April 2021 Archives
The draft ordinance was developed by a commission of socially connected non-experts (with one exception), led by former Democrat Mayor Susan Savage. That draft passed through the Council committee process the previous two Wednesdays, and a few councilors proposed significant amendments. In the end, the revision didn't touch the poultry rules, was passed unanimously without debate, and with only one comment from the public.
The agenda item for the revised animal ordinance had three files linked, which I've uploaded here for future reference.
- The new Title 2, as approved by the City Council
- The new Title 2, using markup to show insertions and deletions from the previous ordinance.
- Summary of changes to Title 2, updated by City Council staff
You can watch the entirety of Wednesday's meeting, a mere 40 minutes long, on Facebook and (eventually) on the City of Tulsa video on demand platform.
The new ordinance was delayed for over a year to the CCP Bat Virus; the commission had completed its work just before everything was shut down for the pandemic. In March 2020, BatesLine published an essay by Tina Nettles, on the Tulsa Animal Welfare Commission's contempt for the input of ordinary Tulsans who are knowledgeable about animals. Nettles, a writer and Tulsa resident, raises chickens in her backyard for the eggs as part of an effort to improve her family's self-sufficiency: She also grows vegetables and has a number of dwarf fruit trees in her backyard -- a lot typical for their 1950s midtown neighborhood. She and a group of her fellow backyard chicken farmers took every opportunity to share their input and expertise with the commission, to clear up misconceptions, and to point the commission to better ordinances in use in our peer cities. All to no avail -- their input was ignored.
After the commission completed its draft ordinance, the focus shifted to the City Council. While a couple of councilors were willing to give Tulsa's chicken owners a hearing, many seem to have closed their minds. A Public Radio Tulsa report on last week's Council committee meeting on the chicken rules and explains why councilors were unable to agree on changes relating to poultry. The following comments were in response to Democrat District 4 Councilor Kara Joy McKee's proposal to reduce the required minimum distance between a chicken coop and the nearest home from 35 feet (the distance in the current proposal) to 25 feet, to give residents on smaller lots the opportunity to raise chickens if they choose. The dismissive attitudes on display ought to dismay every Tulsan across the political spectrum.
[Democrat] District 7 Councilor Lori Decter Wright said cutting the minimum distance even more isn't a good idea."In our cul-de-sac neighborhoods especially, 25 feet in a cul-de-sac, every backyard could have a chicken coop. That's not going to be clean or safe," Decter Wright said.
It's highly doubtful that large numbers of residents of Decter Wright's district in south Tulsa are going to raise chickens in their backyard, much less a whole cul-de-sac full. Most of the neighborhoods in her district have large enough lots that the higher minimum distance wouldn't prevent everyone who wanted chickens from having them, but the higher distances would pose a problem to homeowners on smaller lots in less affluent districts.
[Democrat] District 5 Councilor Mykey Arthrell-Knezek said less than 35 feet didn't fly with Animal Welfare Commission Chair and former Mayor Susan Savage."When I proposed a 30-foot, Mayor Savage said no way. She was, like, '35 minimum,'" Knezek said.
Now, I credit Arthrell-Knezek with listening to chicken owners and proposing amendments to make the laws line up with best practices (as you'll see in the next paragraph). But this comment reveals an attitude that cripples democracy in Tulsa: The idea that elected city councilors need the permission of bureaucrats, appointed board members, or lobbyists to set policy. Susan Savage hasn't been mayor since 2002. She was appointed to lead the committee that reviewed the animal ordinance. Savage has no expertise in this area. With one exception (Christine Kunzweiler, wife of the DA and a veterinarian), none of Mayor Bynum IV's appointees to the Tulsa Animal Welfare Commission have any expertise, as I detailed in my intro to Tina Nettles's essay.
In any event, the Commission's work is over, they've made their recommendation, and now it's the Council's power and obligation to modify the recommendation or reject it altogether in the interest of the ordinary Tulsans who can't afford to hire lobbyists and don't have social connections like Savage & Co. The only lever most of us have over city government is our vote. If the City Council has been gaslit into believing that they must defer to unelected experts, our influence is limited to selecting which person gets to draw a salary to be a rubber stamp.
Arthrell-Knezek has also proposed allowing people to have up to 10 adult birds and doing away with a ban on roosters older than eight weeks, but some councilors would like to refine that. [Democrat] District 3 Councilor Crista Patrick said she wants to see a limit of one rooster per flock of hens."Only to avoid in my neck of the woods, we have less-than-honorable people that like to engage in cockfighting, and I do not want them to legally be able to say, 'I'm allowed to have 10 roosters at a time,'" Patrick said.
