Candidates make their pitch for election to city council

When Sallisaw citizens head to the polls Tuesday — when “tens of people will decide” who will represent Ward 2 and Ward 4 on the Board of City Commissioners in a municipal election notorious for its embarrassingly anemic voter turnout — they’ll be balloting among four candidates who, as it turns out, are virtually interchangeable as to their hopes and dreams for their community.

At least that’s how the candidates — Josh Bailey and Steven Hatcher in Ward 2, and Brad Hamilton and Jeannie Richardson in Ward 4 — portrayed themselves at Thursday’s public forum at the People Inc. Conference Center. Your TIMES and KXMX Mix 105.1 co-sponsored the forum to engage the city’s electorate, providing an opportunity for candidates vying for the threeyear seats to let voters know where they stand on issues important to Sallisaw citizens.

As Bailey, the only incumbent on the ballot, observed by the conclusion of the 75-minute forum, none of the candidates said anything earth-shattering — “I think we all pretty much said the same thing” — which effectively relegates the election to a process with which Bailey doesn’t agree. “It shouldn’t be a popularity contest. It should be the right person for the right job at the right time.”

For the 16 residents who turned out for the forum and those who viewed the proceedings via MIX Channel 19 and on KXMX’s Facebook page, the candidates voiced their agreement about:

• Quality of life

• Economic development and economic growth

• Opportunities and threats for Sallisaw

• Citizen involvement in the decisionmaking process

• How to spend a theoretical $1 million grant

• Their vision for the future

• Their position on the municipal landfill facility “Thank you to the candidates for their interest in leading our city to greater prosperity,” Your TIMES publisher Jeff Mayo said in setting the stage for the forum. “The city commission positions are not paid; this is volunteer work to better our community.”

Then Mayo reminded the audience and live-stream viewers that “tens of people will decide these elections.”

“Even though there are 1,144 registered voters in Ward 2, and 1,224 registered voters in Ward 4, since 2012 the average turnout for Ward 2 races totaled 99 voters and for Ward 4, 216 voters. When there’s not a citywide election race, it’s even lower,” he said. “But this is important business. According to the city’s fiscal year 2023 budget information, our general fund has $25,295,000 each year, our municipal authorities budgets $39 million, the capital Improvement fund is $3.3 million, and our infrastructure improvement fund is $3.1 million. For our Sallisaw Municipal Authority, its income has sales of $10 million from our electric, the sanitation landfill was $3 million, water and sewer $2.8 million, telecommunications $2.8 million and it had a balance carryover of $3.8 million. There’s a lot of money at stake for these elected officials.”

The forum was moderated by Marley Abell, senior vice president for First Financial in Sallisaw, and a tireless community volunteer who has previously moderated about a dozen such candidate forums.

Opening statement excerpts

• Hatcher — “I know every nook and cranny in Sallisaw, the good, the bad and the ugly, and I still love it. If I’m elected, I’m going to come in with an open mind. I’m gonna treat each issue individually, and I’m going to put a real emphasis on continued economic development.”

• Richardson — Recalled her first election (John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon), and drew upon JFK’s famous quote: Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. “I thought about how much change we’ve had and how much we need to have somebody stand up. I’m willing to be that person.”

• Hamilton — “I’ve been asked on numerous occasions and by several people: Since it’s an unpaid position, why on earth would I want to run for city council? The short answer is, it’s for my son. He’s 12, and for me, it was important for him to see that it’s not acceptable to complain about issues or problems that you see in your community, you still need to be a man of action, and that’s what I wanted him to see in me and him to follow.”

• Bailey — Was self-deprecating as “the worst public speaker I know” in the shortest of the opening statements. He noted he has been married for 22 years, has three children and “worked for the city of Sallisaw for 10 years. We have two small businesses: Sallisaw AAA insurance office, and rental properties.”

Question 1. Sallisaw’s unique in that we own and operate so many essential services for our town such as water, sewer, electric, sanitation and all forms of the telecommunication systems. What do you feel is the greatest opportunity and also the largest threat to the city of Sallisaw and how would you like to address that?

Hatcher

• Hatcher — “The greatest opportunity is continued economic growth, and right now, I think we have the right people in place in our economic development team at the city. One thing that I think that I could do, if I’m elected, is bring in some fresh ideas as far as selecting quality-of-life projects that have a higher return on investment. Once the aquatic center and the skate park are finished, I think that we need to be pursuing an events center that’s similar to the one in Poteau that’s capable of hosting concerts and gun shows, trade shows, MMA fights and things like that to bring people to town to spend their money. The city can take that additional sales tax revenue that we collect and reinvest it into higher wages for our employees and our infrastructure needs. So I think economic development is the most important. The largest threat is just no growth. But we’re on the right trajectory [now].”

• Richardson — “I believe we have a lot of potential with the resources that we have coming in. The biggest problem, however, might be balancing the budget. One of the big concerns I’ve heard was how to make the cost to the residents that they can afford. The electric bill, for example, has been a big issue for many of them. I think we need to look at that. And we need to evaluate what we can do to make it better for the residents here in Sallisaw. I do feel like we need to have more growth, because I think we should keep taxes the way they are. But if we bring in more growth, then our taxes will increase without impending that those fees on to our community.”

• Hamilton — The opportunity is in the question. Since we operate those services, we’re in a unique position to accommodate the needs of incoming business. And I think our location as the county seat, right next to the interstate; there’s railways, two state highways. We’re in a really unique and prime opportunity for that growth. With that you’re going to need a workforce, and how are you going to attract the workforce? That’s going to be through what I think is our threat — that’s, in my opinion, the lack of willingness to invest in quality-of-life projects. So I think to maximize our potential, it’d be to address those weaknesses and fix them, and that’s what I intend to do if elected.

• Bailey — “I had a conversation with somebody the other day. Like every other place in the United States, we educate our children, we send them off to college. The problem is they’re not coming back. We don’t have jobs for them. We don’t have entertainment for them. Those are hand in hand, we’ve got to remember that. I think that’s our biggest threat. To grow, we have to have jobs and stuff for younger people to do. We need to start and finish the projects we already have slated. We have wonderful people here. City employees are some of the best, hardworking people I know. I know them personally, I’ve worked side by side. I’ve worked in the ditch with them, they’re great people. They’re willing to do what needs to be done to help rebuild our infrastructure. We need to focus on that.”

Question 2. How do you weigh the importance of the quality-of-life services — such as the sports complex, walking trails, the new splash pad, city pool — within the overall budget and the plan looking forward for the city?

• Richardson — “I think it’s disappointing that we have a swimming pool, but we didn’t build a new one prior to shutting it down. I feel like there are a lot of things in our community that we have available. One of the things I think is equally important is the streets with sidewalks. A lot of elderly these days cannot walk out their front door with their walker and safely exercise. Quality of life is very important on the individual basis. As a public health nurse, I see problems with that. I had brought up the street issue and some safety issue on Lucy Street sometime ago, and wrote a letter to the council for that. I would like to see better streets, that’s a huge thing for me.”

• Hamilton — “If you want to attract new residents and you want to maintain the population that you have, there has to be an incentive to stay. I agree maintaining the streets would be a priority for anyone, but we’ve got to address the quality-of-life issues if we expect any of that potential for growth.”

• Bailey — “We’re all up here echoing the same thing, and they’re doing it better than I am. I’m sitting here trying to remember to breathe and say the same thing a little bit different. I feel like we failed our voters in that the city pool should have been built by now and we shouldn’t have shut down the old one before we had the new one. We haven’t had a pool in two years now. I don’t agree with that. I know COVID messed some stuff up, but we could have used the one we had that’s been band-aided together for 30 years for a couple more, at least my kids could have somewhere to go. I, like everybody else up here, feel like quality-of-life projects are extremely important. That’s how we attract people.”

• Hatcher — “Quality-of-life projects are extremely important. I thought the sports complex was a great project to pursue, and it’s brought people to town on the weekends and all the baseball tournaments, and they spend their money here and the city gains additional sales tax revenue from that. I think just being more selective in the future with what we’re pursuing. An events center would have a high return on investment, attract people here, and we can take that sales tax revenue and reinvest it. I’m running my campaign on, ‘Hey, let’s be more selective on qualityof- life projects so that we can reinvest it into the city infrastructure and higher wages for the employees’.”

Question 3. We’re a forum and not a debate, so we don’t ask things that are targeted to any one candidate. The hottest topic over the past year dealt with the landfill. What is your opinion on the city looking to possibly sell the landfill, and what would change your mind regarding your opinion?

Hamilton

• Hamilton — “I would be really interested in hearing the motivation the city has behind the decision to sell the landfill. I previously said the city was in a unique position because they operate those services, and we’re allowed to dictate and adapt and not be beholden to anyone. The landfill’s no different. Surrounding communities use our landfill because they see the value in it. I see the value in it. That being said, you can’t take a hardline stance on admittedly something that I’m ignorant about. So I really don’t know what the motivation behind selling it is. I would be open to hear it, but, initially, I don’t see where that would be a good avenue to pursue.”

• Bailey — “I’ve received hundreds of phone calls over this, and I’ve had to try to educate myself on this topic in a short amount of time. I don’t like talking out of ignorance. I find no benefit in selling the landfill, and zero of my phone calls were interested in that at all. I championed the block of the sale of the landfill. I fought adamantly to keep the landfill. It’s a public service. No other city near us owns their own landfill — 80-year landfill or however long it’s supposed to last. I fought tooth and nail to keep it. I don’t feel like we’re done. We need to be pushing dirt yesterday so we could keep the gates open. What would change my mind? $30 billion, maybe? Maybe?”

• Hatcher — “As far as I’m concerned, the city council’s already voted against selling it, and so I feel like the decision has been made. We need to move forward and operate the landfill like a business and make it as profitable as we possibly can to justify that decision.”

• Richardson — “As a public health nurse, I can see a public health problem. If we sell the landfill and it gets sold and we don’t have any control over the amount that is charged for the use of the land for the garbage disposal. If that was to occur, as in some communities that I am aware of, then garbage gets dumped on other people’s property and then you have to figure out how the city is going to deal with that. I also want to keep two free yearly pickups for people. This keeps our city clean, and it’s a real advantage. We want to keep the landfill, and I don’t think I’m gonna change my mind on that. I think it could come up in the future, and we don’t want it to happen.”

Question 4. How would you involve residents more in the decision-making process within our town?

Bailey

• Bailey — “I’ve tried for three years to involve our citizens. Jeannie started a Ward 4 Facebook page to involve residents. I’ve copied that and started one for Ward 2. I plan to post the agendas and add a discussion group and maybe get people involved that way. I don’t know how important people feel like city politics is. I can’t think of much of anything else that affects your life directly as far as what goes on inside these city limits. I talked to everybody I can, and try to bring up the topics of that day. As often as I can, I try to involve people in that. And I do feel like with the landfill, that was a super hot topic. I feel like a lot of people know more about that now, and I hope it just keeps growing. I’m doing everything I can to be transparent and get people involved.”

• Hatcher — “That is something that’s difficult to do. Just maintaining an open line of communication, getting your contact information out there. I think anytime an important topic comes up — like the landfill — why not put a survey out there to the public, put it on social media? I think that would give us valuable feedback.

• Richardson — “I moved here in 2015 from Salem, Oregon, where neighborhood associations were very active. Through the neighborhood association, I was allowed to sit on the city council of Salem, Oregon, for one day. Because I was not an elected city council member, I couldn’t vote, but I could express any opinion that I had while the city council was in session that day. So I started a Facebook page. Whether I am elected or not. I plan to keep that Facebook page where people can communicate what our neighborhood would like and anyone can participate as well, because we’re all involved with the city no matter what district we live in, and we want to make this a better place. Our lines are together and we’re united.”

