School land office secretary tenders resignation amid conflict-of-interest allegations (2024)

OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Kevin Stitt’s appointee who has led Oklahoma’s school land office for two years tendered his resignation Thursday amid allegations of self-dealing and misappropriation of taxpayer funds.

At the start of Thursday’s meeting of the Commissioners of the Land Office, Secretary Elliot Chambers announced that he had tendered his resignation to Stitt effective Aug. 3.

Neither he nor Stitt, who thanked Chambers for his service to the agency, addressed the controversy.

The governor declined to take questions after the meeting.

A day earlier, it was revealed that both Stitt and State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who both serve as land office commissioners, had requested new official responses to the allegations against Chambers.

Hofmeister said a second whistleblower has come forward. In light of that, she had issued requests for a law enforcement investigation and a call for Chambers’ resignation from the low-profile state agency that oversees $2.7 billion in real estate and other investments to support public education.

Also, State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd’s office said Wednesday that it had just received a formal request from the governor for a financial and operational audit of the Commissioners of the Land Office.

In early June, a Tulsa World investigation revealed that an internal auditor at CLO had been fired less than a week after looking into conflict-of-interest concerns raised by another top employee about their boss, Chambers.

Primary concerns reported internally at CLO in early December concerned a company called Victorum Capital, which was being paid by the CLO as a consultant on investments. Later in December, Victorum’s role at CLO was expanded to also manage those direct investments with state funds.

The CLO’s now former internal auditor reported being told that CLO Secretary Chambers had a personal investment relationship with Victorum that had never been disclosed to the five commissioners of the Land Office.

The CLO board is chaired by Stitt; Hofmeister, Byrd, Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell and Agriculture Secretary Blayne Arthur are also members.

Arthur was absent from Thursday’s meeting.

On the agenda were annual contract renewals for investment managers, including Victorum, which prompted an in-depth conversation.

Pinnell made a motion to approve the dozen or so contracts, with the renewal for Victorum being only temporary for 60 days so that CLO could issue a request for proposals to replace the company with a different investment manager.

Hofmeister said she could not support even a temporary renewal for Victorum. She asked pointed questions about why staff members had canceled previously scheduled board meetings in May and on June 10, forcing the board to decide such an important matter on the final day of the fiscal year.

“It’s a predicament,” she said. “Here we are in the last hour.”

Byrd asked whether the current investment management contracts include contingencies that would keep them valid if the board did not vote to renew them before Day 1 of a new fiscal year.

General counsel Bennett Abbott said he did not know the answer.

Stitt asked if not renewing Victorum’s contract would simply “liquidate” the investments it was managing and return them automatically to the state’s portfolio.

Byrd commented: “I have concerns there could be adverse effects.”

Ultimately the vote on Pinnell’s motion carried, 3-1, with Hofmeister casting the lone “no” vote.

Hofmeister, who won the Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday, is challenging Stitt in his reelection bid. The governor won his Republican primary on Tuesday, and the pair will appear on the November general election ballot.