The Government Mule Episode 4 - Stan Sallee & Michael Willis

One day during the pandemic, local governments across the country woke up to something they had never seen before: millions of dollars in federal relief funding suddenly available to help their communities respond to an unprecedented crisis.

But what happened next?

In this episode, Tulsa County Clerk Michael Willis sits down with Tulsa County Commissioner Stan Sallee to discuss the CARES Act, ARPA funding, and what it was like helping lead Tulsa County through one of the most challenging periods in recent history.

As the only Tulsa County Commissioner who served throughout the entire pandemic, Commissioner Sallee offers a firsthand perspective on the difficult decisions, unexpected challenges, and opportunities that came with managing federal relief dollars.

Whether you're curious about where the money went, how local government responded during COVID-19, or simply enjoy hearing the stories behind the headlines, this conversation offers a fascinating look at a moment in history that affected all of us.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

You are listening to the Government Mule Podcast, a production of the Tulsa County Clerk's Office in Oklahoma. Okay, so we are here with another episode of the Government Mule Podcast. My guest today is the Honorable Stan Salee, he's our District 1 County Commissioner, and we're going to talk about federal funding. So back in 2020, we got hit with the pandemic that occurred. And one day we sort of woke up and there was money in our bank account. Yeah. So we're going to talk about the CARES program, that's the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. And then also the ARPA program, the American Rescue Plan Act. And so for everyone who's out there listening, so in Tulsa County and every county in Oklahoma, we have three county commissioners. As of today, Stan is the only one of our commissioners that served the entire duration during the pandemic scenario that we dealt with. And so anyway, I just want to first start off by thanking you, Stan, for coming on and doing a little bit of an intro. Stan was elected in 2018, sworn in late 2018. Kind of tell us a little bit about how you got started.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Government can reach the people faster in county government more than any other form of government. And uh love being able to be in a position to help people. But yeah, I got sworn in in uh late 2018. It was a vacant seat and uh served one month, but my term started in January. And uh shortly after uh the historic flood that Tulsa County had and uh took a lot of our time and uh it was something that nobody was anticipating, and uh so the the daily ongoings of county government kind of shifted into recovery and helping those people that were impacted by the floods. And uh as that went on for a few months, uh my parents got ill, uh both passed away in the end of 2019, and it's kind of a rough year, and then a few months later this pandemic hits and uh the the whole world seems to be shut down, and uh it was one of those times where you're saying, is this really what I signed up for? So it's not just roads and bridges. Um it's very diverse and uh you know uh glad I was in there, had a lot of great people around me with me, and uh we we helped a lot of people, businesses, nonprofits, uh get this community uh back uh uh running again.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Let's talk real quick about the flood just for a minute, because the flood that occurred actually ended up impacting probably more of your district, District 1, northern Tulsa County, than it did a lot of the uh the other District II and three in the county. And so just maybe a couple examples of some of the stuff that happened right off the bat as you started.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Well, just you know, sh shutting down roads and evacuating people from their homes and then trying to find places for them to stay, and and then the you know reimbursement process. And we're still dealing with that today, uh getting people buying out properties throughout the county uh through FEMA Project prop Project, and uh uh it's just uh took a lot of time, but people need help, and uh we were there to facilitate.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah. So fast forward on then from there to January or so of 2020, um, I remember that uh me and some of my staff had gone to a conference in Austin, Texas. We had driven down there, and I remember we were on our way back, it's probably late February or so, and there were all these reports of this virus that had seemed to start overseas, and there were some folks there in the Austin, Texas area that had come back home. I think they might have been on a military base or something. So there was an outbreak on this base, and me and my chief deputy at the time and a couple couple of others, we started talking about, hey, you know, what what happens to us if you know this spreads up to to Oklahoma to Tulsa County, and how is this gonna be if this is a nationwide impact and whatever? Well, we we didn't know what was gonna happen, but what did happen is we ended up, along with the rest of the country, having to shift gears on how we did county government as well with regard to shutdowns and lockdowns and uh businesses being temporarily closed and organizations. And so then um on, let's see, it was April 23rd, 2020, I remember getting a phone call from our county treasurer saying, Hey, uh Michael, we just got $114 million deposited in our bank account from the federal government. Actually, the exact total was $113,690,799.60. Um and the Trump administration at the time gave us um some preliminary guidance that they wanted us to get this money out into the communities as much as possible to help um stabilize organizations private and public. Um and but they didn't give us a whole lot of like real uh detailed guidance like the federal government would would would usually do. So we worked together, the county clerk's office, um the county commissioners, um I think it was Commissioner Peters who actually set up our original CARES committee. Right. Um and pretty quickly thereafter, you weighed in um pretty heavily and talked about business recovery. And so maybe talk a little bit about uh we kind of doubled down on business and organizational recovery.