TULSA, Okla. — Mayor Monroe Nichols sat down with 2 News Oklahoma for the first of what is a monthly segment to talk about issues in Tulsa.
Nichols and 2 News Today Anchor Christine Stanwood talked about some of the biggest topics in Tulsa:
WATCH: Full segment with Nichols:
2 News Anchor Christine Stanwood: There's a couple of topics I wanna talk to you about, um, and just things that, you know, we hear from our viewers about things that are going on in our community that you're kind of spearheading.
First one being, I wanna talk about the feedback on what you've received for community conversations. Number one, why was that important for you to implement that in our city? And then what's been some of the responses that you've received?
Mayor Monroe Nichols: Yeah, so far, we've done, we've actually done 10 of them.
So, we started with the ones in the spring where we took every city department, uh, out to the community. So, folks, the goal with those is like, hey, if you got a challenge, um, here are the folks who, who work on that very directly.
You should establish that relationship, and it does wonders for our team because we're hearing directly from citizens. I think it does a lot for citizens so they can, you know, really get some direct accountability and like who's the person responsible for X, Y, and Z. So, I thought those were great.
The second round that we did was all about digging deep into issues that are persistent in Tulsa. Things that I hear from people all the time are concerns to give them a feel for, like, you know, how complex and challenging they are, give a real honest account and assessment as to where we are right now, and then some insights on like what it's gonna take for us to, to make the next step. I think that's the best way to give both citizens and really us the opportunity to have a conversation around like. Is the investment to make it to the next level worth it for us to make or not?
One example I kind of point to, one simple example, we certainly still have a challenge with stray animals, I think is one of the things that, that came out of one of these I thought was really important. And folks rightfully so wanna understand why can't we do more?
Why aren't we doing more? Until they realize that 8,500 animals are going through animal services every single year, like 8-5. Like people didn't realize it was that many. Folks didn't realize that, you know, we go out to address an issue in the neighborhood- you get 40 dogs, like, you know, just the numbers. are pretty, pretty intense.
So, what comes out of that is like, OK, we understand why things don't move as quickly as we want to, but what would it take for us to get to a better spot? What do we have to do as citizens to get there? What do you have to do as a city to get there? And is there a cost associated with it? And so, I think that's one example of like how you take something that is, you know, very clearly a problem and citizens are rightfully concerned about it to understanding really the volume of the problem so they now understand why things don't happen as quickly.
But then on the back end now we have a conversation about what we do about it as opposed to just being frustrated, just saying we can't do more now we've met each other on like a new understanding on what the issue is.
Now the question is what do we do about it, and that's what those community conversations are all about. And I'm sure it's been positive too, like, oh thank you, because I have you heard, oh this has been left unheard, or I wasn't understanding it until you opened up this dialogue. There's certainly some things there's a lot of follow-up too, right, because I think the, the, the, the goal is not just to communicate the challenges, but it's like how do we as a community come together to address that challenge?
And so, I think the really positive and healthy thing has been the follow-up and saying like, ‘OK, you know, I want to get involved in animal services. What do I have to do to get, you know, a spay neutering program in my portion of the community?’ And so you see a lot of people at those meetings take some accountability on like, ‘Hey, OK, I get that I now have a role to play. Who do I need to get in touch with to play the role?’
And I think that's been really cool. That's great. That's really cool. That's great.
Stanwood: One of the big, I would say, goals of yours is tackling our city’s ongoing crisis with those who are unhoused, that's been, that's been an issue that, you know, a lot of people think that they have solutions for not a band-aid fix. It's something that you've been very vocal about, that you're working on different structures to put these individuals and to have them have a safe place that's warm, especially as we enter into the winter months. How are you feeling about where the progress is standing?
Nichols: I think we've made really good progress so far. It's one of those things that I've said I'm pleased with our progress, but not content because we got a long way to go.
So back in March, I issued an executive order that really outlined, you know, our priorities on addressing the issue.
- One of those was increase our shelter capacity, you know, making progress there.
- One was very specifically in addition to broader shelter capacity; I mean the winter weather shelter stood up.
- The other was around decommissioning encampments where we don't just go do cleanouts, but we are going in, connecting people to housing, doing all those types of things.
- And then finally working on eviction mitigation and
Let's see, last week we announced the winter weather shelter that'll be up by November 17th. We're a little behind. I, the goal is to get it done by November 1st, but we're there. So, November 17th, that'll be up and going. You probably saw the news on the low barrier shelter, um, the deal with the county. So, we'll have a new shelter there with a highly competent operator, and we're gonna make sure it's safe and that, you know, there's no challenges to the overarching community over there.
Our eviction mitigation council is working right now, working with both landlords and tenants and support folks to figure out what is the appropriate local policy to reduce, um, the number of evictions in Tulsa, get us out of the top 15 where we sit right now. I think number 11.
And on the encampment decommissioning front, you know, we're working that every day with some really, interesting news to come. So, you know, we are, we've been very consistent, very honest about how we're going about this challenge, very consistent in delivering on the things we said we're, we're gonna deliver on. I think the next big step is for us to work on ending street homelessness, and we're focused on that right now.
A big portion of, you know, what we hope to take in front of voters. Um, though, you know, a, a revenue enhancement is to make sure we have the resources to go and not just tackle the issue but to end street sleeping, uh, to connect people to housing and get them the services that they need to get them off the street.
So, it's not just something we talk about a lot. I mean, we have been very hard at work doing the things we told people we were gonna do. And so, I'm pleased with the progress. We've got a long way to go, but I'm very pleased with what we've done so far.
