Commissioners Of The Land Office (School Land Trust)

-Continued-

• Investment Division – 64 O.S. 2001, Section 51, requires the CLO to establish an investment committee. The investment committee must be composed of not more than three (3) members of the Commissioners of the Land Office or their designees. The investment committee makes recommendations to the CLO on all matters related to the choice of managers of the assets of the funds, on the establishment of investment and fund management guidelines, and in planning future investment policy.  The Committee meets monthly with CLO staff and a consulting firm.
• Legal Division – The legal division gives advice and counsel to the Commissioners, Secretary, division directors and agency personnel.  The legal division also represents the department and Commissioners in all legal matters before State and Federal Courts, administrative matters and other legal proceedings. 
• Minerals Management Division – The various trusts under the direction of the Commissioners of the Land Office own 1,085,000 mineral acres scattered throughout the state in 74 of the 77 counties.  The Minerals Management Division (MMD) staff is responsible for oversight on approximately 5,000 wells and administration of approximately 4,000 leases.
• Real Estate Management Division – The CLO was granted 3.12 million acres of land of statehood, all of which were located in what was then known as Oklahoma territory.  Several hundred thousand acres of additional land in the Panhandle and Northwestern Oklahoma were granted to the Trust because designated lands in Oklahoma territory had been deeded or utilized for other uses.  The majority of the Trust land was sold within the first 20 years after statehood, much of it with mineral interests. 

The Real Estate Management division is responsible for the lease, sale and management of the remaining 745,000 acres of Trust lands located in 44 counties.  The largest concentration of land is in Cimarron County with 236,000 acres.

History

The powers of the CLO are limited by provisions in the Organic Act and the state Constitution.  Because of these limitations, it is helpful to review the history of the CLO. The United States Congress passed the Organic Act in 1890, allowing for the creation of the Oklahoma territory.   Section 18 of the Organic Act reserved Sections 16 and 36 of each township in the western half of the state, Oklahoma territory, for the use and benefit of public schools.   

The Federal Government had no title to lands in Indian Territory, now the eastern half of Oklahoma, so it compensated the Trust Fund with a grant of $5 million in the Enabling Act which passed Congress in 1906.  Section 33 in each township was also set aside by the Organic Act to support public buildings and Corrections.  Unlike other School Land Trust monies, the money earned from this land is not held in trust, but disbursed on an annual basis. 

In 1913, the Oklahoma Legislature targeted Section 33 lands in what was Greer County (now Greer, Harmon and Jackson counties) to support a building fund designed to provide support for union graded and consolidated school districts, now known as public schools.  State Educational Institutions were also provided for in the Organic Act.  Section 13 of each Township was set aside for their support.  These lands were divided between the University of Oklahoma and the University preparatory School (1/3), the Normal Schools (1/3), and (institutions previously known as) the Agricultural and Mechanical university and the Colored Agricultural Normal University (1/3).

The Federal Government set aside three million acres in the initial grant to ensure that public education would perpetually have a financial base.  Early state leaders shared that view.  When the State of Oklahoma Constitution was written, Article 11, Section 2 stated that the "principal shall be deemed a trust fund held by the State, and shall ever remain inviolate. It may be increased, but shall never be diminished." 

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