2023 Oklahoma Statutes › Title 74E. Ethics Rules › Rule 5.2. Definitions

As used in Rule 5:
1. “Agency” means any entity in the executive branch of state government created by the Constitution or laws of the State of Oklahoma and supported in whole or in part by state funds or entrusted with the expending of state funds or administering of state property or otherwise exercising the sovereign power of the State of Oklahoma, including but not limited to all such offices, departments, institutions, boards, bureaus, commissions, agencies, authorities and instrumentalities of the State of Oklahoma. “Agency” shall not mean any city, county, rural electric cooperative or tribal housing authority created under the Oklahoma Housing Authorities Act nor any state entity that performs only advisory functions and that cannot independently exercise the sovereign power of the State of Oklahoma;
2. “Commission” shall mean the Oklahoma Ethics Commission;
3. “Executive lobbying” means any oral or written communication with a state officer or employee of an agency, excluding the Governor or a member of the Legislature or with an employee of the Governor or the Legislature, on behalf of a lobbyist principal with regard to the passage, defeat, formulation, modification, interpretation, amendment, adoption, approval or veto of any legislation, rule, rate, regulation, executive order or any other program, policy or position of state government. However, “executive lobbying” shall not mean testimony given at, or submitted in writing to, a public hearing of the agency, nor a speech, article, publication or other material that is widely distributed, published in newspapers, magazines or similar publications or broadcast on radio or television;
4. “Executive lobbyist” means any individual who is employed or retained by another for financial or other compensation to perform services that include executive lobbying, other than an individual whose lobbying activities are only incidental to, and are not a significant part of, the services provided by such individual to the client, except the following individuals shall not be considered lobbyists:
a.
an individual appearing before a state officer or employee of an agency who receives no compensation for his or her appearance other than reimbursement from the state for expenses and who engages in no further lobbying;
b.
a federal official acting in his or her official capacity;
c.
any person exercising his or her constitutional right to petition the government who receives no compensation or anything of value for lobbying;
5. “Family member” shall include spouse, children (including stepchildren), mother, father, sister or brother;
6. “Legislative liaison” means any state officer or employee whose duties in fact include legislative lobbying, regardless of the state officer or employee’s title and regardless of whether or not legislative lobbying is included within the state officer or state employee’s job description other than an individual whose lobbying activities are only incidental to, and are not a significant part of, the services provided by such individual to the agency. Each agency shall have at least one (1) legislative liaison, unless all officers and employees of the agency provide information to the Governor or a legislator only at the request of the Governor or a legislator or an employee of the Governor or the Legislature or as required by law, and provided further that no officer or employee of the agency has requested legislation, other than an appropriation for the agency, or other legislative action, or unless the agency has a contract with a legislative lobbyist to provide legislative lobbying services;
7. “Legislative lobbying” means any oral or written communication with the Governor or with a member of the Legislature or with an employee of the Governor or the Legislature on behalf of a lobbyist principal with regard to the passage, defeat, formulation, modification, interpretation, amendment, adoption, approval or veto of any legislation, rule, regulation, executive order or any other program, policy or position of state government. As used in this Rule, “employee of the Governor or the Legislature” includes any state officer or employee who advises the Governor, a legislator or the Legislature on legislation other than legislation that affects only his or her agency. However, “legislative lobbying” shall not mean testimony given before, or submitted in writing to, a committee or subcommittee of the Legislature, nor a speech, article, publication or other material that is widely distributed, published in newspapers, magazines or similar publications or broadcast on radio or television;
8. “Legislative lobbyist” means any individual who is employed or retained by another for financial or other compensation to perform services that include legislative lobbying, other than an individual whose lobbying activities are only incidental to, and are not a significant part of, the services provided by such individual to the client, except the following individuals shall not be considered lobbyists:
a.
an individual appearing before the Governor or a meeting of a legislative body who receives no compensation for his or her appearance other than reimbursement from the state for expenses and who engages in no further lobbying;
b.
a federal official acting in his or her official capacity;
c.
any person exercising his or her constitutional right to petition the government who receives no compensation or anything of value for lobbying;
9. “Lobbyist principal” means any person or entity, including an agency, who employs or retains another person for financial or other compensation to conduct executive or legislative lobbying activities on behalf of the lobbyist principal; provided, however, it shall not mean any individual members, partners, officers or shareholders of an agency, a corporation, association, firm, joint venture, joint stock company, syndicate, business trust, estate, trust, company, partnership, limited partnership, organization, committee or club, or a group of persons who are voluntarily acting in concert.
Promulgated by Ethics Commission January 10, 2014; effective upon Legislature’s sine die adjournment May 23, 2014; operative December 1, 2014.