Lee Anne Bruce Boone, who currently serves as chief accountability officer at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, will start as director of the Ethics Commission in the new year.
Bruce Boone coordinates audits, investigations and risk management reviews at the Health Department. She previously served as chief of staff at the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, according to a news release.
She is excited to build relationships with members of the Oklahoma Legislature, state officers, employees and others in state government, according to the release.
The Ethics Commission writes and enforces rules for state employees and elected officials and oversees state political campaigns and lobbyist spending.
“Striving to ensure accountability to ethical guidelines takes a measured approach, and by working proactively to establish a customer-service oriented workforce we will help to educate those regulated by the Ethics Commission,” she said in a news release. “This is a critical role to all Oklahomans to ensure rules for the ethical conduct of campaigns and the public actions of state officials and employees are enforced, but with fairness and a focus on proactive continuous improvement.”
Current Ethics Commission Director Ashley Kemp plans to remain on through the end of the year.
This summer, Kemp announced plans to resign due to the agency’s lack of state funding, which she blamed on the Legislature. She accused lawmakers of underfunding the agency, which she said made it difficult to enforce state ethics laws.
Bruce Boone will start on Jan. 4. Her annual salary will be $150,000.
She will be Ethics Commission’s fourth executive director since the agency’s creation in 1990.
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