Closing statements in a political debate or forum usually offer candidates an opportunity to put a bow on their previous remarks or reiterate points they made earlier.
However, in a Jan. 29 forum hosted by WesTen featuring incumbent Oklahoma City Ward 3 Councilwoman Barbara Peck and challenger Katrina Avers, the closing statements showed the highly competitive battle between the two candidates for control of the south OKC seat.
As she delivered her closing remarks, Avers pivoted in an attempt to draw contrast with Peck.
“We have fewer officers than we had four years ago,” Avers began. “We are understaffed by national standards even when we are fully staffed with our approved budget. And the Oklahoma City Police Department is not endorsing the candidate.”
With that, Peck had heard enough, and she leaned into the microphone.
“They’re not endorsing you, either,” she deadpanned before allowing Avers to continue.
When the forum ended, the vibe was frosty between the two candidates, who had spent about an hour answering a variety of questions on topics ranging from potholes to homelessness.
Peck is a former OKCPD police dispatcher who currently works for Love’s Travel Stops. She is also a member of the Oklahoma City Airport Trust. Avers is a business scientist at the FAA who also works in ranching.
Ward 3 includes Will Rogers International Airport and much of west OKC as well as parts of Oklahoma, Canadian and Cleveland counties. The election will be held Feb. 11.
Public safety takes center stage
The Oklahoma City Police Department currently faces a staffing shortage of about 200 officers and numerous non-uniformed positions. Former Chief Wade Gourley attempted to address some of that by hiring non-officers for some positions, but the need is still there. Current Chief Ron Bacy has said getting more officers on the street remains a priority.
During the forum, Peck said hiring is complicated by a variety of factors, including a limited applicant pool in a response to Avers, who had questioned why those jobs haven’t been filled.
“The two most important things for the council to focus on over the next four years definitely includes public safety,” Peck said. “The one thing that my colleague hasn’t mentioned yet is that our budget for public safety is maxed out, and we still have 400 open positions in the police department. We will take applicant after applicant after applicant, but we’re not going to put people who do not fulfill the mental health requirements and safety requirements on the street to support this city. It is a struggle, and we are doing many things for retention, for recruitment.”
Peck continued, adding the problems in hiring officers are not unique to OKC.
“The city can throw all the money out if they want to,” Peck said. “It’s not a city problem. It is a systemic national problem.”
Avers’ husband is a police officer, which she said has given her a unique point of view of what the job is like.
“My husband has been a police officer for 20 years,” she said. “It is a job that is near and dear to my heart. We are facing a shortfall in our public safety. Right now the recommendation is for 2.5 police officers per 1,000 people. The max that we have now with our current budget is 1.6 officers per 1,000. That is below the national recommendation, which is 1.8. So what I would say is we can’t just approve what’s being put in front of us. We have to be advocating for what we need as a community. If you add that on to the fact that we have about 500 officers that are expected to retire in the next five years, we are facing a staffing crisis if we don’t do something within the next 18 months.”
Candidates take on housing, homelessness
Like most of Oklahoma City, Ward 3 is facing an affordable housing crunch. Homes are being built, especially in outlying areas like Mustang and west OKC, but the cost of them is often outside the means of potential buyers. OKC has begun implementing ideas that could increase stock from supporting urban infill to easing rules on having more than one dwelling on a property, but many still feel left with few options.
Avers said Ward 3 hasn’t been as hard hit as some other areas because it has diversity in its housing stock, but she is concerned about the years to come and the feeling of not knowing exactly what kind of housing stock is needed.
“I think it’s something that you see diversity in across Ward 3 particularly,” she said. “So our ward is very large. We have a significant range in housing prices. I met with some realtors just a few weeks ago, and the price of housing is going up. Property insurance is going up. It is more difficult to afford for everyone. I think that we need to have firm numbers on what we need now, what we need three years from now, and what we need five years from now. We’re seeing a huge change in our workforce and what that’s looking like, and what their expectations and needs are as well.”
Peck said the city has done much of the planning but what’s needed is execution.
“The affordable housing study that the city completed just a couple of years ago really answers all of the questions that my colleague has, and it talks about the tens of thousands of housing units behind where we are today, and that a lot of those units are in the affordable range and in the middle housing range,” Peck said. “So affordable housing is like 80 percent of the income levels, but nevertheless, those are the two things that we’re really trying to focus on, and some of the opportunities that we’re looking at (are) trying to increase those options.”
Peck said there are few middle options when it comes to affordable housing.
“We’re working on bringing people out of homelessness,” Peck said. “They need to go into very, very, very affordable housing opportunities to get them stabilized, but then they trickle out from there to middle housing, to irregular housing, and then into home ownership. That’s the cycle that we want to create. But right now, because we have so limited affordable housing and so limited middle housing, as it’s called, we don’t have the ability to do that. We put people in a situation where we have this very low level of housing that’s sometimes available.
“No middle housing is available whatsoever, so the only hope is to go from here — and what is available here — to home ownership, and that’s just not an option in Oklahoma City today with the interest rates and the housing crisis as they are post-COVID.”
Avers said programs like Key to Home are good starts, but there is much more to be done.
“I know that there’s a lot of collaboration and a lot of resources that are being directed to it,” Avers said. “I’ve gotten to hear Councilwoman Peck talk about the 377 individuals that have been housed over the last four years. And so I can look at it in two ways. I can think, well, it’s wonderful that we’ve gotten 377 people home or transitioned from a homeless situation. But then I flip it on its side and I think, man, there’s still a lot left to do. And I know the goal was 500. We fell short of that in the last four years. But I’d like to think that we can do better. I think that it’s a priority in this area in particular. I think that you’re seeing it on a daily basis. When you talk to people that are on the far west side or the far south side, homelessness is not something that is touching people’s lives as much. But a homeless resident is still a resident, and we want to make sure that we are prioritizing people’s needs being met, for sure.”
Making sure Ward 3 gets a fair shake
Avers took exception to Peck’s work for the ward when it came to economic development and making sure Ward 3 gets its fair share of resources from the city government.
“She shared with me that in the 2025 budget, the GO bond that is coming up that was submitted to her for our ward — despite it being the largest and fastest-growing — was actually receiving the lowest allocation out of the gate. That spoke volumes to me. I appreciate that Councilwoman Peck has served for the past four years, but what I hear when I see that our ward is getting the lowest amount of funding, despite being the largest, and fastest growing, is that we are in a crisis of infrastructure.”
Peck said Avers’ characterization of the 2025 GO bond doesn’t represent the full picture of what the ward is set to receive.
“The part that my colleague left out was that it was a preliminary presentation from staff that is accustomed to having a council member just go along with it to get along,” Peck said. “And since that time, we’ve not only done community outreach, but I’ve also pushed back on staff, and the outcome will be much better. But the thing to consider is that those numbers — and I told her this — have to be equitable across all funding platforms.”
