Legal fees and financial settlements stemming from a lawsuit filed last year by former Oklahoma’s Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) COO Michael Kiefner totaled more than $925,000, according to the state-owned utility.

Responding to an open records request, Kiefner himself received $185,000 and that $518,986 has been paid in legal fees and other expenses.

In addition, $223,000 was paid to settle a sexual harassment allegation against Chief Executive Officer Dan Sullivan related to the Kiefner suit. Earlier this week, GRDA directors publicly endorsed Sullivan but delayed consideration of his salary until later this fall.

Kiefner, a former state Senate staff attorney, came to the GRDA after former Democratic state Sen. Kevin Easley became the agency’s chief executive officer in 2004. Easley left in 2011 and was replaced by former Republican state Rep. Dan Sullivan.

In his suit, Kiefner says he negotiated a deal with GRDA management to accept early retirement from his $180,000-a-year job last summer in exchange for a $59,000 buyout. Also in the suit, Kiefner claimed that he was forced out because a co-worker told him Sullivan had made unwanted advances to her.

In its counterclaims, the GRDA said Kiefner did not have a valid contract and that he violated terms of his employment by failing to report the alleged harassment.

GRDA directors subsequently hired the Tulsa law firm to investigate the harassment allegation, and last month the directors authorized a $223,000 payment to an unnamed female employee to drop a threatened lawsuit stemming from the accusation.

The GRDA is a self-funded, non-appropriated state agency that generates, markets, and transmits electricity, primarily to municipalities and to industrial customers at the Mid-America Industrial Park near Pryor, OK.