In what looks to be one of the Tulsa County’s more competitive races, Democrat Sarah Gray and Republican Rep. Lonnie Sims (R-Jenks) are running to succeed Tulsa County’s sole Democratic county commissioner, Karen Keith. With Keith running for mayor of Tulsa, Republicans are hoping to secure a trifecta on the county commission, while Democrats are hoping to hold their sole county office.
Asked to participate in a public debate for the seat organized by NonDoc, Sims initially cited evening campaign obligations as preventing him from attending any debate. Pressed with an offer to work with his schedule, Sims said he did not want to give his opponent a platform, characterizing Gray as a “posturer.”
“Truthfully, a lot of it too is, she’s kind of an activist. I don’t know how well you know Sarah, but I’m not a big posturer when it comes to politics, and that’s just what Sarah does,” Sims said. “She’s an activist, and she likes to divide the city. And truthfully, I don’t feel like that’s the commissioner’s role. More of a nuts and bolts (job), kind of infrastructure and public safety. A lot of it is minimizing her platform to go be an activist and divide District 2. We’ve got a lot of things to get done, and I want to partner with everybody.”
Gray said she “absolutely would have” participated in a public debate and was “disappointed” Sims declined to answer questions from journalists in public.
“This goes back to accountability and transparency. I’m very willing to stand on my positions and share my values with the voters,” Gray said.
Gray, who has been a vocal critic of the county’s handling of the juvenile justice center scandal, said the biggest difference between her and Sims is in how the candidates view the office.
“I don’t view this job as being simply about roads and bridges. And Rep. Sims has made it very clear that there’s no room in the conversation about what the county commissioner should be doing other than infrastructure,” Gray said. “We are obligated to inspect the county jail once a year — not just take a tour, but inspect — and we are now fully over the Family Center for Juvenile Justice. This is not just a ‘roads and bridges’ job, and we are among the highest paid, if not the highest paid, elected officials in the state of Oklahoma, and I believe voters deserve more than the bare minimum.”
Sims, who served on the Jenks Planning Commission in the 2000s and then as the city’s mayor, said his experience in government is the biggest difference between the candidates for Tulsa County Board of Commissioners District 2.
“The (newly opened) outlet mall (in Jenks), I got to cut the ribbon on that. That was a plan put in place in the early 2000s to really make Jenks a point of destination,” Sims said. “Probably the most important thing for this position is just my knowledge of state appropriations after being able to lead the county and municipal government committee for four years.”
Levee, transparency and homelessness top candidates’ priority lists
In an interview about his campaign, Sims said his top priority if elected would be finishing repairs to Tulsa’s levee system to prevent flooding.
“The levee is my top priority,” Sims said. “You think of (Hurricane) Katrina and what that event did to economic development, to the future of that community and the lives that were uprooted. I mean, you say $2 billion (in assets are protected by the levee), you could times that by 10 if you have a catastrophic event like that. That project has to get completed.”
Gray said her top priorities would be homelessness and transparency.
“There are some really simple things that we can do to seek transparency on the county level. That looks like live-streaming our meetings and adding public comments back to the agenda,” Gray said. “I really do believe that folks will get more engaged when they have a better understanding of what all the county does and what all the commissioners are responsible for.”
Sims said a county commissioner must be active in combating homelessness, especially in increasing cooperation between different levels of government and private sector partners.
“Government is a piece of the solution, (and so is) the nonprofit world and just people in general,” Sims said. “People want to help. I’ve found that everywhere I’ve been. People want to help, and a lot of time, they just don’t know where to plug in.”
Sims praised nonprofits that provide assistance to homeless people while also requiring participation in some sort of programing “to get them back into rhythm.”
“A lot of the help, if you don’t require something on the other side from them, you’re just enabling the problem. You’ve got to make sure the resources that we’re spending are invested wisely and that there is some requirement of those individuals to, one, they want help and two, they’re doing the things we’re asking them to do,” Sims said. “You’ve got to get them in the process of production. You know, that’s how we wake up everyday. If I don’t wake up and go to work, I’m not going to get paid.”
Gray stressed the importance of the county government’s role in addressing homelessness and criticized SB 1931, a bill which repealed several sections of state statute related to county government obligations for “indigent persons.”
“So I have nightmares about SB 1931, right? Like, it gutted not only county’s obligation to provide for folks in these ways, but it also removed authorizing provisions that allowed for us to do it legally,” Gray said. “(The) Oklahoma County DA took the position that she did, because the authorizing provisions were removed. So this is a great concern of mine whenever it comes to how we are able to support solutions for homelessness.”
Gray noted that Sims voted in favor of the bill and criticized it for potentially limiting local government’s ability to address homelessness in favor of leaving the issue entirely to private charity.
“The justification behind this bill was that now these kinds of services can lie where they belong, which is with the philanthropic or charitable communities and organizations, and I think that that is wholly unacceptable,” Gray said. “I believe we have an absolute obligation to support the cities, support all of these nonprofit entities and community organizations.”
Deputy county commissioner question unclear
In Oklahoma, deputy county commissioners are appointed by county commissioners and can vote during meetings if their commissioner is absent. Asked if he had decided on a deputy county commissioner if he wins in November, Sims said he has “always been one of those that (thinks), ‘You’ve got to win first.'”
“And the right person will be there,” Sims said. “I’ve had enough just great individuals reach out inquiring to me about that, that I have no doubt there will be a very competent person for that position and role.”
Gray said she would form a committee of seven to nine individuals that would provide her a shortlist of candidates, and she would pick a deputy from that list.
Asked if she had picked any members of the committee, Gray said she had spoken with Tulsa City Councilwoman Laura Bellis, Berryhill Fire Chief Michael Hall, former Tulsa County Commissioner John Selph and a representative from the Muscogee Nation about serving on her committee. She stressed the potential committee members’ willingness to participate was not the equivalent of an endorsement and added that members would be selected to represent various communities in Tulsa County.