While outlining their respective paths to becoming candidates for the open House District 97 special election, JeKia Harrison and Aletia Timmons differed on state intervention into the Oklahoma County Jail funding crisis and on a bill that would promote more transparency on why development projects are rejected by municipal governing boards during a debate Tuesday night hosted by NonDoc and News 9 at Metro Tech.
Viewable on YouTube, the one-hour debate covered an array of topics from the first bills the candidates would file to their views on mental health and the top priorities for both HD 97 and the rest of the state.
Timmons and Harrison are running in the June 10 special election to fill the remaining term of former Rep. Jason Lowe, who was elected to the Oklahoma County Board of Commissioners in April. Timmons, who resigned as an Oklahoma County District Court judge to pursue the seat, and Harrison, a legislative assistant who has also worked in child welfare, were the only two candidates to file in April for the special election, which could see lower than normal turnout owing to its timing.
Running as far north as the John Kilpatrick Turnpike and as far south as Northeast 10th Street, House District 97 includes a large swath of northeast Oklahoma City, as well as the communities of Spencer, Forest Park and Lake Aluma.
SB 647: Candidates differ on the need for legislation
Senate Bill 647 is one bit of unfinished business from the most recent legislative session, which concluded May 30. As considered this year, the bill would require cities to approve proposed development projects if they met all zoning standards specified in their municipal code. Pushed as a way to streamline development processes and limit barriers to the construction of housing and other projects, the bill would require city councils and planning commissions to disclose why and under what code a project was being rejected.
Some have dubbed SB 647 the “anti-NIMBY bill,” as apartment developments are often at odds with what many single-family housing unit owners want in their neighborhoods. Edmond, for example, has long opposed the expansion of apartment complexes in that city. The city officially opposed SB 647 this session, but it remains alive for the 2026 session when either Harrison or Timmons would be serving in the Legislature.
Harrison said the bill would provide relief for younger people looking for affordable housing in a market that has become more costly as OKC has grown.
“So when you are talking about the preconceived notion of apartments and what that looks like, that’s something I’ve actually ran into when I was having a conversation with the Neighborhood Coalition,” Harrison said. “They stated that something that they want is single-family dwellings in the community, and I understand they want to make sure that their property values are taken care of, that they have neighbors that are caring about the community like they are. They want to make sure that they are keeping the traffic down in the area. So these are our concerns that I know, and I understand why they are concerned about it, but I think that we have to realize that in order to bring in a younger population into the community, in order to make sure that folks actually can be a part of this community we have to have rental options.”
Harrison said her understanding of the bill is that it would also promote transparency in the housing development process.
“I think we should have an understanding of why something is being rejected,” she said. “I think that that is fair for people to understand why something is not being put in place, based on the city codes, and I think that that’s a fair conversation that should be had.”
But Timmons said she does not see a need for the bill.
“As I read it, I tried to figure out, what difference does it have, as opposed to the current planning commission rules that the city already has,” she said. “When I was in Oklahoma County, I represented the Oklahoma County Planning Commission, and they had administrative rules in place. They were required to tell people why they rejected their plans. And I think the [OKC] Planning Commission does the same thing, so I struggled when I read this bill to figure out what’s the difference between what’s going on at the city already with regard to city planning, and I really couldn’t find a difference between what it was proposed to do and what’s already being done at the city. The planning commissions at the city and the county make those decisions. There are hearings held where people can come and express their opinions and then they make a decision based upon the input of the community. So you know I looked at it and I thought well, you know, I’m a lawyer (…) I don’t see any difference between what’s going on with the county planning commission so it seemed to be a superfluous, or a redundant, Senate bill.”
Candidates differ on how to solve new Oklahoma County Jail funding crisis
During a portion of Tuesday’s debate about public safety issues, the candidates were asked whether the ongoing saga of the Oklahoma County Jail and the funding gap currently delaying the construction of a new one should escape the boundaries of the county and become an issue for the Oklahoma Legislature to address next session. Currently, the county faces a $400 million funding shortfall for its proposed $600 million new jail.
County commissioners are still mulling over several options to bridge the gap. One proposal includes a county sales tax. Oklahoma County is the only one of Oklahoma’s 77 counties without such a tax. Other considerations include raising property taxes. Neither of those options is likely to be popular with voters, who already approved $260 million in bonds for the new jail in 2022. Recently, District 3 Commissioner Myles Davidson spoke vaguely about potential options that would require help from the Legislature.
Asked if lawmakers need to get involved, Timmons said county officials have been unable to figure out the solution, so it’s time to look at other options.
“It is clear to me that the county officials cannot solve this problem,” she said. “This has been going on since I was in the DA’s office and represented (former Sheriff) J.D. Sharp, who said that this jail is not going to be one that we can humanely house people. This has been going on for at least 20-something years. There are infrastructure issues with it, there are finance issues that the county has not been able to solve, and so if we care about the people in Oklahoma County, one of the things that we have got to do is collaborate with city and county officials and federal officials to see if we can bypass those economic issues that are killing people in Oklahoma County.”
Harrison was less sure that the stat Legislature has a role to play in a solution. She also said she disagrees with the proposed site for the new jail at 1901 E. Grand Blvd. in southeast OKC.
