There's a new sheriff for the Oklahoma Tax Commission...and he's made some great improvements

By Tamara Sponburg, CPA

Doug Linehan, CPA, is the Executive Director for the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC) as of January 2022. Linehan brings new energy and business knowledge from his 30 plus years of experience in finance and accounting. He passed the CPA Exam in 1992 after graduating from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance in 1990.  He went on to work for Deloitte, Conagra Foods Inc., and most recently with Paycom in various leadership roles.  

As he began working at the OTC, his initial objective was to assess the strengths and opportunities of the agency. He reviewed agency services, taxpayer interaction, processes, technology and culture. After an initial 60-day assessment, he determined all would require significant changes to enhance the overall taxpayer and employee experiences.

Linehan found some of the day-to-day processes were inefficient and needed standardization. The technology (computer systems/programs) were antiquated. And although the management and employees were passionate, the OTC lacked accountability, consistency of processes and a culture of employee empowerment.

To get to the root cause of the issues at hand, Linehan held town halls and individual meetings with his management and employees. He determined the employees were not empowered to make quality decisions timely. He also found that opportunities for employee advancement were not available, training was inadequate and employee recruitment was not a priority.

He realized working directly with both management and employees was necessary to execute his vision and believed it would take discipline and transparency for success. The OTC’s core values are:

• Transparency and fairness in administration of the tax code;
• Driving efficiencies through innovation;
• Unparalleled customer service; and
• Creating a great place to work.

In driving these core values, Linehan believes the agency must 1) focus on data-driven decision-making, 2) implement a pay-for-performance culture, 3) ensure everything the OTC does makes the taxpayer and/or employee experience better, and 4) execute with discipline and urgency.

Some of Linehan’s enhancements include:

• Initiating a robust, agency-wide employee performance management process and an employee incentive compensation program. As Linehan said:
  1. “We are breaking a cycle where employees believed that no matter their performance, there salary would not be impacted. Employees are now beginning to understand that their pay is impacted by their performance.”
  2. “We have enhanced transparency into our operations to legislators, tax preparers and taxpayers. My team and I go on ‘roadshows’ to share with these groups how we are spending our budgeted dollars along with the changes we are making within the agency.  At the end of the day, we are spending taxpayer dollars, and they should understand how we are spending such so they can determine if we are being good stewards of their tax dollars.”
  3. “We are in the process of implementing two operating systems: one related to our ad valorem operations and the other relating to our collections operations. Both operating systems will significantly simplify and enhance both the taxpayer experience as well as the employee experience.”

Finally, Linehan shared, the agency is embarking on an initiative to overhaul OkTAP, the agency’s phone system technology, processes and the agency’s website. He has made major strides in his role as Executive Director in a short period of time.

Tamara Sponburg, CPA, works for Hamilton, Stone & Brown P.L.L.C.  She has been a member of the OSCPA for 18 years. Her hobbies and interest include playing the flute at church, gardening, pickleball and reading a books on the best sellers list.