• Hamilton — “Actually, that’s probably a pretty easy problem to solve. It’s going to take two steps. In order to get community engagement involvement, you need awareness. You need to be more proactive in all of the quality works that are being done behind the scenes by the city and its employees that you might not be aware of that will have impacts on your everyday lives that you don’t even know takes place. It’s issues that are being raised that concern the citizens, but they’re not aware that those issues are being presented for voting by the commission. So I think we need to do a better job in making the agendas more public and attracting people to come. And then, secondly, it’s not gonna do a lot of good to have that awareness raised if once people had the opportunity to express their opinions on it, their voices aren’t heard. So I think that while making the issues more public and more readily available to everyone, we also need to take the opportunity to take action, or at least make it well known that the voices and desires of the people within our wards and city, as a whole, is heard.”

Question 5. Politics in small towns are often about people and personality as much as a particular issue. What is your style in dealing with contentious issues?

• Hatcher — “That’s a very broad question. I just keep an open mind and look at issues from all sides before making a decision. I think that that’s going to be my style.”

• Richardson — “Number 1, one needs to listen. Number 2 is ask questions. Number 3 is wait, wait for an answer, and give people the benefit of the doubt. You know what, we’re all friends here. We can deal with one another in an adult manner. I have an advantage, because I don’t know as many people as those who grew up here. And so, you know what, I’m the new kid on the block, and I expect to get to know you very well.”

• Hamilton — “I think hasty decisions have the potential to be bad ones, so probably it’s best to hear all sides of the argument, inform yourself as best you can with what’s available, and then open dialogue. I think it’s important to hear all sides, discuss all sides, before making any decision.”

• Bailey — “It is about personalities, but I don’t agree with that. It shouldn’t be a popularity contest. It should be the right person for the right job at the right time. I’ve always had an open-door policy. I listen — try to listen — and communicate with everybody I come in contact with. I believe that great ideas can come from anywhere, anybody, so I try to keep an open mind and listen to opposition as much as people that agree with me.”

Question 6. If you were awarded a $1 million grant to use for the city without any restrictions, what would be your suggestion to do with it, and why?

Richardson

• Richardson — “I think that some of the city employees need to have better wages. Some of them do our grunt work and are paid the least. In a hospital setting, it’s the people who actually give the bath that are the most valued employees. They are the ones that really make your stay at the hospital what it should be. And sometimes when we have people on the low end of the totem pole, they get paid very low wages. I think I would donate that money to increase their wages.”

• Hamilton — “Unfortunately, a million dollars sounds like a lot, maybe to me. In the grand scheme of things, it’s probably peanuts. Over the last few years if you’ve paid attention to the downtown area, we’ve seen a lot of interesting growth there, from small businesses. Even recently, the ice rink that was set up in that commons area, that was unique and I thought that was really cool to see. So really with the million dollars might be interesting to establish some means to support entrepreneurship and those local small businesses. I think that a million dollars probably would be better spent in supporting and helping with small business loans or just through support, to try to encourage more of that small business growth, not just downtown, but as a whole.”

• Bailey — “A million dollars is a lot of money, but in a budget of 23 million, it’s [not so much]. I’ve been advocating for three years now, or longer, that our city employees need more money. They need a living wage. I would probably do that. If not that, the chamber’s doing a great job with their budget. I could give them more money and let them bring in more tourists. The Main Street [program], they’re doing a great job with their budget. They could probably use another million. Boys and Girls Club, imagine what they can do with that. There’s a lot of places I would put a million dollars, a lot of places.”

• Hatcher — “Well, definitely, quality-of-life projects. I think I would probably put some towards the sports complex for improvements there and then kinda get us out of a pickle on the aquatics center and the skate park, because I know that the bids are higher than originally expected, and so I think I would use it to get us out of that; get that project completed.”