“I’m torn on that because, one, I don’t like the placement of where the jail has been proposed, and that’s because I work for the representative that actually (represents) where that’s been proposed to be placed in House District 94. That also is in an impoverished community and has an elementary school down the street. There’s a park there,” she said. “There’s no resources next to it, so I don’t like the fact that they decided to place it in that area, and I think that a lot of folks were saying that they didn’t want it in that area in the first place, and they should have listened to those people and found another location that worked better for everyone, like somewhere downtown. But to answer your question, I do recognize that there is a need, that it is inhumane in the (current) jail. We recognize that we have to do a better job of making sure that we’re treating the folks that are there like citizens, and so I do think that we have to address it in a way. I’m not exactly sure how I would vote on that with the Legislature because I think that we have a lot of issues that we need to take care of for Oklahomans overall.”
First bills: Promoting election awareness and middle-class tax cuts
With the next legislative session nine months away, the HD 97 candidates will have plenty of time to think about their priorities between the June 10 election and their first day on the job. Both candidates were asked to identify a bill they would file if elected.
“One of the bills that I would want to work on came from this race,” Harrison said. “I would want, when we have special elections, for folks to be notified, because the amount of people that I’ve knocked [doors of] within the last week that still don’t know that there’s election happening on June 10 is horrifying, and so we have to do a better job of making sure that we are getting folks engaged in the voting process, and that means we’ve got to make them aware that it’s happening. (…) Another that I really would like to work on as well is to make sure that we are addressing needs for concurrent enrollment (of) students that are getting to go to trade school and to college courses by taking care of the fees that they have that come along with that.”
Timmons said she would file a bill to provide tax relief for middle-class families. She said the most recent 0.25 percent income tax rate cut passed this past session doesn’t go far enough. The bill also eliminates three bottom tax brackets and creates a pathway for the state’s income tax to be eliminated over time based on economic growth triggers.
“The bill I would file would be one that dealt with the income tax burden on middle-class Americans and middle-class folks in House District 97,” Timmons said. “The older folks are seeing increasing costs. The governor has instituted a tax decrease for folks who are at the lower echelon, but I don’t think it’s enough. I don’t think it’s enough to do any real good when we look at inflation, the cost of housing, the cost of food, gas, and those things. So our people are behind in House District 97 because of the tax burden placed on that class of folks. So that’s what I would try to do.”
HD 97 debate: Candidates discuss their paths to the ballot
First elected to an Oklahoma County judicial seat in 2014, Timmons resigned from the bench earlier this year to run for the office Lowe was vacating. Saying she “did not have any conversations” about campaigning for HD 97 prior to resigning from the bench, Timmons said Tuesday her choice came from a desire to do something different that would impact the community.
“I retired because I am a person who goes out in the community and does work,” she said. “And being on the bench, you cannot speak on matters that are political, because one of those cases may come in front of you. You can’t. You’re nonpartisan. So when I saw the divisive bend of this country, going in a direction that I thought was inhumane and was detrimental to the state and this country, being silenced as you have to be when you’re on the bench was difficult for me because I’m not a quiet person when I see injustice. I’m not a quiet person when I see that I can put my arms in a mess and straighten it out and help people. I’ve done that my whole career. I did as much as I could do on the bench. Oklahoma County is in good hands with the judges who are there, especially my colleagues on the civil bench, who have a great heart for people. And so I felt compelled.”
Harrison said her work in campaign politics has always focused on grassroots efforts despite sometimes serving in a role as a consultant.
“So the thing about being in campaign politics is that you actually — in my strategy of doing this, now, let me be very clear, this is how I operate in campaign politics — is that I am about grassroots movements,” she said. “That means I’m going to people’s doors and actually having conversations with them. I actually had a conversation with a gentleman the other day. I was there to speak to his brother, but he answered and he told me that his brother was at the Guthrie Job Corps. He was actually helping those kids to find places to go and find another educational plan, because they no longer had a school to go to. They no longer had somewhere to stay, and so I bet that is something that I take with me. I’m taking all of the stories from the people that I have talked to on the doors, and I’m taking that to the Legislature. I’m not there to appease anybody else.”
Priorities: More affordable housing, better public education
Both candidates were asked what they see as HD 97’s biggest priority and the top priorities for the state. Affordable housing has become an issue that the Legislature has attempted to tackle in recent years, including efforts to slow down the eviction process.
Timmons said she has experience with the latter, having worked on programs that work to mediate rent disputes between landlords and tenants.
“We have a homeless population that is growing because we have folks moving in from out of state, and that has increased the rents of the places that people normally were able to live in, so our homeless population has grown,” she said. “I know the Legislature is aware of that. They’ve done some things. They’ve tried to do some things (…). Sen. (Julia) Kirt filed Senate Bill 128, trying to slow the eviction process. But through the Access for Justice Commission, we worked a pilot program in Oklahoma County where we had mediation with the landlords and it was free.”
Harrison said education remains a top priority in a state that has struggled in national public education rankings over the last decade. Harrison said the efforts to improve student outcomes have continuously fallen short.
“The biggest issue that is facing Oklahoma as a whole would be education,” Harrison said. “That’s something that we’ve tried to tackle for years now, considering that we have had to address the funding that is there. But until we actually address the funding formula, which is based on property taxes here in this state, and our communities to be able to fund our schools, then we are going to continue to have this issue because, as my opponent stated, we have an affordable housing issue in our communities. So, we have less folks that are here in our communities because of the cost of these homes, and we have a lot of dilapidated homes in the area. So we have to actually address that issue as far as the property taxes and what that looks like in addressing the funding formula.”
