Cabinet Areas
The Executive Branch Reform Act first called for the creating of a Cabinet with no more than fifteen "cabinet areas" with were to consist of the various state agencies, committees, and boards with similar administrative objectives. These cabinet areas would not be agencies of the State and thus could not exercise the executive power of the State. They would only exist to better serve the Governor in crafting policy and information gathering. The original law mandated only one cabinet area: one containing the Department of Veteran Affairs. The law has since been amended to mandate the creation of Information Technology cabinet area. After that, the law allowed the Governor to create the other fourteen cabinet areas at his discretion until the Oklahoma Legislature formally created the cabinet areas. The heads of these executive cabinet area would be given the title of "Secretary" followed by the name of their cabinet area (or a shortened title thereof).
The Governor, within 45 days of taking office, is allowed to create his own cabinet, with anywhere from no less than 10 but no more than 15 "cabinet areas". The Governor is allowed to create any cabinet area he desires and to place whichever agencies, bureaus, and commissions he wants under those cabinet areas. For example, under Governor Frank Keating, the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce each belonged to separate cabinet areas, while under Governor Brad Henry the Secretary of Commerce and Tourism was the cabinet secretary for both departments. Alternatively, under Governor Keating, the Secretary of Health and Human Services oversaw the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services while Governor Henry split the posts into a separate Secretary of Health to oversee the Health Department and a separate Secretary of Human Services to oversee the Human Services Department.
Regardless of the number of cabinet areas and their functions, at least one must be the Secretary of Veteran Affairs and must be charged with providing for Oklahoma's veterans and one must be the Secretary of Information Technology and must be charged with overseeing state use of information technology and telecommunications.
Following the Oklahoma Supreme Court case of Keating v. Edmondson in 2001, it was deemed illegal for a Governor to change the cabinet areas and their functions past the 45-day deadline unilaterally. In order to change a cabinet area after the first 45 days in office, the Governor must seek approval from the Oklahoma Legislature via legislation.
Read more about this topic: Oklahoma Governor's Cabinet
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