OKLAHOMA CITY — Jason Lowe is on the job in his first week as the new Oklahoma County District 1 Commissioner, vowing to deal directly with jail and road issues first.
Roads
The old term for county commissioner districts was “road districts” because commissioners in the unincorporated parts of the county maintain roads and bridges.
And with 170 miles of roads in District 1 alone, Lowe will have his work cut out for him.
He has heard plenty about roads from his constituents in the Spencer area of his district in the southeastern part of the county.
“They’ve told me that they haven’t had their roads paved in 40 years,” Lowe told Free Press in a quick interview after his first Board of County Commissioners meeting. “So it’s a major problem out there, and I want to make sure we work with Oklahoma City, Ward 7, all of the [city] council members, and do joint projects to ensure those roads are repaired.”
The Jail
The top hot-button issue in Oklahoma County for the last several years has been the state of the current Jail in downtown OKC and the twists and turns of trying to build a new jail.
Lowe said that now that he is one of the commissioners, “I’m looking at all the books. I have access to all of the information now, so I’m trying to figure out what we need to do moving forward.”
“You know, when I knocked on doors, … when I was campaigning, that was the most important issue … asked of me was what we’re going to do with Oklahoma County Jail,” Lowe said about the whole project and the financing of it. “We want a jail that’s humane. We want a jail that folks are not dying in. So that’s definitely a priority of mine.”
Loud objections came from Del City residents just to the immediate east of the proposed site of the new jail at 1901 E. Grand. That address is the site of the defunct and demolished Hamilton Courts public housing project. Opponents say that the same isolation from services that ultimately made Hamilton Courts so bad that it had to be torn down is the same problem today.
Del City residents and city leaders are concerned that people who are let out of jail at around 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning will go to where the lights are, which is a residential neighborhood to the east.
But, after the meetings and objections, commissioners have still moved forward on the Grand Blvd site. They have even executed a land swap with Crooked Oak Public Schools to give the school land across the street from their campus in exchange for the district giving the county their athletic facility next door to the Grand Blvd land.
Some have criticized land swaps the commissioners have executed, questioning whether there was some sort of under-the-table deal. There is no evidence so far of any kind of underhanded dealings.
Commissioner Myles Davidson, District 3, told Free Press that an added positive to acquiring the land next door is that Oklahoma County can finally have a fairgrounds for the yearly county fair and livestock shows, plus have a facility that could be used as a VoAg/FFA livestock homebase for a school like Crooked Oak.
Decisive election win
Lowe turned in a decisive win in the recent runoff race with Jed Green for the unexpired term of former commissioner Carrie Blumert.
Since Lowe was elected in a special election to fill the remainder of Blumert’s term, his current term will expire in January 2027. Therefore, the District 1 County Commissioner seat will be up for re-election in the general election scheduled for November 2026.
Three things
We asked Lowe what he wants his constituents to expect from him.
“We’ll bring three things to this job, the law, the facts, and evidence,” said Lowe. “And I’m going to fight for them, and I’m going to make sure that we have a transparent administration.”
Pettis appointed Chief Deputy
By the end of the day, Lowe announced the appointment of John Pettis Jr. as his Chief Deputy. In this role, Pettis Jr. will serve as the primary representative of the county’s Policy and Governance and Infrastructure committees and the Public Buildings Authority Advisory Committee.
Pettis was on the Oklahoma City Council for Ward 7 in earlier years and lost in this year’s bid to return to that seat in the last election.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
