OKC Mayor Race 2014

[DoctorTaco]

Is this guy that did the Nate Silver "homage" (sounds better than knockoff) website? Couldn't seem to find my way back to that site....

Yeah he revamped his site to cover all Oklahoma Politics, not just OKC City politics. A decent read but I find it hard to keep up with his output.

[OSUFan]

You're making way too much sense, Ed! Stop that!

I still find it very odd you claim you won't vote for Ed. You clearly really like him and his positions. Why won't you vote for him?

[mkjeeves]

You've miss-stated what I said over several posts and it's irrelevant anyway. I'll for-sure vote for Mick when he starts making sense like Ed just did in the video. (Which doesn't make my vote any more or less relevant.)

Shame we killed the Maps for Suburbs thread since Ed just spoke to issues several of us were talking about in that thread. < That's relevant to the topic.

Here before it devolved and got locked: http://www.okctalk.com/general-real-...-suburbia.html

Anyone happen to notice what the crowd applauded in Ed's speaking bit in the video?

[betts]

What Mick DOES makes sense. It not only makes sense but it has made Oklahoma City phenomenally better during his tenure in office.

[Dubya61]

Shame we killed the Maps for Suburbs thread since Ed just spoke to issues several of us were talking about in that thread. < That's relevant to the topic.

Here before it devolved and got locked: http://www.okctalk.com/general-real-...-suburbia.html

I don't understand why you say it devolved. The concept that MAPS doesn't benefit the suburbs is ridiculous. I would suggest that you believe the thread got off track just because you were no longer able to comment about how one-sided MAPS benefits went with impunity.

[mkjeeves]

I don't understand why you say it devolved. The concept that MAPS doesn't benefit the suburbs is ridiculous. I would suggest that you believe the thread got off track just because you were no longer able to comment about how one-sided MAPS benefits went with impunity.

Not the case. There was a lot of good stuff in that thread you, myself, sid, JTF and others agreed on to some extent and I hated to see it locked up. Pete locked it up when it went south in the last few posts. I would have deleted them and left it myself. Now Ed is talking some of those very things. I wish it wasn't Ed. I wish it was Mick, since he's the mayor and probably will continue to be the mayor. But it isn't.

[betts]

What people don't always understand about Mick is that he's more of a listener than a talker. And what's maybe the most refreshing thing about him is that after he listens, he's willing to rethink his position. A perfect example of that is transit. We've all seen the quote from him about not wanting to make it easier to live outside OKC with reference to mass transit. And yet he's now involved in setting up an RTD with Edmond, Norman and Midwest City. His response to being asked to help promote a streetcar in MAPS was basically "convince me". If you present a reasonable idea to him, you've got a reasonable chance he'll support it. So, if there are good suggestions for MAPS for suburbia, I'd suggest e-mailing him with ideas. I was shocked to get an answer from him the first time I sent him an e- mail with a suggestion, but I did. Be a squeaky wheel (within reason) to him and your city councilor.

[mkjeeves]

Two things...

That's a nice thought but I'm pretty sure it's not scalable for the population at large.

All this time I thought he was reading OKCtalk. My bad.

[Plutonic Panda]

Four candidates filed for the March 4 Oklahoma City mayoral election: Mick Cornett, Phil Hughes, Joe Sarge Nelson and Ed Shadid.

https://www.facebook.com/cityofokc/p...2?stream_ref=1
Oklahoma State Election Board - Voter Registration

I have never voted in a mayors race before. Quick question, can I vote even though I live in Edmond? It seems I can, but I'm not too sure.

[betts]

If we choose not to participate in government, then we allow those we've chosen to participate for us. That includes plebiscites, by the way, where we allow those who choose to participate to choose for us. Oklahoma City is a small pond. Anyone who doesn't understand that, again, has not ever gone to a City Council meeting or written their Council person. But what are we supposed to do: Expect someone else to do it precisely the way we want, even if we haven't bothered to tell them what we want? If my children told me that, I'd tell them they were exhibiting entitlement: the right to expect someone else to do it for them, precisely how they want it done and including the right to complain if the person to whom they have abdicated responsibility doesn't do it correctly.

[betts]

Four candidates filed for the March 4 Oklahoma City mayoral election: Mick Cornett, Phil Hughes, Joe Sarge Nelson and Ed Shadid.

https://www.facebook.com/cityofokc/p...2?stream_ref=1
Oklahoma State Election Board - Voter Registration

I have never voted in a mayors race before. Quick question, can I vote even though I live in Edmond? It seems I can, but I'm not too sure.

Call your local county election board: Oklahoma County 405-713-1515

In general, if you pay your trash service bill to the City of Oklahoma City, you can probably vote in the election

[Wambo36]

I have never voted in a mayors race before. Quick question, can I vote even though I live in Edmond? It seems I can, but I'm not too sure.