Cockfighting is already against the law. Those who are already breaking the law to hold cockfights have already found a way around rooster limits, but rooster limits hurt people raising chickens to feed their families.
The eight-week limit is problematic because chicks don't get big enough by that time to be harvested for meat (except for the commercial, factory-farm raised breed). This has been explained to the Animal Welfare Commission and the city councilors by the backyard chicken growers, but the commission ignored their input and most of the council seems ready to do the same.
Patrick's district primarily covers northeast Tulsa. District 8 Councilor Phil Lakin said his constituents have an entirely different perspective."For some reason, people in my area -- maybe because we're just more urban down in south Tulsa, there's not very much open space -- they're not very keen on -- the ones at least who have responded to me so far, I'll get a completely different reaction probably as I say this -- are just not keen on allowing any roosters whatsoever," Lakin said.
It seems unlikely to me that the residents of one of Tulsa's wealthiest council districts are likely to want to raise chickens to feed their families. I suspect that homeowners' association rules and deed restrictions would prevent it even if the law allowed it. Lakin's reaction points the problem with one-size-fits-all policies for a city as geographically large and economically diverse as Tulsa. Nearly all of our peer regional cities have a zoning tool often known as a neighborhood conservation district, a concept I've been championing for more than two decades, which allows customizing land use rules to protect the character of an established neighborhood.
Lakin's comment also reveals an atrophied view of liberty. Because his constituents don't want the option to raise chickens, no one in Tulsa should have it. Easy for the head of a multi-billion-dollar foundation to say.
If you're wondering why there was only one public comment on this massive change to city law: Using COVID-19 as a justification, the Council allows public comment to be submitted only via email or audio recording via phone by 5 pm the day before the meeting, as described in today's agenda. (You could still email your councilor at distX@tulsacouncil.org, replacing the X with the district number, but those comments won't be presented as part of the public meeting.)
One problem with this approach is that members of the public cannot adjust their remarks in response to previous comments, official presentations, or the demeanor of the councilors. When making live comments, it's possible to say, "I agree with what the previous speaker said, and here are some additional arguments in favor of this view," or "Let me clarify what the previous speaker was trying to say." Without the ability to react to other speakers, public comments are apt to repeat the same points over and over again, and the councilors are apt to tune them out. When commenting at an in-person public meeting, you could make eye contact with each of the councilors, even address each by name if you sense attention is drifting. Remote meetings eliminate this avenue for citizen influence, along with the power of filling the gallery of the council chamber with angry citizens, applauding and booing.
POST-CONVENTION UPDATE: John Bennett was elected chairman, Shane Jemison was elected vice chairman. The convention reverted to paper ballots, a likelihood that outgoing Tulsa County Chairman Bob Jack, serving as convention credentials committee chairman, had anticipated and had prepared for.
Four candidates have filed to become the next chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party. Incumbent chairman David McLain of Skiatook is not running for re-election. The candidates on tomorrow's ballot at the Oklahoma State GOP Convention are:
- John Bennett from Sallisaw (personal Facebook profile)
- Christine Leeviraphan from Catoosa (personal Facebook profile)
- Charles Ortega from Altus (personal Facebook profile)
- Jenni White from Luther (personal Facebook profile)
Bennett and Ortega are former state representatives, Leeviraphan is chairman of the Rogers County Republican Party.
Personal obligations won't permit me to attend tomorrow's Oklahoma Republican State Convention, but if I could be there, I would cast my ballot for Jenni White. Jenni is a principled conservative, an excellent communicator, and someone with a record of getting things done. Her signature accomplishment was as a leader of the successful effort to end Common Core in Oklahoma, in the face of opposition from the state's education and business establishment.
After the Common Core battle ended, White won a seat on her town's board of trustees in 2017 and was immediately chosen by her colleagues to serve as mayor. In that unpaid role, she provided leadership for a number of town improvements and won praise from Luther officials.
Town Manager Scherrie Pidcock wrote, "She is a problem solver and has worked tirelessly on grants, committees and numerous projects as Mayor of Luther. She is decisive, a person of action, and in my experience, always keeps her word." Kasey Wood, chairman of the Luther Parks Commission, said that White's "accomplishments in 4 years changed the trajectory of the Town of Luther" and that she has "been such a pleasure to work with and always willing to do whatever is needed."
