In the Tulsa County District 2 Republican runoff, voters will choose between a political newcomer who says she wants to see the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority abolished and the Tulsa County Juvenile Detention Center temporarily shut down and a Jenks legislator running on his of 20 years of political experience.
Democrats and Republicans alike will cast ballots in Tulsa County Board of Commissioners District 2 runoffs Tuesday, Aug. 27. In June, Rep. Lonnie Sims and Melissa Myers finished ahead of Tulsa City Councilwoman Jeannie Cue in a three-way primary, but neither received a majority of the votes cast.
Myers, 41, is a Muscogee Nation citizen who grew up in Berryhill. She attended Tulsa Community College and Tulsa Technology Center before working as a medical assistant for 10 years.
She said she left the medical field and worked at Los Cabos in Jenks for seven years in “basically every position in the restaurant” before starting a lawn and landscaping business with her husband in 2016.
Sims, 53, said he is a “small town kid” from Allen who settled in Jenks around 1999. In 2002, he started attending Leadership Jenks, and he served on the Jenks Planning Commission from 2003 until his election to the Tulsa City Council in 2010.
His fellow councilors elected him mayor from 2013 to 2015, and he won the election to succeed Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready in representing House District 68 in 2018.
Sims (R-Jenks) said he never intended to run for the Oklahoma House, calling Jenks his “mountain to climb.” But he said he was asked to run by Mulready the week before candidate filing after another candidate decided not to pursue legislative service.
Sims said he has the endorsements of Gov. Kevin Stitt, Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado and Cue. Myers said she was endorsed by the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association and Oklahomans for Health and Parental Rights.
Tulsa County’s District 2 runs from the county’s western boundary through downtown, Riverside and Midtown portions of Tulsa. The winner of the Aug. 27 Republican primary will face the Republican nominee — either Sarah Gray or Maria Barnes — in the Nov. 5 general election.
Gilcrease Expressway: Myers wants OTA abolished, Sims pitches alternate roads
Backlash to a one-mile stretch of toll road on the Gilcrease Expressway near Berryhill has become a major issue motivating some West Tulsa voters. While county commissioners are unable to eliminate the toll road, both candidates have been asked how they plan to use the office’s bully pulpit to address residents concerns.
Myers said she had met with Attorney General Gentner Drummond to talk about the Gilcrease Expressway.
“He said what happened at the Gilcrease was unconstitutional and a travesty,” Myers said. “So he sent an order to where OTA is being investigated by an audit from Cindy Byrd’s office.”
Myers said her goal is to see the toll between 41st Street and 51st Street on the Gilcrease Expressway eliminated, but she ultimately hopes to see the OTA abolished entirely.
Sims said the toll road expansion was already approved when he was elected in 2018, but he said he also brought residents concerns to the attorney general.
“I ultimately presented, ‘Let’s go to the Attorney General’s Office and see if we can get them on board with this,'” Sims said. “Because I felt the argument was, ‘Show me anywhere else in the state where we’ve taken the community’s freest, safest, most convenient access and tolled it.'”
Sims also supports expanding the other county roads going to the unincorporated community.
“A huge priority for me is going to be getting 65th (Street) and 49th (Street) improved,” Sims said.
Myers calls for ‘shut down’ of troubled juvenile facility, Sims supports board takeover
The Tulsa County Board of Commissioners recently took control of the Tulsa County Family Center for Juvenile Justice. Multiple former staff members are facing criminal charges, and a lawsuit alleges a “rape culture” at the facility allowed several children to be abused.
Sims said he supported the board of county commissioners taking over the facility’s governance, and he emphasized that the problems were with staff at the facility.
“It’s time for the board of county commissioners to bring it back into their purview and really dig into it and see where are the failures and where do we need to correct it,” Sims said. “These were not kid issues or kid problems within our facilities. These were adult problems and adult issues.”
Asked if he thought state statutes needed to be amended to resolve the issues at the facility, Sims said he was not sure. He said he was willing to lobby for a statutory amendment if the need became apparent.
“If we do find that, statutorily, there are some conflicting issues within the statute that we need to get cleaned up, then I understand the process and know, probably, the people I would take it to immediately to make sure it got addressed,” Sims said.
Myers called for a “full investigation” of the facility, said the entire staff should be replaced and argued that the facility should be temporarily closed.
“If you want to start fresh, you’ve got to start fresh with everyone,” Myers said. “To be honest, people that were there and knew this was going on are just as guilty as the actual conduct that was happening. So right now, it should be shut down, and those children should be protected somewhere else until this is all taken care of.”
