§ 74-840-1.9. Powers and duties of Commission.

In addition to any other duties expressly set forth by law, the Oklahoma Merit Protection Commission shall:

1.  Receive and act on complaints, counsel persons and groups on their rights and duties and take action designed to obtain voluntary compliance with the provisions of the Oklahoma Personnel Act;

2.  Investigate allegations of violations of the provisions of the Oklahoma Personnel Act within its jurisdiction;

3.  Investigate allegations of abuses in the employment practices of the Director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services or of any state agency;

4.  Investigate allegations of violations of the rules of the Merit System of Personnel Administration and prohibited activities in the classified service;

5.  Establish and maintain a statewide Alternative Dispute Resolution Program to provide dispute resolution services for state agencies and employees.  Actions agreed to through the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program provided by the Commission shall be consistent with applicable laws and rules and shall not alter, reduce, or modify any existing right or authority as provided by statute or rule;

6.  Establish rules, pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act as may be necessary to perform the duties and functions of the Commission including, but not limited to, rules to monitor state agency grievance processes to ensure full compliance with the law.  The Commission may also recommend any changes it deems necessary to improve such grievance processes to the appropriate state agency;

7.  Establish guidelines for the qualifications, duties, responsibilities, authority, power, and continued employment of the Executive Director, Administrative Hearing Officers, mediators, and other resolution arbitrators or facilitators;

8.  Prepare and preserve an audio tape of all proceedings of all hearings conducted by the Commission and furnish transcripts of such tapes upon payment of the costs of such transcripts by the party requesting the transcripts;

9.  Submit quarterly, fiscal year reports on workload statistics to the Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate containing the following information:

a.the number of cases, complaints, and requests for hearing filed, disposed of and pending with the Commission for each month of the quarter,

b.a numerical breakdown of the methods of disposition of such cases, complaints, and requests for hearing,

c.a numerical breakdown of mediations, prehearing conferences, and appellate hearings, conducted, and

d.the date of the oldest pending case, complaint, and request for hearing.

Quarterly reports shall be submitted within thirty (30) days following the last day of the month of the appropriate quarter; and

10.  Make all records of the Commission, except those made confidential by law, available for public inspection, copying and mechanical reproduction, or either of them, in accordance with the Oklahoma Open Records Act and charge a fee not to exceed twenty-five cents ($0.25) per page as the direct costs of document copying or mechanical reproduction.  All fees collected pursuant to the provisions of this paragraph shall be deposited in the Oklahoma Merit Protection Commission Revolving Fund.

Added by Laws 1982, c. 338, § 24, eff. July 1, 1982.  Amended by Laws 1983, c. 274, § 5, operative July 1, 1983; Laws 1984, c. 242, § 1, operative July 1, 1984; Laws 1986, c. 158, § 12, operative July 1, 1986; Laws 1988, c. 229, § 3, operative July 1, 1988; Laws 1992, c. 367, § 5, eff. July 1, 1992; Laws 1994, c. 242, § 30.  Renumbered from § 841.3 of this title by Laws 1994, c. 242, § 54.  Amended by Laws 2005, c. 389, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2005; Laws 2009, c. 12, § 2, eff. July 1, 2009; Laws 2012, c. 303, § 7, eff. Nov. 1, 2012.