Two of the candidates are former state representatives. Charles Ortega was term-limited this last election; he had a 55% lifetime conservative score from the Oklahoma Constitution newspaper. John Bennett decided not to run for re-election in 2018; he had a 69% cumulative conservative score. Some of my conservative friends are backing Bennett rather than White. I don't doubt his conservative credentials, but he didn't have a record of accomplishment at the State Capitol. It's great to make bold conservative statements on policy, but you also have to be able to persuade your colleagues to vote for your ideas. Jenni White has demonstrated the ability to get legislators to vote for her cause, even though she didn't have the access that a legislator would have.
I anticipate three knocks by supporters of Jenni's opponents: She lost her race for re-election as town trustee earlier this week; she wasn't an enthusiastic Trump supporter from the beginning; and she attended the January 6th rally in Washington in support of election integrity.
Tuesday's Luther town election drew only 80 voters, 37 of whom voted to re-elect Jenni White as trustee. (Four years ago, over 200 voters went to the polls.) Four candidates were on the ballot, and voters could cast a vote for up to three. Jenni made her decision to run for state party chairman after it was too late to take her name off the ballot, and she opted to put her resources into running for state chairman rather than her re-election effort. (If she had been re-elected and then elected state chairman, she would have had to resign her seat as a town trustee.)
Some Lutherites professed to have been offended by her attendance at the January 6th rally in Washington. In this column for The Federalist published before the rally, she recounted her years of political involvement, trying to accomplish change by playing by the rules of the game; the lack of response by judges and state officials to clear evidence of fraud and significant irregularities undercut her belief in the system, and she wanted to stand with her fellow Americans to call for Congress to investigate. After the march, she wrote her first-hand account of the day, far from the violent incidents at the Capitol.
White has been criticized from some Trump fanatics because she was a Ted Cruz supporter in 2016. I don't know of any serious, thoughtful conservative activist who did back Trump during the 2016 primary season. There were plenty of other candidates with a track record of conservative action from which to choose, and there was plenty of reason at that point to doubt the sincerity of Trump's commitment to conservatism and his ability to carry out an effective program of conservative action.
Jenni White has the intelligence, organizational skills, and powers of persuasion to be a successful Oklahoma Republican Party chairman, and I ask my friends at the convention to give her their support.
FOR VICE CHAIRMAN:
Shane Jemison from Wapanucka and David Van Risseghem from Tulsa are the two candidates seeking the vice chairman's office. Jemison is currently serving as State GOP Vice Chairman, having been elected last June to fill the vacancy by the Republican State Committee; he was previously elected by county party officials across eastern Oklahoma to serve as 2nd Congressional District Republican Chairman. Van Risseghem has the soonerpolitics.org website and has served in a number of party offices at the county level. I know David personally, and I know he has great familiarity with the nuts and bolts of the party organization.
MORE:
Jamison Faught expresses his concerns about the plan to use all-electronic voting at the state convention, despite the fact that, unlike last year's conventions, delegates must attend and vote in person.
Post-election update: My municipal picks did better than my school board picks. Mask mandates and issues related to the CCP Bat Virus (COVID-19) response had salience with the voters, who turfed out pro-mask candidates in Oklahoma City, Broken Arrow, Jenks, and elsewhere. The outsiders beat the insiders in BA, despite attack mailers and deceptive "Vote Republican!" signs backing Thurmond and Kelly; their victorious opponents are also Republicans.
TPS board member Jennettie Marshall won re-election by 25 votes. Out of 18,152 eligible voters, only 1,027 bothered to vote. In Union seat 1, Joey Reyes won by 24 votes; only 434 of 8,213 eligible voters voted. 35,176 eligible voters in the Owasso Public School district, only 1,766 voters turned out.
Polls will be open today, Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. The Oklahoma State Election Board's online voter tool will let you know where to vote (and if you have a reason to go to the polls) and will show you a sample of the ballot you'll see.
I don't get to vote, which will be the case for large numbers of Oklahomans, perhaps the vast majority. Here's the complete list of elections today across Oklahoma.
Below are my thoughts on some of the races in the Oklahoma school board and municipal general election on April 6, 2021, along with links to candidate websites, social media profiles, and candidate forums for elections and bond issues on Tuesday's ballot in Tulsa County.
I was asked whether it should be reckoned as significant if a candidate is a friend of mine on social media. Short answer: No, don't read anything into that. I got on social media back when it was a fairly new thing and when I was a columnist for an alt-weekly and a frequent guest on the top local talk radio show, and I was more liberal in accepting friend requests than I am today.
How do I evaluate city council and school board candidates? A person's party registration can be a useful clue, but in many of these non-partisan races both candidates are of the same party. I look for some indication of political courage, a willingness to take a public stand and explain a position on a controversial issue. A commitment to accountability and transparency is crucial. A school board full of cheerleaders for the superintendent is superfluous. A city council that rubber-stamps the city manager's recommendations is not doing its job.