Question 7. Why do you believe you’re the best candidate for Ward 4?

• Richardson — “Because I’ll stand up even when the going gets tough. I’ll hold the other members of the city council to the bar.”

• Hamilton — “I think I’m the best candidate for Ward 4 because I have a vested interest in the long term to see the improvements that we’ve all been speaking about.”

• Bailey — “I feel like I’m in a unique position because I’ve worked for the city of Sallisaw for 10 years in just about every department. I know these people, I know how hard they work, how hard they want to work, where their heart is. I’ve volunteered in the fire department, I volunteer Youth League. There’s not any aspect of Sallisaw that I could think that I’ve not had a hand in. So I feel like that my unique background, I am able to talk to different groups of people that some may not be able to comfortably. I think that translates well into getting the voters’ wishes across to the city.”

• Hatcher — “I think I can bring in fresh ideas to continue our economic development.”

Question 8. What is your perspective on the best ways to collaborate with other levels of government? In our case, it would be county, state, Tribal levels, and even other neighboring municipalities to ensure and sustain a prosperous future for our entire region and not necessarily just Sallisaw.

• Hamilton — “It goes back to that open dialogue. I think the best way for all of us to really come out with the most benefit would be working together. You can’t do that without an open line of communication and some sort of give and take and support for whatever those areas need. Whatever we can do for Cherokee Nation to support them, and I’m sure they feel the same.”

• Bailey — “I’d talk to Muldrow, Vian, county, Cherokee Nation. Just answer their phone calls, call them, reach out to them and communicate what’s going on with us, what they need. What’s that old adage? When the tide comes in, all ships rise. I believe that. It’s not just a Sallisaw issue, it’s a neighborhood issue. We can grow and bring everybody with us.”

• Hatcher — “Collaboration is key to any successful thing that the government does. Even in my job, I’ve had to collaborate with other organizations that have similar interests to get our events organized and planned and make them successful. That’s on a smaller scale than government, but I’ve got a little bit of experience with that. And so I think that I could come in and help with that.”

• Richardson — “I think communication. We need to invite them in to become like our city councils where we are open with our communication and, hopefully, that will be more open in the future. As an instructor at UAFS for the nursing department, I taught the nurses how to go into a community and assess a community and ask questions from city council members or mayors or so forth. We need to get more involved and we need to participate more with our neighborhood associations, invite senators and so forth into this area. We were able to get a siren for this area by the Biden Administration, and I’m just wondering if there are some ways that we can venture out and explore other resources that might be available for us. I’m open to explore. There’s a lot of areas that I don’t understand yet, but I’m willing to learn and stand up.”

Question 9. Where do you want to see Sallisaw in the next 10 years?

• Bailey — “Continue to grow. I would like to see Sallisaw exponentially larger, younger, more jobs, more entertainment, more things to do. I’d like to see our streets better. I feel like Sallisaw is on a great track. I feel like we are moving that direction. I would like to see it continue and maybe ramped up, but definitely head that same direction.”

• Hatcher — “Simply put, I want to see us thriving. We are on a trajectory of good economic growth, and I think with investing in that events center, we’re going to attract hotels, we’re going to attract restaurants, which will attract more business and just growth. I think that that is the key to success for our community.”

• Richardson — “Number 1, I’d like to see us be a safe environment, to have a better infrastructure of our streets. I would like to see our Constitutional rights upheld. I’d like to see us also be able to defend our Second Amendment rights. I’d like a gun range, not only for our citizens, but for the police officers. I understand that they don’t have a place to even practice. We need to be more aware of what’s going on in the community and support it. I’d like to see us have more stores, more businesses, better opportunities for work and a place where people will be very proud of the city. We have a wonderful place to live here.”

• Hamilton — “I would like to see in 10 years the conversation that we’re having now be a little different. I’d like to see that conversation shift to our surrounding communities and how we can help them prosper in an astounding amount that they have seen Sallisaw do in the course of 10 years. I think maybe 10 years might be a little broad. I’d like to see in the next five years those quality-of-life projects that we talk about needing done and plans and how it’s in the works. I want to see them completed. I want to see the pool completed. I want to see the skate park completed. I think we’re missing a huge opportunity at the sports complex. Phase One has been done for several years. It’s time to move to Phase Two. I think after that we can spend the next five years talking about how we can further improve on quality-of-life projects next from the results of that first five years.”

Closing statements

• Hatcher — “I just want to reiterate that I love Sallisaw. Amanda and I are raising our kids here, and I just want to have a hand in making Sallisaw an even better place to live. My philosophy of investing in quality-of-life projects that have a higher return on investment, that’s what I’m running my campaign on. We can take the sales tax revenue from that and reinvest into higher wages for employees and to our infrastructure needs. I’d appreciate your vote on February 13.”

• Richardson — “A lot has changed since COVID-19. The world has changed. We want to stand up for this world, as well as this corner of the world. I remember writing a letter to the editor about the curfew during COVID-19. There was no reason for a curfew. There is no health principle between shutting the city down between 10 p.m. and 5:30 a.m., and wrapping the children’s equipment. We need to stand up for what’s right even though it may be difficult at times. I’m open to listen. If you have a better way or a better plan, I am good and I will change and stand up with you. It’s time to stand up, and I anticipate that there will be many standing up with me in the course of the three years, because I know many of you want change as well. We want our Constitutional rights reserved, we want to keep our First Amendment rights to speak and we want freedom of religion. I host the Bible study at a restaurant here in town, and have for two and a half years. We want that freedom of religion to express ourselves. I’m Jeanie Richardson, and I’m depending on your vote.”

• Hamilton — “First, I want to thank the other candidates for having the courage to step up and put themselves in front of the cameras and on this platform that was given to us, and volunteering to serve their community and what I can only assume at times is probably pretty thankless. That being said, the last election for Ward 4, we had a turnout of 148 people. I think we can do a lot better than that. So I encourage you, regardless of who you’re going to vote for, please come out and vote and get your community and your friends involved and get them to vote as well. Of course I would love the opportunity to represent Ward 4, and I hope to earn your vote. I would like to encourage anyone if they have any questions or anything for me, all of my contact information is on the campaign website, MakeSallisawGreat-Again.com. I encourage you to reach out to me.”

• Bailey — “I just want to state that this right here is my phobia. I would rather be anywhere than right here right now. I’m doing this to implore you to realize how important your city politics are. Before you convince yourself or decide that I’m just an idiot that can’t speak, reach out to me, please, independently. I can articulate. We have Sallisaw AAA insurance office. You can find me there. You can reach me on Facebook. I would love to talk to each and every one of you one on one. Whether you’re going to vote for me or not, please get involved and get out and vote. It’s important. I don’t think anybody here has said anything ground-shattering. I think we all pretty much said the same thing. Reach out to me. Let me try to talk to you individually.”

Conclusion

“A couple of things I’d point out is that we are in a unique spot for growth,” Mayo said after thanking the candidates for being part of the important opportunity to connect with the electorate. “We have one interstate, two railroads, a navigable river and two U.S. highways that run through our area. Robert S. Kerr, the senator from the 1960s, said Sallisaw would be the first town to a million people. That opportunity is still there, because Tulsa is not a million people and neither is Oklahoma City. I’m not sure it’s gonna happen in my lifetime, but also I’m not sure that the town actually wants to be a million people. But as my dad always said, ‘You cannot stand still as a town. You’re either growing or dying.’ There is no way to stay exactly the same. Of course, a lot of us might enjoy that, but that’s not how it works.

“And the last thing I’ll say is the sidewalks and quality of life. For almost 20 years I’ve been writing about sidewalks on and off after seeing someone fall in one of our ditches trying to avoid a car. So, hopefully, something in our quality of life will improve, especially with the projects we have currently.”