Spotlight8
Senior Services offered in baffling maze
Capitol Spotlight for Tuesday, March 25, or thereafter
By Jim Campbell
OPA Capitol News Bureau
The elderly and their caretakers have complained for years about the bewildering process of finding services scattered throughout Oklahoma's bureaucracy, an exercise more daunting than choosing the right voice mail option.
Why not, they asked, have a single point of entry - one call that could be redirected to transportation, nursing home questions or whatever? The late Roy Keen, longtime aging services director, favored setting it up under an Aging Services Department.
A more modest proposal than creating a new department would have provided an Oklahoma Commission on Aging to oversee various services. Sponsored by Rep. Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, HB 2529 was believed by advocates to "have legs."
It was passed unanimously by the House Human Services Committee but languished unheard in the House's late night grind to meet a March 13 deadline.
"This proposal would have helped older Oklahomans obtain easier access to the state's often confusing maze of senior services," said Bob Bristow, state AARP president.
Bristow called it a first step in shifting the emphasis away from institutions toward a more "person-centered" system and praised Steele "for his leadership on issues affecting older Oklahomans."
Craig Davis, AARP's associate state director, said he hoped it could be attached to other legislation. Davis and others speculated that controversy over DHS in such areas as child services may have clouded the issue.
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Presidents of Oklahoma's two major state universities and other higher education officials said they were acting to protect students, but a lawmaker accused them of attacking veterans by opposing his bill allowing guns on campus.
Presidents David Boren of OU and Burns Hargis of OSU, the Council of Presidents representing the state's 25 higher education institutions and the OU faculty senate all cited risks of placing firearms in the wrong hands.
Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, however, said his House-passed HB 2513 gives veterans and active duty personal "the right to defend themselves and others" on campus if they notify the university they have a concealed carry license.
"I find it offensive that some in the higher education community have begun to question the judgment of our military men and women," said Murphey, issuing a Veterans Awareness Day press release.
The bill is now in the Senate, which has passed Sen. Todd Lamb's "Campus Security Act" requiring three lock-down drills and focusing on victims of bullies who may become violent.  Although a gun owner and 2nd Amendment advocate, Lamb said, "I am not a co-author" of HB 2513.
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State Democratic Party Chairman Ivan Holmes charged Monday that partisan politics is blocking consideration of Democratic-sponsored bills. He specified bills making automated defibrillators available to schools, a flood plains bill, more Ethics Commission funding, a sales tax exemption on college texts, a Veterans health insurance program and requiring insurance firms to pay for doctor-requested services.
Holmes said he had received many calls denouncing Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, for saying homosexuality is a bigger threat than terrorism.  He introduced Ron Marlett, a social worker who will be among her opponents in the next election.
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Time is flying toward an April 1 deadline for lawmakers to submit a common schools budget to the Legislature, so districts may know by April 10 whether to rehire teachers for next year.