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Absolutely. And uh it it it hit home with me. I think I was watching the Thunder game uh with others, and uh when they stopped the game mid-game and uh evacuated everybody, I said, you know, this this is real and this is happening. But yeah, one of the things I'm I'm very proud of that uh my colleagues, Commissioner Peters, uh, Commissioner Keith, uh we wanted to help the business community. We wanted to help the nonprofits, we wanted to help the people uh that are were told to shut down their businesses. And so the federal government was offering PPP for you know more salary type type reimbursements, but um uh but the bills kept coming, insurance, uh uh heat and air, and you know you know, uh nonprofits couldn't go out and raise money. And when I say nonprofits, I mean that goes all the way down to soccer leagues and baseball teams and and uh but just the whole gamut uh uh just stops. And so uh we picked sixty million dollars. Uh now who's gonna give that money out? You know, we weren't set up and structured to do that. Uh as far as vetting the public, you just don't hand the money out. So you have to make the checks and balances of, you know, uh are they a real business, do they file taxes, and you know, all the things that's needed in a grant process. So we looked at uh Tulsa TEDC, Tulsa Economic Development Corp, uh, and Rose Washington and her team that is in that genre as far as grants and distribution and worked a deal with them, uh the county did for them to be the uh verifying agency, the qualifying agency, and their recommendations would come to our board, the BOCC, and we would go through them all and and approve them and uh helped uh hundreds, thousands of people out there throughout the county and very, very proud of that.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I still hear from people um who got one of those awards um or grants, and I mean they were game changers for those businesses and organizations. Because you're right. I mean, you you talk about the average um nonprofit in Tulsa, like the food bank or emergency infant services or one of those types of folks uh or organizations and they they had no ability, there was so much uncertainty about what was going on they couldn't do anything that they would normally be doing to raise money or or d do some of their regular functions, but they still had this humongous need, probably an accentuated need in the community for their services. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Uh I remember uh funding the the Chamber of Commerce stepped in and we we spent you know thousands on these care packages for you know that had all types of uh uh sanitation and things uh involving around the the the coronavirus and uh had it at Expo Square and people would drive through Expo Square and they we'd hand them a box, it'd last them maybe two or three months supply and gave thousands of them out. And uh people were very appreciative, but you know, couldn't get out of their cars. I mean, everybody was trying to be very cautious on even distributing those things. But uh, you know, those are some of the things you don't think of. And we had a lot of collaboration from a lot of people. And and it just wasn't the three county commissioners. We uh we had a committee within Tulsa County government. Uh Michael set on that, John Fathergill, the the tr treasurer, set on and and it shifted and rotated. We we had some of the uh procurement people and uh people from the DA's office to make sure checks and balances. Uh but um but it was well thought out and you know the whole idea was to get get the help out as soon as possible and very proud of the people that worked hard to do that.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah, um we we did have a great team of people that would that would meet sometimes multiple times a week to go over applications and look at things. You know, one of the things I think that was really important um in the program is there were a lot of our organizations, and we were probably set up a little bit better than the average government organization to be able to work somewhat remotely, um, you know, handle the um the online meetings versus the in-person meetings, um, but we still had to we we used a fair amount of the CARES money to buy laptops at the county um or to buy equipment that would allow us to do things um in a more remote fashion than what we had done before, including the court system. We bought a lot of equipment, a couple million dollars worth, I think, yeah, of uh streaming equipment for the courts to be able to do um, you know, web-based hearings. Um and but we also uh through that there we recognized a major need with our municipal partners. So I I think we had carved out a couple million dollars early on to send to the cities in Tulsa County, um, you know, all 11 or 12 of them. And we did. I mean, we sent uh let's see, you know, the city of Tulsa, obviously the biggest one. We sent them more than a half million dollars for just what you're talking about that we did with the businesses, some with some of the uh personal protective equipment, sanitizing stuff, some of these software licenses that people needed to buy to be able to do online meetings, um, things like that. So we spent a lot of money and sent it out quick to some of our municipal partners. So, I mean, you know, we've got almost 600,000 to the city of Tulsa, 150 to the City of Jinx, 133 to Owasso, 85,000, 86,000 to Broken Arrow, Collinsville up there in District 1, 60, almost 69 uh thousand. So that was, I think, a big help to our um municipal partners. And it's worth noting, I think, that um we were the only organization in this part of the state that got a direct allocation of CARES money. Right. So there was a little bit of consternation, I think, maybe, um, or unease that the city of Tulsa, being, you know, a 400,000 population city, did not get a direct um a direct distribution, but we did. So we worked hand in hand with them on quite a few projects um in that.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

