2 weeks Ago
Voters in Tulsa County District 2 will have distinct choices when they cast their ballots for county commissioner on Nov. 5. Sarah Gray, 31, is a Democrat who believes it’s time to pull the curtain back on county government operations and expect more from commissioners.
Lonnie Sims, 54, is a Republican who has been involved in local government for two decades and believes the core responsibilities of a commissioner are public safety and public infrastructure. “I have said it before: If you don’t get those two right, you can forget about everything else,” Sims said. “You’re not going to be successful.
” Gray and Sims are vying to succeed longtime Commissioner Karen Keith , who is running for mayor. People are also reading..
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“There are many things that we’re obligated to do by law. “So I don’t see maintaining roads and bridges as a platform. I see that as a responsibility inherent to the position that everyone should be expected to prioritize.
” Other responsibilities commissioners should be expected to meet, Gray said, include ensuring government transparency and accountability, working with communities and social service agencies across the county to address homelessness, and taking a more active role in the oversight of the county’s Family Center for Juvenile Justice. The Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs placed the facility on probation earlier this year, and county commissioners are among the defendants named in a lawsuit alleging federal civil rights violations and abuse. “I feel very much like I was called to this position for many reasons, but especially to serve in a leadership role that will have oversight over that center, because I’m also a survivor of child sex trafficking, and that is something that’s happening, allegedly, to those kids, detained children,” Gray said.
Gray said that if elected she would not “rubber stamp” reports from the Family Center for Juvenile Justice. “I’m going to be asking questions whenever the facility manager gives his update,” Gray said. “I’m not going to say ‘It sounds great, let’s move on.
’ I will have questions, and I will be a very present figure in that facility. It is a moral requirement and a legal requirement.” Sims, who represents District 68 in the state House of Representatives, said Gray’s effort to portray him as a one-trick pony is not only inaccurate, but it also misses the point.
“For us to have a successful county, we’ve got to get public safety and infrastructure right,” Sims said. “And then you build from that.” He pointed to his time as a city councilor and mayor in Jenks, where investments in infrastructure and public safety he believes were key to spurring the development boom that saw the city grow from approximately 8,500 to more than 27,000.
As part of that effort, Sims said, he negotiated long-term contracts with the police and firefighters unions. “We really needed to make the pivot to commercial growth, and we were able to accomplish that, with buy-in from our emergency responders, for what the future could be if we could really make these investments,” Sims said. “And now we get to reap the windfall of those investments.
” Sims said he took that commitment to public safety and public infrastructure to the state Legislature, where he worked with fellow lawmakers to establish the state’s first flood plan and to provide hazard mitigation funding for communities statewide. “Those efforts culminated with securing the $50 million for the repairs to the (Tulsa-West Tulsa) levee system,” Sims said. Sims believes his experience in the Legislature will serve the county when it comes to securing state dollars for economic development and public safety projects.
“That is a big part of me coming back, is to make sure that we continue the momentum and progress that we made” locally, he said. Gray is a communications project manager, working primarily as a subcontractor on federal contracts. She has been a vocal advocate for a number of causes including tribal sovereignty, domestic violence and public education.
She grew up in the Muscogee Nation, in places like Keefer and Sapulpa, and said her life wasn’t always easy. Gray said her early years explain a lot about why, for the first time, she’s running for elected office. “I am very proud of where I’m at in life, but I have absolutely had to, like, scratch and claw for everything that I have,” she said.
“I’ve had to fight for everything, not just my education or my career, but, you know, just to stay alive, and I don’t want my community to have to fight that hard for things. And when you have a responsive local government, that can absolutely make folks’ lives easier.” Find complete coverage about what is on the ballot in the Tulsa metro and information about races across the country.
tulsaworld.com/elections.
