OKLAHOMA CITY – In a 6-1 decision Tuesday, the City Council of OKC voted to adopt the proposed $2.1 billion 2027 Fiscal Year budget as presented, despite calls from activists for more participation in the budget-making process, with one council member appearing to unexpectedly support those calls.
The vote comes after weeks of budget proposals from City departments, nearly all of which were forced to make cuts following lower-than-hoped sales tax revenue and only minimal input from OKC residents, as previously reported by Free Press:
That lack of direct public engagement in the City’s budget process brought out several local activists to the meeting Tuesday to speak up for a mode of more participatory City budget planning, each believing that for the budget to benefit the people of Oklahoma City, it must include the voices of those people.
“The budget is another opportunity to be innovative, to try something new,” said Aurelius Francisco, executive director of OKC-based community action group Foundation for Liberating Minds, calling for “a very simple practice change here at the City, as our budget process is opaque and inaccessible to most residents.”
Calls for participatory budget model
A number of community activists spoke before the vote to encourage a more participatory budget model, advocating for regular town hall meetings for residents in each ward to directly voice their budget suggestions, rather than the council voting only to approve department-submitted proposals.
Andy Moore, political activist and founder of Let’s Fix This, a non-profit set to encourage civic engagement and influence policy in Oklahoma, spoke in favor of participatory budgeting.
This model of City budget-planning is already used, he said, “in seven thousand cities worldwide,” saying that it treats people like “more than data,” and gives city finances “a human touch.”
Francisco’s Foundation for Liberating Minds co-founder Tevin McDaniel spoke to Free Press following the vote to discuss what he would like to see from better engagement and accessibility in the City’s budget process.
“The city council needs to be making more accessible ways that constituents know what’s in the budget,” McDaniel said. “A lot of people just don’t know anything about the budget. Like the cuts to weekend bus service, right? I don’t think anybody will know until they try to get on the bus on a Saturday and it’s not running.”
Hamon only vote against
City of OKC budget manager Christian York was on hand Tuesday to provide a helpful overview of the budget after weeks of department proposals, and he outlined the existing ways that residents were “invited to review the proposed budget book and submit comments online and via text, mail, or email.”
But that did not assuage the concerns of Ward 6 Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon.
“Budgets are moral documents, and they show us what we value,” she said before the vote.
After listing a few things she hears most about from Ward 6 residents, Hamon echoed the people’s interest in trying something new, saying “it often feels like we just sort of keep [those concerns] steady, at the same amount… without thinking, again, creatively about how we can be investing in and improving those services.”
Councilman Camal Pennington of Ward 7 emphasized that he wasn’t happy with the cuts being proposed, calling them “not ideal,” but stating that he does “appreciate the good compromise for our good government.”
“Good government is always based in good compromise,” he said before voting in favor of the budget as proposed.
Though many of Hamon’s concerns were shared by absent Ward 2 Councilman James Cooper in a letter read by City Clerk Amy K. Simpson, his absence left Hamon as the only vote against.
Hinkle appears to support participatory model
The final council member to comment before the vote was Councilman Matt Hinkle of Ward 5, who thanked York for all the work he has done to put the budget together and then offered a brief and intriguing reflection on participatory budgeting.
He noted the small number of OKC residents that provided input on the budget through the online portals and emails.
“We’ve got to figure out a better way to get people to participate,” Hinkle said. “There. I said it.”
The mood in the room was, from the beginning, that the council would pass this budget, so participatory budget activists had to look for little wins, and according to some, Hinkle’s comments were just that.
“That feels like a win to me,” said OKC-based graduate student and activist Katrina Ward, “because that’s now four city councilors on the record who want more engagement in some way.”
Hamon, Cooper, and Pennington have all indicated that they’d support more direct resident engagement in the budget process.
“Our push is that we want more engagement,” Ward told Free Press after the meeting. “We want people to be able to actually understand what’s happening in the budget process and then be able to offer feedback.”
Tyler Smothers is a local, an Okie, and a poet living in Oklahoma City with his wife, Sadye, and their animals, Toby and Oscar.
He teaches medieval history and literature to 7th graders and loves everything from "Canterbury Tales" to "Mrs. Dalloway."