Candidates are very careful nowadays to scrub social media of anything controversial -- or even anything interesting. Campaign websites have turned into the online equivalent of the photo that came with the picture frame -- pleasantly generic. Nevertheless, you may yet find clues to a candidate's character and philosophy.
Tulsa School Board, Office No. 3: Jennettie P. Marshall
- Jennettie P. Marshall (D), 62, incumbent. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
- David J. Harris (D), 46. (Registered to vote as David Jeremy Harris.) Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
Pastor Jennettie Marshall was the lone, brave school board member who voted against extending controversial and unsuccessful Superintendent Deborah Gist's contract last year; the rest of the board pushed through the extension before new school board members might jeopardize the extension. David Harris's campaign contribution report 20210329-David_Harris-Tulsa_School_Board-Campaign_Contributions.pdf is full of Midtown Money Belt types like former Mayor Kathy Taylor, Sharon King Davis, Gary Watts, Burt Holmes, George Krumme, Stacy Schusterman, Educare Director and former school board member Cynthia Decker, and defeated school board member Ruth Ann Fate. All the money is against her, but I'm rooting for Jennettie Marshall.
On February 2, 2021, Tulsa Classroom Teachers' Association held a forum for
candidates for Office 2, which was decided in February, and Office 3, on this Tuesday's ballot.
Union School Board Office No. 1: Kasey Magness
- Joey Reyes (D), 43. (Registered as Joey Gabriel Reyes.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook page.
- Kasey Magness (R), 35. (Registered as Kasey Beth Magness.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
This is an open seat, currently held by Jeff Bennett. Magness is a Union graduate and home-health nurse who has also served as a Trauma ER nurse. She is an officer in her school's PTA and the district-wide PTA and served on the district committee to plan re-entry following the CCP Bat Virus pandemic. In response to the League of Women Voters questionnaire, Reyes uses the term "Latinx," a silly word invented by people who are offended by the fact that there are two sexes, male and female. While 98% of Latino and Latina people reject this ridiculous, unpronounceable term, its use is a reliable marker for the sort of progressive who is eager to signal his or her virtue by adopting the latest politically correct jargon, not someone a reasonable voter would want in charge of the education of children.
Owasso School Board Office No. 1: Rick Lang
- Rick Lang (I), 42. (Registered as Richard Joseph Lang.) Campaign Twitter account. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook page.
- Stephanie Ruttman (D), 42. (Registered as Stephanie Kenkaye Ruttman.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
Incumbent school board member Pat Vanatta is not running for re-election. Lang is the outsider candidate, running to bring accountability to the school board; Ruttman appears to be running for Student Council, judging from the vapidity of her Facebook posts. More information on this race from Owasso Chapter of Parent Voice Oklahoma, Compilation of Owasso School Board Candidates, and Owasso Rams Hand in Hand.
Berryhill School Board Office No. 1: Allisha Phillips Craig
- Allisha Phillips Craig (D), 40. (Registered as Allisha Marie Craig.) Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook page.
- Jack Lollis (R), 63. (Registered as Jack D. Lollis.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
Last year, Craig ran unsuccessfully for the Office 5 seat against an incumbent. At the time, I wrote that Craig, a public school teacher with Epic, with children in the Berryhill system, would bring a critical eye to "the way things have always been done," and experience in remote instruction that may be crucial in the coming years. Her campaign Facebook posts offer constructive ideas about specific problems that the district faces. The incumbent, Jack Lollis, has been a board member for 45 years. Lollis has posted a supportive statement from current, outgoing superintendent Mike Campbell which walks right up to the line of an endorsement. It may not be illegal, but it is surely unethical for a public employee to issue a near-endorsement of one of the people who controls his employment. It suggests a too-cozy relationship between the administration and the board, another good reason to defeat the incumbent and elect an outsider.
Tulsa Technology Center, Board Member, Office No. 6:
- Paul J. Kroutter, Jr. (R), 67. (Registered as Paul Joseph Kroutter, Jr.) Held the seat from 2004-2014. Archived board member page. Personal Facebook profile. Faculty page at University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. LinkedIn profile.
- Sharon A. Whelpley (R), 76. (Registered as Sharon Ann Whelpley.) Incumbent, first elected 2014. Campaign website. Board member page. Personal Facebook profile.
