We had an excellent meeting in Elgin on Friday to discuss economic development opportunities for the region and local businesses.  There were about 40 people gathered at the high school library from the area to hear presentations by Lyle Roggow from the Duncan Chamber of Commerce, Charles Middleton from Great Plains Technology Center, Christy Elkins with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, Linda Barnett from the Main Street program, Bill Cunningham from the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance and Gilmer Capps from Rural Enterprises.  The discussion focused on various opportunities for businesses surrounding programs available, along with suggested items the communities can pursue to expand job growth.  If you have specific questions or would like further information, feel free to contact me and I can get you in touch with one of these individuals.
     Last week, I started the discussion on the bills I have filed for the upcoming session.  I would like to cover a few more of those ideas with you this week.  The next bill looks at revising how the Ethics Commission is funded.  Currently, the agency responsible for investigating campaign violations relies almost entirely on funding from the legislature.  I would like to change this to where each campaign committee and political action committee must write a check to the Ethics Commission for five percent of what they raise.  This would result in an increase to their funding and logic would dictate the groups which raise the most money would likely be the ones which would also require the most oversight.  A candidate who raises a few thousand dollars will not require as much review as a campaign which raises millions of dollars.  I will continue to work on the language of this bill as the session progresses to see if we can make the Ethics Commission more independent of legislative purse strings.
     The next bill is a request from the Oklahoma Hospital Association.  There has been a concern raised on how liens occur with doctors, so I am working with them to address their issue with the current laws.  I will discuss this legislation more as the session progresses, along with my bill from last year addressing liens filed against property owners and the attempt to require more disclosure on who is working on property.
     My seventh bill for the year is a request from two area residents to look at adverse possession laws.  Currently, under Oklahoma Law, if a person mistakenly pays taxes on property over a fifteen year period which they do not own, the person can file for adverse possession and claim ownership.  I would like to revise this to where the person can lay claim to their taxes which were unfairly paid, but that they could not claim the property.  I will be working with our local county assessors to determine fair language for parties involved in this dispute.
     The last request I will discuss this week enhances background checks on school volunteers.  There has already been quite a bit of discussion on this topic.  The bill would require those volunteers who travel on overnight trips with students and those people with access to athletic locker rooms to go through a background check similar to what we require of substitute teachers.  We will not require volunteers working in concession stands or with school programs, such as stock shows or club activities during the day, to submit to a background check.  Also, the background check will need to be paid by either the volunteer in question or the booster club supporting the events in which they volunteer.  The filed bill also has the school listed as one of the parties which can pay for the background check, but I am going to remove that mandate as the costs could significantly grow for this with larger schools.  The school board could choose to pay this fee, but I do not want to make this a mandate upon the school.
     It is an honor to represent your views at the State Capitol.  If you wish to contact me to discuss one of these or another issue, I can be reached at my office in Oklahoma City toll-free at 1-800-522-8502, or directly at 1-405-557-7305.  My email address is joedorman@okhouse.gov at work.  My mailing address is PO Box 559 , Rush Springs , OK  73082 and my website is www.joedorman.com on the Internet.  Thank you for taking the time to read this column and I look forward to seeing you soon.  You can also view a video copy of this column at the link below: