Saving Taxpayers Millions

As a business-owner for over 40 years, keeping expenses down and profitabilityup was always a priority for Tammy and I. We'd look for areas we were spending too much on a product and try to find a better priced supplier or negotiate a contract to make it work better for our company. We prioritized that because it was not only beneficial for us, but because it was beneficial for our clients and our employees. At the end of the day, clients were confident we were being fair with them and employees were appreciative to have reliability in the company they worked for.

When I took office in January of 2023, we hit the ground running. I told Jenny, my Deputy Commissioner and Ronnie, m

y Foreman, that I wanted us to look into every contract and make sure it was beneficial to the county, to the taxpayers. It didn't take long to find numerous areas where taxpayer dollars weren't being used to their maximum potential.

From equipment over 40 years old and quickly declining to roads or bridges that needed attention, I realized that we wouldn't be able to serve these needs without additional funding. Our team established relationships with the Citizen Potawatomi Nation as well as the Absentee Shawnee Tribe where we were able to collaborate on multiple projects. We applied for and were awarded multiple grants as well to help in our funding needs. All in all, we secured more than $8 Million for projects and equipment that didn't have to come from the taxpayers. South OKC residents didn't have to fund projects in rural areas over 40 miles away from their home.

We didn't stop with the $8 Million in savings. We combed through contracts and found an account with $12 Million on deposit, but was only earning 0.01% interest. I thought surely this can't be correct, that is not being a good steward of those hard working taxpayers, so we went to work. Sending it out to bid and changing terms, we were able to increase it from collecting interest payments of $103 a month to $45,000 per month. That alone is a savings of over $500,000 in about a year's time.

There are countless other ways we have worked to save the taxpayers, this is just a few ways. At the end of every day, I'm proud of my team and what we've accomplished on behalf of the taxpayers. They deserve representation that will take these matters seriously, and I appreciate District 3 placing that trust in me! I humbly ask for your vote on June 16!