It puzzles me that there should be so little noise about a rematch between the incumbent board member and the previous incumbent, in a board district where 70,000 voters live across eastern Tulsa County and western Wagoner County, for a seat on a board that controls hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate and annual budget (good luck finding the budget or CAFR; here's the most recent audit, from 2018). Perhaps Whelpley (the current incumbent) and Kroutter (the former incumbent) each have their small platoons of voters that they will quietly turn out via phone, without arousing the interest of the rest of the electorate. The term of office is 7 years, which is ridiculous.
City of Broken Arrow
Despite being the fourth largest city in Oklahoma, Broken Arrow still is running on the "statutory charter," a default form of municipal government defined in state statutes. Accordingly, Broken Arrow has five city councilors, all elected at-large (so all BA registered voters can vote for all seats on the ballot), the council hires a city manager to run city government, and the mayor is not an executive position, but rather chairman of the council and figurehead, chosen by the city council, rather than directly by the voters.
Know Your Candidate BA conducted 20-30 minute interviews with all of the BA council candidates.
City of Broken Arrow: Council Ward 1: Debra Wimpee
- Debra Wimpee (R), 48. Incumbent councilor. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile. Profile page on BA Buzz.
- Cathy Smythe (D), 66. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
- Jonathan Kelly (R), 31. (Registered to vote as Jonathon Michael Kelly.) Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
Incumbent Debra Wimpee was a leader in the effort to keep the city from mandating masks on Broken Arrow residents and visitors. She created the website BA Buzz to promote the city and its businesses. Cathy Smythe, a relative newcomer to the city (2012), is running specifically because she supports imposing a mask mandate. A mysterious PAC is sending out attack mailers against Wimpee, presumably to help Kelly, who seems to be attempting to run to Wimpee's right. Wimpee has the endorsement of Congressman Kevin Hern. (I consider it a point in a candidate's favor if she's under attack by a mysterious PAC.)
City of Broken Arrow: Council Ward 2: Lisa Ford
- Craig Thurmond (R), 67. Incumbent. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
- Lisa Ford (R), 59. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
Thurmond has been on the city council for 19 years and has served for 8 of those years as mayor. Ford is retired from 20 years as an employee of the Broken Arrow Police Department, who organized a auxiliary organization to provide volunteer support the BAPD. She has also served on the Union school board. Ford, like Wimpee, was also targeted by an attack mailer from a mysterious PAC.
City of Jenks
Jenks has an at-large seat and a ward seat up for election. Incumbent councilor Dawn Dyke, who voted for a citywide mask mandate and to extend it for another 100 days, and Planning Commissioner David Randolph, who led a petition effort in favor of the mask mandate, are running as a ticket, as are Republican challengers Rodney Cline and Kevin Short, who opposed any mask mandate for the city.
City of Jenks: Council Ward 4: Rodney Cline
- Dawn Dyke (R), 49. Incumbent. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
- Rodney Cline (R), 47. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
City of Jenks: Council member At-Large: Kevin Short
- Krista Monk (D), 35. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
- David Randolph (D), 39. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
- Kevin Short (R), 49. Campaign website. Campaign Facebook page. Personal Facebook profile.
City of Bixby
No council races on the ballot, but Bixby citizens will vote on four general obligation bond issue propositions:
- $8,500,000 for public safety buildings and equipment
- $16,300,000 for streets and bridges
- $1,700,000 for park, cultural, and recreational facilities
- $2,000,000 for stormwater drainage
AT THE FAR END OF THE TURNPIKE: Oklahoma City, Edmond, and Norman have city and school district races on the ballot, and there's a special State Senate election.
The group Unite Norman, which emerged to oppose radical anti-police sentiment on the City Council, has endorsed Kelly Lynn ; incumbent Alison Petrone considers Oklahoma a backwards state.
Oklahoma City Ward 3, the southwestern part of the city, has an open seat, with a race between Barbara Young, who has been endorsed by the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association, and Jessica Martinez-Brooks.
Also in the Edmond area, there is a special general election between Republican Jake Merrick and Democrat Molly Ooten to fill the State Senate District 22 seat vacated by U. S. Rep. Stephanie Bice. Merrick, interviewed here, has the backing of my conservative friends in central Oklahoma.
My friend Jenni White, who led the successful fight against Common Core at the State Capitol, is Mayor of Luther and is up for re-election as a town trustee. There are four candidates for three seats; each voter gets to pick three of the four. (She is also running to be Chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party this Saturday and has my full support.)
TIP JAR: If you appreciate the many hours of research that went into this guide and into the rest of my election coverage, and if you'd like to help keep this site online, you can contribute to BatesLine's upkeep via PayPal. In addition to keeping me caffeinated, donated funds pay for web hosting, subscriptions, and paid databases I use for research. Many thanks to those generous readers who have already contributed.
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