The Oklahoma Department of Transportation airplane sits in a hanger at Wiley Post Airport on Aug. 2. (Photo by Barbara Hoberock/Oklahoma Voice)
We have a real whodunit mystery on our hands.
It’s one that if I were Sir Arthur Conan Dolye, I’d probably call “The Many Mysterious Adventures of the Stitts.”
But unlike Sherlock Holmes’ investigations, Oklahoma’s mystery doesn’t seem to be one that will have a tidy ending.
For our intrepid investigators, here are the facts we do have.
Taxpayers pay for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to own a private 1992 Beechcraft King Airplane.
Earlier this year, Oklahoma Voice put in an Open Records request seeking copies of five years of flight logs for trips arranged by the Governor’s Office. Simply put, we wanted to know how often and why Gov. Kevin Stitt and his wife have been using the state plane.
Luckily, a state law requires ODOT to maintain flight logs that clearly state the purpose of flights along with a complete list of passengers.
Unfortunately, we quickly discovered that the same law is as holy as swiss cheese, leading to conflicting interpretations, no serious penalties – like fines – for noncompliance, and less than ideal transparency for Oklahomans who deserve to know how they’re taxpayer dollars are being spent.
ODOT provided us with copies of the flight logs, which were often partially hand-written and so complicated to decipher that they even flummoxed our instructions to artificial intelligence to scrape the logs and put the info into a spreadsheet. (Our staff wound up manually inputting the information into a spreadsheet.) The analysis showed that the Governor’s Office authorized over 100 flights over five years that cost taxpayers nearly $301,000.
While it was slightly surprising to discover in 2023 that over 80% of the flights were to destinations outside Oklahoma, the real shocker was that dozens of flight logs overall contained no purpose or explanation for trips, and there were over four dozen that contained purposeful redactions to the passenger logs.
When we asked for an explanation, the Governor’s Office and ODOT officials blamed each other. To date, officials have been unable — or refused — to state what provision of Oklahoma law that they believe justifies the redactions or adequately explain why the purpose line is often blank.
The Governor’s Office said that it had redacted the names of security personnel and the Stitts’ children.
Some readers were quick to speculate that the Stitts were using the taxpayer-owned plane to take family vacations.
After all, Stitt, his wife and a plethora of redacted names have been flying to destinations like Branson, Missouri; Nashville; Durago, Colorado; and various locations across Texas, including where their daughter once attended college. There was even a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The Governor’s Office would not say if Stitt was using the plane for personal reasons. We know there are clearly work-related out-of-state trips that had omitted purposes. For instance, one was a trip to the U.S. border with Mexico to join other Republican leaders who have deployed their state national guardsmen to Texas. We were able to match from a press release.
But because the flight logs contain so many omissions, it’s unknown if the Stitts are primarily using the plane for personal trips. We also don’t know if anyone has paid taxpayers back for flights involving non-state business, as one ethics expert said should happen.
We also know that on several occasions, the Governor’s Office allowed people to use the plane without the Governor or First Lady being aboard.
For full transparency, earlier this month, we filed a complaint with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office public access counselor. It’s a role that Attorney General Gentner Drummond created in March 2023 that he promises will ensure that government bodies comply with public records state law.
We’re all about to see how effective it is.
I should be very clear that at this point it’s highly unlikely that we’ll get records that contain the purpose for the trips — unless someone forces ODOT and the Governor’s Office to go back and complete the records accurately. While that would be ideal, I’m not holding my breath. The AG’s Office has traditionally done little to enforce the public’s right to know.
At a minimum, we’re hoping at least to learn which state law ODOT believes gives it the authority to send us records with redacted passenger names.
But really, this seems like a case lawmakers should consider cracking next session.
Because we have a 1998 state law that requires passengers to answer a series of questions, including whether a trip is for political purposes. A “yes” answer to any question means the trip is forbidden.
But we also have a 1997 Attorney General’s opinion and a 1998 Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that don’t require limitations on the governor’s use of the plane.
We can’t have it both ways. There are either limitations or there are not.
Even the bill’s author — a former Oklahoma House speaker — said lawmakers intended there be limitations and that the planes not be used for personal reasons.
There should be limitations along with some requirement for governors — or their spouses — to pay us back if they’re using the plane for personal trips. And, we shouldn’t have anyone secretly flying on our planes — with the exception, perhaps, of Stitt’s personal protection detail.
If you don’t want people to know months later that your children are flying to and fro on public property, drive your own car or buy your own plate ticket like the rest of us.
Because regardless of who sits in our chief executive’s office, Oklahomans deserve honesty and transparency, and we shouldn’t be paying for any official to fly to family vacations.
So here’s hoping someone — anyone — can crack this case wide open.
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