Okla. Commissioner Implements Get-Tough Policy

Two upper-level employees at the Oklahoma Insurance Department are resigning because of a tough new policy on conflicts of interest implemented by new Commissioner Kim Holland, the Associated Press reported.

Phil Marsh, director of agents licensing, and William E. Smith, director of the senior health insurance counseling program, will leave in June, officials said.

“These are tough decisions that we don’t take lightly,” said Holland, who was appointed in January. “We will do everything we can and must do to reassure everyone that we’re all about doing the right thing and following the law.”

The insurance department is trying to emerge from a public-image nightmare. Former Commissioner Carroll Fisher was repeatedly reprimanded by the state Ethics Commission and indicted by a state multicounty grand jury.

He was impeached last year by the state House of Representatives and resigned rather than face an ouster hearing in the state Senate.

Fisher, 65, still faces five felony charges, including one that claims he accepted bribes for preferential treatment. He now works in San Diego.

Also facing felony charges is his former special assistant, Opal L. Ellis.

The new commissioner surveyed employees in April to determine whether any had conflicts of interest. Employees and immediate family members are not supposed to have a financial interest in an insurance company other than being a policyholder.

Employees also were asked if they had been convicted of a felony or accepted gifts above $300 from a lobbyist or insurance company.

Marsh is leaving after disclosing that his wife works for Midlands Management Corp., an insurance agency. He gives up a job that paid $62,160 a year.

Smith is retiring after disclosing he made $15,085 last year from AFLAC off the renewal of insurance policies. Officials said he once was an agent there. He gives up a job that paid $51,340 a year.

Both started in 1999, after Fisher was sworn in.

Holland notified insurance department employees about the conflicts of interest.

“Each situation was examined carefully and discussed with both the attorney general’s office as well as the Ethics Commission,” she wrote. “Ultimately, we concluded that our statutes are unambiguous and that we are obligated to seek compliance.

“We have met with each employee involved and have given everyone an opportunity to discuss the matter with his/her family and to help us determine a course of action that will allow us to be in compliance with our statutes.

“Our foremost obligation is to our state and the department as a whole. For our collective benefit, we must take the necessary steps to rebuild what has been destroyed by past indiscretions,” she wrote.

Two other employees were affected.

An analyst, Cuc Nguyen, was retained after her husband, former Assistant Commissioner Lam Nguyen, agreed to give up his insurance agent’s license.

De Ann Duggins, director of the Tulsa office, has been told she must quit or her husband must give up his insurance agent’s license.

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Topics Oklahoma