Stanwood: If you don't mind me asking, did Operation Safe help or hurt your progress in this endeavor?
Nichols: It was not a helpful deal. Like, you know, I will say this. We work with law enforcement every single day on, you know, encampment decommissioning and those types of things. It has to be a coordinated effort.
What we got with that Operation Safe for the governor was zero coordination, and it didn't even have to be with the city. They didn't coordinate with any service provider. You can go check with any one of them. There was not one person, as far as I know, that was connected to services. There was not one person that was arrested for, you know, breaking a law. There were people who were displaced. They ended up in neighborhoods. They ended up in emergency rooms.
Most of those folks are back to the encampments that they started in, and most of them have been in those encampments for years. I've been here for 10 to 11 months. Those folks were there for years.
So I think everybody has to begin to ask yourself, well, why would, why all of a sudden do you wanna do this? You know, you've been in, in office for 7 years and I think we're in a space right now where some people still think that the right play is a political play. That's not what we believe here.
We believe the right play is to sustainably take care of this issue. It takes more time. You have to be very methodical about it. You got to be very focused on it, which is the reason why, as I outlined, what we talked about doing in March is so consistent with what we're doing now is because we know it takes commitment. It takes time. It takes dedicated effort, and it takes partnerships.
And so, when we look at the winter weather shelter, it's a partnership with Be Heard at CREOKS, and we had Housing Solutions out there. The low barrier shelter out west is a partnership with us, the Zero Family Foundation, the county. Like when we do these things together, uh, we're very successful when we just decide that we're gonna go it alone and try to, you know, score some political points. It is detrimental to the communities in which you, you're, you're operating in.
Stanwood: Thank you for speaking about that, um. One thing that is just top of mind for so many Oklahomans, Tulsans (is the) federal government shutdown, which by the time this airs tomorrow hopefully will be done. Right now, it's tied for the longest running in history. What are you hearing from the community about some of the struggles that people are facing amid the shutdown?
Nichols: I think the big thing is the SNAP benefit issue and we were just on call last week with a number of partners figuring out how do we all come together to help, but you know, you're talking about $120 million a month for the state of Oklahoma to support folks who need that support, that's an impossible hole to fill.
I worry more so about the impact to the people in communities who depend on those resources and certainly we want to make sure we're as supportive as possible, but you know, we're not $120 million a month of support, right? And so that's tough.
I think a lot about, you know, our airport and so many federal employees out there making sure we're able to move people where they're traveling for business or leisure, it's a huge impact to this community.
And then I think about just the instability with the federal workers that we have here. I mean, you know, if you, you think about it, we got a federal workforce and the US Attorney's Office and federal courts, and the US works. I mean, like from a law enforcement standpoint that impacts us in a very specific way, not to mention the whole number of folks who are contractors and everything else.
And so certainly, you know, I hope that the folks in DC understand that in cities like Tulsa, and cities all across the country really, people are hurting and they're hurting just because, you know, some folks in DC can't come to some agreement on things. I know there are serious issues that face this nation, but we are a nation of people and if we're not taking care of people, you got to wonder, you know, how special are we?
And so I, I really hope that, you know, better angels prevail here pretty soon because we got a lot of folks who, just to be clear, are folks who are working every day, having a tough time getting by, these are critical, resources that they need to be able to feed their families and we really need some, we really need, we really need our folks in DC to get their act together.
Stanford: I want to talk about some of the progress that's being made at Oaklawn and that was also very, very important to you when you took office about not only bringing closure to families but also giving, giving families peace of mind that this this did happen in Tulsa's history. How, how are you feeling about it? Where, where are you? Are you proud of what has been found so far? Do you wish that maybe it's a faster process?
Nichols: I would say, you know, I start with the message of gratitude to a number of folks, one from Mayor Bynum for, you know, starting us down this track. I think that took a lot of courage. I think it was the right thing to do. And so, it's been a pleasure to see something like that carry through from his administration to this one.
Also, a tremendous amount of gratitude for all the folks who are working over at Oaklawn on the investigation, the analysis of, you know, what they found. Over 80 bodies have been found. I know a couple have had gunshot wounds, things like that, so they fit, you know, sort of the criteria for what we're looking for and so I am, I am happy about it in a way because I think it moves our community further down the road on us all saying, you know what, dark time in our city's history, but we're coming close to being able to put it to somewhat of a respectful kind of close in a lot of ways.
It doesn't mean that we don't got a lot of work to do, but it means that for a lot of folks, the historical record said 37, only 37 people were killed. Well, we're starting to learn that number was higher than 37, and I think there's a sense of unity and progress that comes with honesty, and I think we're finally a community that's getting honest about it. And most importantly, to your point, we're making sure that that these families who didn't know what happened to their loved one all those years ago are families who didn't know they had a connection to Tulsa, and I think a really special part of our city, you know, pre-massacre is very special part of our city, something that we shall brag about, but they now, they're not gonna know that and, and I think it puts us in a really kind of unique place as a community to be a community that in a time like these.
With an event like that (we) can still talk about unity and progress? I was out there a few weeks ago, and it is quite the experience. I'm looking forward to us being able to identify folks and their families and being able to hug the necks of those families and them having a perception of Tulsa that we're helping people rediscover a lot of things right now, and we're doing it in a way that I think is very appropriate and I think pretty special.
Stanwood: A path towards healing.
Nichols: Absolutely.
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