Attorney Gentner Drummond announced this week that his office will work with the OSBI to conduct a thorough investigation of potential wrongdoing involving the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Swadley's Barbecue. The controversy led to the resignation of the department's director Jerry Winchester, who's been replaced by a familiar face in Oklahoma government.
Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt has taken the reins of the tourism and Recreation department at a time when tourism is bringing in record revenue and while trying to ensure taxpayer dollars are guarded from misuse.
The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department has gone through some changes since last year's scandal involving Swadley's Barbecue and State Park Restaurant surfaced. Replacing the former executive director, Jerry Winchester is Shelley Zumwalt. She's the former director of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission who helped the agency handle the overwhelming unemployment claims at the start of the pandemic.
She's already receiving praise just three months on the job. "I have seen progress, first of all with the new director, Shelley Zumwalt, I think is doing a great job. Shelly did a great job at OASC and for her to come out and say, 'Hey, we've got some issues. We've got some budget problems, we've got some other problems.' You know, it's like anything else. Let's identify and be honest. We've got some things we need to take care of." says Senator Roger Thompson.
He feels the tourism and recreation department is going in the right direction. But would like to make some changes to how the agency is managed. "I do believe we need to put the commission back in place for tourism and the legislature needs oversight. We need a commission that's gonna help us with that oversight. There's no doubt there's been misspending of money. And so part of that responsibility is gonna go to those who misspent money or those who authorized the misspending. I get that, but a lot of that responsibility comes back to the legislature to make sure that we have the structure in place to make sure it does not happen again."
If passed, Senate Bill 3 would give the commission more than an advisory role. It would hire the executive director instead of the governor. Senator Thompson continued, "They need to be more than an advisory. So my bill puts the commission back in place as a decision making board. The members will still be appointed by the governor, confirmed by the Senate."
Representative Danny Williams is looking to make some changes too, he's proposing that state contracts are reviewed by a central agency instead of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, or OMES.
"My goal is to take it back and make it an individual agency because it contracts for the state of Oklahoma. It needs to have oversight, needs to be reviewed. It needs to be held accountable. Right now, if you talked to the director of OMES, he doesn't know what's going on because that's not his major commitment." says Williams.
Williams also wants to do away with the exceptions, which allowed the Swadley's contract to go through an alternative process instead of the standard contract bidding process, "My bill is to go in and limit the exemptions. You know, if we had not had an exemption for tourism, we wouldn't be in this place right now. If it had to go through the normal process we would've come up with a reasonable agreement that works."
Of course, the big focus is on what entity will replace Swadley's as the restaurant operator within six state parks. That's what Director Zumwalt is working on with her staff this week in southeast Oklahoma.
"I hadn't been to Broken Bow and the Lodge here at Beavers Bend in about 5 years. We came down here as a team to work on our planning for the year." The Tourism and Recreation Department has started the process by inviting potential vendors to the parks. "We realized that we needed to answer some questions and really provide transparency to vendors that might be interested because it is a little bit different than, you know a business opportunity that private businesses are use to." Zumwalt said.
They'll keep this information gathering period for vendors open until February 10th. The department will then create the request for proposals in which potential vendors can submit their bid to manage state park restaurants.
Zumwalt continues, "We're also interested in hearing from the communities. I think that there is, especially in the smaller communities, a real interest to get something back in there because it was a real meeting point for a lot of people, and how can we make sure that we're honoring that and giving a concept that really is right for that community and not necessarily the same one we're going to do everywhere."
Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnel says, "It's given the new executive director, Shelley Zumwalt, at the Department of Tourism an opportunity to stop and say, what do we want these restaurants to look like across the state? Beaver's Bend is different than little Sahara. Beaver's Bend is different than Robber's Cave."
Pinnell, who also serves as Secretary of Tourism Wildlife and Heritage is confident in the process Zumwalt is using. "I'm very optimistic that we will have a new vendor in those restaurants, hopefully by the end of the first quarter beginning of the second. But we have food truck operations grab and go operations at at many of our state parks today because they are so popular. And, our state parks are really full today."
The tourism department reported a record economic impact of 10 billion dollars in 2021. Pinell continued, "It's a huge driver. For us economically in the state of Oklahoma, I say it all the time, that the tourism is the front door to economic development."
Pinnell and Zumwalt are encouraging Oklahomans to discover what Oklahoma State parks have to offer. In fact, Zumwalt suggests a trip to Grand Lake to see some unusual residents. "I think the other thing that is super exciting to me is we have a lot of interesting curiosities in our parks. We have beautiful parks. Oklahoma's a great state to visit. We want to continue to be a great place to visit."
Those possible legislative changes through the Department of Tourism will be considered during the upcoming session, which kicks off on January 6th.