OKLAHOMA CITY – In a tangled pair of meetings Tuesday morning, Oklahoma County officials voted to approve a multi-million dollar increase of funds for the Oklahoma County Detention Center, covering a nearly $5 million budget shortfall and avoiding threats of state control that could’ve seen the National Guard assuming jail operations.
Amid calls to dissolve the jail trust (officially called the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority) – including by some in its own ranks – the County Budget Board voted 7-1 to approve a $4.2 million transfer of emergency funds to help cover the jail’s controversial shortfall, with existing funds and spending cuts covering the remainder.
That vote came despite numerous combative exchanges between board members, rampant concerns and confusions over specific dollar amounts, and a false start that saw a meeting called to order only for it to immediately adjourn so that the previous meeting could continue.
“I know it’s been a long couple months, contentious, there’s been some disagreements,” said jail administrator Tim Kimrey addressing the trust. “We’re trying to do the right thing, what’s best for the citizens of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma City, what’s our Constitutional obligation, and to do what’s right for the folks that are incarcerated in Oklahoma County jail.”
$5 million shortfall
The jail trust, led by chairman Jim Holman, requested the emergency funds to help cover a nearly $5 million shortfall in the detention center’s finances, a budget concern exacerbated in February when pay raises were approved and distributed to jail staff despite an indefinite freeze imposed by the trust.
That move has resulted in calls for the resignations of both Holman and Kimrey and for investigations into how the raises were authorized, as well as broader calls to dissolve the jail trust entirely and hand control of the facility back to the Oklahoma County Sherrif’s Department.
“I understand it’s a constitutional obligation to fund the jail, but we fund the jail,” said Sherriff Tommie Johnson III, an outspoken critic of the jail trust and himself a member of its board. “It’s not a constitutional obligation to continue giving money to an entity that mismanages it.”
Meeting confusion
Tuesday’s back-to-back special meetings of the Criminal Justice Authority and the Budget Board were intended to see the jail trust agree to a specific dollar amount needed to cover its shortfall and to formally request that amount from the Budget Board.
But after trustee, and adamant jail trust critic, Derrick Scobey spoke at length, admonishing what he framed as gross mismanagement by Holman, the trust adjourned without first agreeing to a dollar amount.
That oversight led to the Budget Board convening, only to immediately move to adjourn in order to re-convene the Criminal Justice Authority so that they could officially request an agreed-upon amount of emergency funds.
That amount was decided as roughly $4.2 million, distributed over three transactions across three months, with the remainder of the jail’s deficit covered by existing funds and spending cuts.
Vote avoids state control of jail
Even with other members of the jail trust and the Budget Board joining Johnson and Scobey in expressing displeasure with trust leadership and their handling of finances, all but Johnson voted in favor of the emergency funds, hoping to avoid a state takeover of the jail.
Budget Board chairman and District 2 Commissioner Brian Maughan confirmed to Free Press last week that a failure to approve the funds would likely have resulted in as much as 50% of the jail staff being laid off.
In that event, County officials had signaled that they would have requested assistance in staffing the jail from the state Department of Corrections or even the Oklahoma National Guard.
The Budget Board’s 7-1 vote Tuesday avoids that possibility for now.
Caveats and complaints
The board’s funding approval didn’t come without caveats, however.
Staff have already moved to implement a new policy that any transfer of funds for jail use be recorded in the County Clerk’s office, a move intended to prevent any further confusion or mystery regarding the approval of funds, such as the one that resulted in the controversial pay raises.
But an amendment was also added to the motion on Tuesday to ensure that the jail’s newly approved funds be used only for the constitutionally required responsibilities of operating the jail, an attempt to head off any further accusations of mismanagement or frivolous spending.
District 1 Commissioner Jason Lowe voted to approve the funding Tuesday, though he remains a vocal critic of the trust who has repeatedly called the Criminal Justice Authority a “failed experiment,”
“I will vote in favor of bailing out the trust today,” Lowe said before the vote, “not because I believe they’ll be able to get their financial house in order, but rather because the employees at the detention center should not be used as pawns to cover up for the failings of the body as a whole.”
Those sentiments were echoed after the vote Tuesday by C.J. Neal, founder of legal non-profit Neal Center for Justice, who was on hand to formally announce the filing of a legal complaint again Holman, calling for his resignation and accusing him of acting unilaterally, circumventing open meeting laws, and misappropriating public funds for the raises.
“No one is saying that the people at that jail do not deserve a raise,” Neal told the trust. “We believe they do, but we believe that it should be done lawfully.”
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