Just look and see what city name is on the trash dumpsters, if you've been issued any. If they say OKC you're in. If they say Edmond you're out of luck.

[windowphobe]

Far as I know, anyone in OKC north of NW 150th (and some not that far north) will have an Edmond ZIP code, but that's just where the mail goes.

[CaptDave]

Four candidates filed for the March 4 Oklahoma City mayoral election: Mick Cornett, Phil Hughes, Joe Sarge Nelson and Ed Shadid.

https://www.facebook.com/cityofokc/p...2?stream_ref=1
Oklahoma State Election Board - Voter Registration

I have never voted in a mayors race before. Quick question, can I vote even though I live in Edmond? It seems I can, but I'm not too sure.

It depends - as others have said check your utilities and the OK Election Board maps. A pretty fair portion of Ward 8 (and Ward 7 IIRC) has Edmond addresses.

[boscorama]

The only mayor you can vote on is the city of Edmond, assuming you're registered to vote with an Edmond address. Doesn't mean you can't help an OKC candidate in other ways.

Four candidates filed for the March 4 Oklahoma City mayoral election: Mick Cornett, Phil Hughes, Joe Sarge Nelson and Ed Shadid.

https://www.facebook.com/cityofokc/p...2?stream_ref=1
Oklahoma State Election Board - Voter Registration

I have never voted in a mayors race before. Quick question, can I vote even though I live in Edmond? It seems I can, but I'm not too sure.

[Plutonic Panda]

Yeah that's a bummer. I live on Covell and Coltrane(north Edmond), so I can't vote. My trash and everything goes to the city of Edmond.

All I can do is say I support Cornett.

[Zuplar]

Yeah that's a bummer. I live on Covell and Coltrane(north Edmond), so I can't vote. My trash and everything goes to the city of Edmond.

All I can do is say I support Cornett.

You can bet my household will give Mayor Cornett 2 votes.

[catch22]

A certain candidate for Mayor, is spreading a lie that OKC has not added officers since 1990. That is insane, I thought, how could a city grow and not add police officers?

I went through the past 10 years of city budgets, and compiled the following spreadsheet.



Turns out, since 2003 we have added 92 positions. That's not 92 total people hired, that's 92 additional officers outside of hiring for people who have left the force, either via retirement, finding other careers, or have passed away. I'd say we are moving in the right direction.

[zookeeper]

A certain candidate for Mayor, is spreading a lie that OKC has not added officers since 1990. That is insane, I thought, how could a city grow and not add police officers?

I went through the past 10 years of city budgets, and compiled the following spreadsheet.



Turns out, since 2003 we have added 92 positions. That's not 92 total people hired, that's 92 additional officers outside of hiring for people who have left the force, either via retirement, finding other careers, or have passed away. I'd say we are moving in the right direction.

Good work! However, I'm still stunned that a city that's growing like OKC has added only 92 officers in almost a quarter of a century. Really?

[BrettM2]

Good work! However, I'm still stunned that a city that's growing like OKC has added only 92 officers in a quarter of a century. Really?

It's 10 years, not 25. Obviously that year with a -26 slowed down overall growth.

[zookeeper]

It's 10 years, not 25. Obviously that year with a -26 slowed down overall growth.

Gotcha! Okay, that makes more sense. (whew) I just saw the 1990 in the statement before the nice spreadsheet work. Thanks!

[catch22]

I was planning to go back to 1980 or so. But the farthest I could find the city budget was to 2003-2004. I will admit I didn't look too hard, as I was somewhat under a time limit. I will see if i can dig up more.

[bradh]

catch that's briliant, when I saw his tweet about a town hall on safety and that fancy fallacy of a graphic, i knew that stuff was made up (shocker)

[betts]

I'm not averse to hiring more police officers if we need them. I'm not convinced that sheer numbers of officers can dramatically decrease crime however. And, as on last 4th of July when I see 6 officers talking together in Bricktown instead of monitoring crowds, I ask myself how efficient our existing officers are. I'm throwing the following out as questions, not statements: Do we have officers assigned to programs of questionable value such as the old D.A.R.E. program? Is there a minimum age for retirement with full benefits, such as 60? If an officer retires at an early age, do paid benefits received from a second career offset benefits from the city? Should they? Has anyone looked at the County Sheriff department to see if there's an overlap? If there is, could we rearrange departments so the overlap no longer exists? Does the city make so much money from speed traps that it's worth it to have them? Most of them are not set up in places where speeds are possible that endanger other drivers.

I've said before that there is a ridiculous overlap between EMSA and the fire department. Why can they not be consolidated into one department so that only one vehicle responds to emergencies?

Every person hired is a salary plus benefits. I just hope someone is making sure every employee we already have is utilized maximally to make this city safer. There's a lot of paranoia about safety these days. But a lot of random violence is just that - random - and probably would occur even if we had another 100 officers.

[betts]

And is anyone surprised a certain candidate is again not telling the truth?