Fisher Reprimanded by Oklahoma Ethics Panel

The State of Oklahoma Ethics Commission recently issued a two-count public reprimand for troubled state Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher. An impeachment committee of the Oklahoma House of Representa-tives is currently investigating Fisher, and the insurance chief is also facing felony charges in district court for allegedly violating laws governing the use of state funds and operating a charity.

The Associ-ated Press reported that the Ethics Commission previously reprimanded Fisher in 2003 for persuading an insurance company to give him information from a political opponent’s personnel file.

Despite the setbacks, the 64-year-old Democrat is running for his party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate and will be on the ballot in the July 27 primary.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Fisher said he had been wrongly accused and had never intentionally broken any law. He said he would “stand the heat of day” and planned to use the Senate race as a forum to get his story out to the public.

Fisher reportedly did not immediately respond to a telephone call seeking comment on the latest ethics reprimand.

The two-count Ethics Commission reprimand was issued on a unanimous vote of the five-member panel.

According an Ethics Commission announcement regarding the reprimand, in count one the panel found that Fisher violated the Ethics Rules by soliciting Farmers & Merchants Insurance Co. to take part in a risk capital venture offered by the Rural Oklahoma Capital Alliance.

The AP reported that in a Jan. 8, 2003, letter to John P. Cavoores of Farmers & Merchants, Fisher said rural Oklahoma was in a crisis and a development of a pool of risk capital was needed to “support entrepreneurship in a rural
economy.

“The Rural Oklahoma Capitol Alliance proposes to do just that. I encourage Farmers & Merchants Insurance Co. to
consider becoming a part of this opportunity,” Fisher continued. Fisher signed the letter in his capacity as insurance commissioner.

The Ethics Commission stated that, “soliciting participants in a risk capital fund is not a function of the Insurance Department or among the duties of its Commissioner.”

The commission also said it believes “an appearance of
coercion arises when the recipient of the letter is a company you regulate.”

The panel found in the second count, also by unanimous vote, that the insurance commissioner misused his office by “securing special privileges on behalf of a former employee by soliciting others to purchase advertising in that employee’s magazine.”

In an August 2002 letter written on behalf of Kevin Garcia, the former employee, Fisher said he was very impressed with Garcia’s publication, the Sooner State Football News, “and would like to see Kevin succeed.” The letter was written on insurance commission letterhead.

The Ethics Commission held that the violation occurred when Fisher provided Garcia with the letter, adding it was irrelevant whether or not Garcia disseminated the letter.

“After a thorough investigation, the commission found that the material facts were not in dispute,” said John Luton, commission chairman.