The First Word 9/6/23

I hope everyone enjoyed a great Labor Day weekend! We have had a very productive month in August. From kicking off Leadership for Engineers in Tulsa with some of the best and brightest participants from our member firms to a highly attended General Membership Meeting, receiving welcoming news from the Oklahoma Supreme Court 023_23_Supreme Court rules for full validation_8-1-2023.pdf (oklahoma.gov) to solidifying registration with ODOT for the partnering conference.

Some Big News on the election front--See Below.

SPECIAL ELECTIONS A Special General Election to fill Senate District 32 seat, vacated by Sen. John Michael Montgomery, will be held on Dec. 12th, with a Primary Election on October 10th. Republican Candidates - Dusty Deevers, 45 - Elgin, Jennifer Ellis, 54 - Medicine Park, J.J. Francais, 41 - Elgin, and Jean Hausheer, 66 - Lawton Democrat Candidates - Larry Bush, 49 - Lawton and Johnny Jernigan, 45 - Lawton

Rep. Ryan Martinez, R-Edmond, resigned from his legislative seat effective Sept. 1st. His resignation follows an August 2nd guilty plea to a 2022 felony offense of being in control of a vehicle while intoxicated. "I take full responsibility for my mistake and apologize to my family, friends, and constituents who have supported me for the last seven years serving House District 39. Two Republicans have announced their candidacy. Erick Harris and Kristin Ferate. Governor Stitt has not set a special election yet.

2024 ELECTIONS

Sen. Joe Newhouse, R-Tulsa, will not seek a third term in 2024. Newhouse is a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve and currently serves on Reserve military orders to Fleet Cyber Command, the Navy’s presence at the National Security Agency outside of Washington, D.C. “It has been an honor to represent the citizens of Senate District 25. I look forward to serving them and my country in a new role,” Newhouse said.

Sen. Cody Rogers, R-Tulsa, announced he will not run for reelection. Rogers said after much careful consideration, he has decided to pursue other options but expressed his gratitude to his constituents for allowing him to represent them in the Senate. Rogers said. “It has been an honor to represent the people of Senate District 37, and I will continue to work with and serve them through the end of my term.” Rogers intends to run for District 2 Tulsa County Commissioner. Dr. Chris Emerson has announced his candidacy for Senate District 37. Sen. Cody Rogers defeated Emerson in the 2020 Republican primary. Emerson successfully sued Rogers for libel and civil conspiracy. Rogers' campaign manager, John Fritz and his company, Tomahawk Consulting, were also named in the suit.

Rep. Sherrie Conley, R-Newcastle, first elected in 2018, will not seek a fourth term. Conley has been a certified teacher for 33 years and is an adjunct professor at Southwestern Christian University. “It has been the honor of my life to serve my family, friends and neighbors in House District 20,” Conley said in a press release.

Rep. Jeff Boatman, R-Tulsa, announced his candidacy for Senate District 25, which Sen. Newhouse is vacating. Boatman worked with victim service providers, law enforcement and the Attorney General to create the Human Trafficking Response Unit. Oklahoma is on the right track, but there is still so much work to do. Oklahoma’s future depends on sound decision-making and principled leadership. I am honored to offer my experience and dedication to serve the people of Senate District 25,” said Boatman. Boatman was first elected to the House in 2018. Boatman was elected to House District 67 in 2018.

Oklahoma Secretary of State and Native American Affairs Brian Bingman announced he would resign to run for corporation commissioner. This will be Bingman’s second run for corporation commissioner. In 2018, he was defeated in the Republican run-off election by long-time Commissioner Bob Anthony in 2018.

This year at the Partnering Conference we are focusing on raising resources for our State PAC-Consultant Engineers PAC Donate Here and our National PAC ACEC National PAC. All contributions made (state or federal) from May 1, 2023 to September 22, 2023 are eligible for one of the many Awesome Raffle Items to be given away on 9.22.2023 at the end of the conference. $50 donation gets you 1 ticket for the raffle. The PAC Committee-Jimmy Sparks, Rebecca Alverez and Paul Green have received some excellent items to be given away! We will be sending out reminders and listing the prizes in the coming weeks.

Per ODOT below:

Safe Oklahoma Draft Agenda.pdf A limited number of rooms are available the previous evening of 10/3/2023 at the designated hotel for a GSA rate of $110 (which will be the GSA rate as of October 1, 2023) through 9/8/2023. Hotel information is below.

Special thanks to Doug Glenn and CEC for allowing us to use their fantastic space as our meeting location.

We enjoyed our August general membership meeting with guest speaker, Senator Ally Seifried at Terracon in Tulsa. We are grateful at Terracon for hosting us, and appreciative of the over 50 members who attended.

From Katherine Mottley (ACEC National VP of Tax and Workforce Policy). Thank you to everyone who has been working with us to build support for the bipartisan legislation to repeal the R&D amortization requirement (H.R. 2673/S. 866). Those efforts are bearing fruit as there are six new cosponsors of H.R. 2673, with around 20 Republicans on the wait list until additional Democrats sign on. It's often the case that congressional staff wait to have these discussions until their boss returns to Washington, so we will continue pushing and hope to see the cosponsor lists grow in September when Congress reconvenes.

Separately, I wanted to let you know that this morning the Department of Labor released a proposed rule to update the salary threshold for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. DOL also released a set of FAQs about the proposed rule.

The Partnering Conference is September 21st-DBE and Welcome Reception; September 22nd is the Conference. Get registered ACEC - Oklahoma if you are not already!!