opened an unclaimed property satellite office in Muskogee in eastern Oklahoma late last year.
Other statewide elected officials who responded to Oklahoma Watch said they either commute to Oklahoma City in their personal vehicles or use state vehicles in limited circumstances.
A spokeswoman for State Superintendent Lindel Fields, who lives in Tulsa, said he has a state car and occasionally uses it to commute to save money when several people from the agency are joining him on official business. But most of the time, Fields uses his personal vehicle to drive back and forth from Tulsa to the agency’s headquarters in Oklahoma City, said spokeswoman Tara Thompson.
Byrd, who lives in southeastern Oklahoma, said she hasn’t used a state vehicle to commute since she took office.
“When I took office in 2019, I asked my general counsel at the attorney general’s office whether I could use a state-owned vehicle for the 120-mile commute between the Capitol and my home in Coalgate,” Byrd said in a written statement. “I was told state statute did not allow for this. As state auditor, I have never used a state-owned vehicle.”
Neither Attorney General Gentner Drummond nor Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready responded to requests for comment by deadline about their use of state vehicles for commuting. Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn lives in the Oklahoma City metro area.
Speed Logs
More than 10% of the trips logged in the treasurer’s SUV recorded top speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour at some point during the drive.
Russ’ office did not respond to questions about the top vehicle speeds recorded by the GPS data. A review of Oklahoma Highway Patrol records showed no tickets associated with the 2024 Ford Expedition.
Users of state vehicles agree to abide by safety and appropriate-use rules and have access to reporting tools to monitor and review their fleet data, said OMES spokeswoman Christa Helfrey.
“When vehicles are assigned to agencies, the agency submits a Driver Responsibility Certification, which outlines their responsibilities regarding vehicle operation and oversight,” Helfrey said in an email. “Through this certification, agencies acknowledge and agree to manage matters related to driver safety, compliance with state laws and the appropriate use of state vehicles.”
Unlike most vehicles in the state fleet, the treasurer’s office Ford Expedition has no obvious markings that show it is a state vehicle. The only designation is a small windshield decal.
The treasurer’s office put more than 26,000 miles on the SUV in the past year. State fuel card records tied to Russ and the treasurer’s office show more than $3,700 in fuel purchases, mostly at gas stations along Interstate 40 between Clinton and Oklahoma City.
On one day in August, the vehicle went from Clinton to the studios of Oklahoma City TV station KOCO-TV, where Russ gave an interview about the state’s 529 college savings program, according to station logs filed with the Federal Communications Commission. It then went to the Capitol for several hours. The SUV made a stop at a Walmart in far western Oklahoma City before returning to the Clinton unclaimed property office that afternoon, based on the GPS logs.
Oklahoma Watch staff spotted Russ eating lunch at a Charleston’s restaurant in Oklahoma City in February and saw him driving the vehicle as it left the parking lot. GPS logs from the vehicle show a stop there before heading back to Clinton later that afternoon. The vehicle started the day in Clinton and went to the Capitol in the morning.
The treasurer’s office is paying $1,300 a month for the Clinton office and $600 a month in rent for the Muskogee unclaimed property satellite office. Before it opened, the treasurer’s office paid $3,700 for new carpet and garage door openers at the Clinton office, according to the lease agreement. It also spent more than $27,000 in office furniture from Oklahoma Correctional Industries for the Clinton office and the main unclaimed property office in Oklahoma City, according to state vendor records.
Russ’ office declined to provide information about the number of office visits or calls fielded by the part-time employees in either the Clinton or Muskogee unclaimed property offices since they opened last year.
“A vast majority of Oklahomans who use our services are located in rural counties and previously did not have access to these services without driving to Oklahoma City,” said the May 29 written statement from Blubaugh. “The treasurer changed that. Government should not just be available to those who live in Oklahoma County; it should be available to all Oklahomans.”
Russ barely noted the existence of the Clinton office last year. The Clinton Daily News had a report on its front page on June 12, 2025. But the treasurer’s office didn’t put out any statewide press releases at the time about the office or any plans to open additional satellite offices.
“Every dollar in unclaimed property belongs to someone who currently or previously lived in Oklahoma, and our job is to return it,” Russ said in the June 12 newspaper article. “This new Clinton office is a major step in making those resources more accessible to our rural communities, providing the local experience and great service all Oklahomans deserve from their state government offices.”
The Muskogee office, by contrast, had a ribbon cutting in December with the local chamber of commerce and state Rep. Chris Sneed, R-Fort Gibson, who represents the area. The Muskogee Phoenix and Tulsa station KOKI-TV Fox 23 both covered the opening.
Sneed said in an interview he helped Russ and his staff look for possible locations for an office in eastern Oklahoma. Other potential locations included Okmulgee, Sallisaw and Tahlequah, Sneed said.
State flight logs show Russ and three staff members took the state plane last year from Wiley Post Airport to Muskogee. The June 3, 2025, flight was to scout locations for the eastern Oklahoma unclaimed property office, according to the trip forms signed by Russ and his three staffers.
GPS logs for the Ford Expedition show a trip to Oklahoma City’s Wiley Post airport on June 3, 2025. The vehicle started the day in Clinton and ended up there after stops at the Capitol and the airport.
Russ’ office did not respond to questions about state plane use for that location-scouting trip.
Russ is a former state lawmaker who spent 12 years in the House. Members of the Legislature get per-diem travel reimbursements for every day they spend in session at the Capitol if they live farther than 50 miles away.
Other than certain law enforcement, wildlife or emergency management employees, statewide elected officials and state employees are not allowed to use state vehicles for commuting. However, the governor can designate essential employees who are allowed to use a state vehicle for that purpose.
A 2007 Oklahoma attorney general opinion gives agencies limited powers to develop policies for employees commuting in a state vehicle.
“The Legislature's purpose is to prevent state employees from using state-owned vehicles for their personal or private use,” the opinion said. “A state employee may travel to or from the employee's place of residence in a state-owned vehicle in the performance of the employee's official duty.”
Oklahoma Watch’s audience development director, Shaun Witt, contributed to this report.
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
