Last Updated on April 5, 2017, 8:13 PM | Published: April 5, 2017
Cathy Cummings won her run-off against former City of The Village councilman Chris Bernardy.
Village voters gave Cummings a decisive win with 79 percent of the vote. She received 700 votes to Bernardy’s 191.
“I’m just excited to sit down with my fellow councilmen and get to work on some of the ideas and concerns I heard when knocking doors,” said Cummings.
She estimates that she knocked about 900 doors in the campaign with her volunteers knocking about 600 more.
It was a dramatic shift to local community politics from her bid for the statewide office of Lt. Governor in 2014.
In that race, she traveled all 77 counties of Oklahoma and gained over 250,000 votes in her unsuccessful contest with Todd Lamb.
Mayor’s confidence
Current ward 1 Village councilman and mayor David Bennett was at Cummings’ watch party at Sean and Cathy Cummings’ new restaurant, Bacon.
He talked to Free Press at the end of the evening about the skills and knowledge he is confident Cummings brings to her new role. We asked what he thinks she needs to know as she begins.
“I don’t think Cathy needs to know anything from me,” Bennett said with a laugh. “She has learned a lot knocking doors.”
“She has a lot of experience with people,” he said. “I’m sure she will do very well in this position.”
The bulk of The Village is in an area bounded by Lake Hefner, N. Pennsylvania, Britain Rd and Hefner Road with some houses slightly beyond that area.
With only roughly 3 square miles of city to cover, police response in an emergency is within a few minutes and fire response is within five minutes said Mayor Bennett.
Economic Development
Cummings said that economic development was going to be her first long-term priority.
She said after The Village experienced success with two other tax increment financing districts (where taxes are temporarily used over a set period to develop a new tax generating business), the city will continue to use that method for economic development in the future.
City council meetings are held two Tuesdays of every month at 7:30 p.m. at The Village City Hall, 2304 Manchester Drive.
Meeting times and information about The Village can be found on their website.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
