I, Mary Fallin, Governor of the State of Oklahoma, pursuant to
the power and authority vested in me by the provisions of Subsection D of
Section
840-2.14
of Title 74 of the Oklahoma Statutes, hereby order a state agency hiring
freeze.
For purposes of this hiring freeze, each statewide elected
official shall perform the duties of a Cabinet Secretary in approving or
disapproving exemptions to this hiring freeze. These duties shall be
accomplished in the same manner as other official actions by the elected
officials.
This hiring freeze shall be implemented by all agencies in
accordance with the following guidelines:
1. It is my direction that no audits of
classified positions or reallocation of unclassified positions shall be
initiated or conducted at the request of any agency unless specifically
approved by the appropriated Cabinet Secretary.
2. All audits resulting from a classification
grievance shall be exempted from the provisions of this Executive
Order.
3. Except as specifically
provided and authorized by this order, all affected state agencies are
prohibited from hiring, reinstating, or promoting employees and from accepting
a transferred employee from another agency.
4. Exceptions to this hiring freeze may be
granted pursuant to special conditions as declared by the Chief Administrative
Officer of any agency and approved by the appropriate Cabinet Secretary for
that agency. However, information technology positions, regardless of the
Cabinet area of which the individual is employed, shall be approved or
disapproved by the Secretary of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
The information technology positions subject to this exception includes, but
are not limited to, both classified and unclassified positions in the following
functional areas: Applications Programming, EDP Audit, Data Examination,
Computer Applications, Computer Data Entry, Computer Networking, Computer
Operations, Computer Programming, Computer Security, Computer Software Design,
Web Applications, Data Base Analysis, Data Management Analysis, Data Base
Development, Data Base Programming, Software Design/Development, Help Desk,
Imaging, Systems Analysis, Systems Application Planning, Systems Application,
Systems Administration, Systems Coordination, Systems Integration, Systems
Operation, Systems Planning/Development, Systems Programming, Systems
Engineering, Systems Services Specialist, Systems Support, Network
Administration, Network Management, Network Technical, Operating Systems
Specialist, Systems, Program Manager, Telecommunications (Data and Voice),
Software Training, and Technology Development/Support.
a. A Chief Administrative Officer shall
submit a written request to the appropriate Cabinet Secretary stating the
special conditions requiring the submission of the request.
b. Such requests may be on forms provided by
the Office of Personnel Management. If an agency has an internal form regularly
used by that agency which provides all the necessary information, that form may
be used in lieu of the Office of Personnel Management forms if approved by the
Director of the Office of State Finance.
c. The Cabinet Secretary shall indicate
approval in writing of the submitted request for the granting of an exception
of this hiring freeze.
d. All
approved requests and approved Cabinet Secretary findings shall be maintained
as an official record by the Office of Personnel Management in accordance with
Records Management Act. Any agency which does not submit personnel action
requests for approval to the Office of Personnel Management shall be
responsible for maintaining this documentation.
e. In the event of a vacancy in a Cabinet
Secretary position, the Secretary of State shall act as the approving authority
for the hiring freeze exception request.
f. Effective November 1, 2011, all requests
for hiring freeze exceptions for agencies reporting to the Secretary of Human
Resources and Administration shall be directed to the Secretary of Finance and
Revenue who shall have the authority to review and approve those
requests.
5. The
Director of the Office of State Finance is hereby directed to develop and
implement procedures necessary to carry out the provisions of this Executive
Order.
6. The Director of the
Office of State Finance is authorized to require Cabinet Secretaries to provide
him with periodic accountings of their approvals and disapprovals of written
request for exemptions to this hiring freeze. These reports shall be provided
to the Governor.
7. The Oklahoma
Military Department shall not be required to comply with this order for hiring
personnel and contracts for which the department receives total federal
government reimbursement.
Copies of this Executive Order shall be distributed to the
Secretary for Finance and Revenue for immediate implementation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
Great Seal of the State of Oklahoma to be affixed at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
this 26th day of October, 2011.
BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
Mary Fallin
ATTEST:
Michelle R. Day
Assistant Secretary of State