We we did. And I'll note, you know, on the court system, uh you know, we had to get the the number of people out of that courthouse. And uh so we were able to keep some of the courts in, but we had to set up courts in other locations and and uh to all the spacing requirements and the the just the unknowns. I mean, we were trying to make good decisions, but uh so much was uh not proven or unknown. You're j so you cite on caution. And uh but there were millions that went to the court system and uh uh you know, courts needed to go on. They did shut down for a while. And then uh, you know, uh the jail system. Uh uh Sheriff Regalato, I mean people don't realize the the you know, thousand plus people we have in the jail, we have to keep them healthy and uh make sure we have all the the proper stuff to deal with it. And uh so we made sure those allocations went to them. And I will say to their credit, they had very few cases of uh COVID in the jail. And just shockingly how well they performed. And uh but they still have to do their job. They're still patrolling and arresting people, and so you know, there were things that we did for their cars, and it was just the whole gamut of uh, you know, our social services. And we house people in our social services for short-time housing housing, and you know, we had to deal with that as well and give all them precautionary measures to handle the people that lived in there.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Yeah, um I think it's it's uh interesting you mentioned the sheriff's cars. I remember that we were we were already looking to buy the sheriff some more cars, but then several of the manufacturers that make police package uh put a s like a superheater in those cars to be able to I mean today we kind of sort of laugh a little bit about it, but at the time there were still so many unknowns, and we thought it important at the time to at least buy a few of those um vehicles that were available that had that heater in them that would burn off, quote unquote, the the virus or the COVID, whatever. Um so we did that.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

The health department gave them millions of dollars uh to not just do testing, but they were looking at uh sewer systems and just all types of different things to identify where we had problems throughout the region. And so uh, you know, there were more asks than we had money. You would think that that is a lot of money, but uh, you know, a lot of them didn't qualify. And you know, when the g like you said earlier, the government uh put this money in our bank account and gave us a couple of pages of guidance. And it's and and the the caveat at the bottom was, oh, and if you misuse this fund, you have to repay it, you know, pay it back. And so we were very cautious on making sure that uh we checked all the boxes and made sure everybody qualified. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Very judicious about it.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

And your department had a big part of that.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Yeah. Yeah. So we we we handled the checkbook basically for it. I mean the commissioners approved the expensive money, but then uh the county clerk's office handles the checkbook. And I remember having a conversation with a county commissioner, not you, but one of the other ones at the time, that called me and um they had a request from somebody fairly prominent in the community for us to grant a $2 million award for a program to give out some gift cards. And you know, I told that commissioner, I said, Well, Commissioner, here's the thing. I was like, I don't want any of the three of my county commissioners to go to jail, but I actually refuse to go to jail myself. And so we're not gonna really do that program. Like, I I don't feel comfortable writing that check, even if the committee were to approve. So we there it wasn't always sunshine and rainbows going through this process. We had some disagreements, but we I think were very judicious um in what we did. And and you know, I'm grateful for the partnership we all had between um all of our offices and the staff. Um Aaron Weedman, who was um on our podcast, I think the last one we did, where we talked about the budget process. Aaron was really our lead um budget guy and accounting guy for all of the CARES and ARPA funding. And um we utilized some of the funding to shift and pay part of his salary during that, but the county clerk's office did not add staff to do these programs, even though it totaled up to, you know, a couple plus hundred million dollars. So um yeah, we we had a lot of work going on.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

And and and a lot of that work was in the rental assistance program that we gave, you know, 10, 15, 20 million, uh, what whatever that number was uh uh to people that, you know, lost their job and the bills kept coming. The rent was still due. And and so we were those that qualified, we were trying to help them to stay in their house, stay in their uh apartment. Yeah. And and keeping track of all of that, um we we worked with another company within uh the community that that has handled those rental assistants. So that that worked well. But uh uh it was just a lot of paperwork.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, a lot. Uh in fact, so with Tulsa Housing Authority, we partnered with them at first and CARES at you know more than nine million bucks, aimed at just what you were talking about.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Yeah, Expo Square. Uh Expo Square I think the Corps of Engineer came in and at the time they were looking at a regional location uh for a lot of things, you know, not knowing how many people, how many casualties there would be. Uh they were looking at uh, you know, or a regional hospital that would handle lots of people. So they toured Expo Square and they thought it would be just a perfect place. But we needed a fencing perimeter completed, they needed heat and air or fire suppression, just a few things that uh we were able to get to make those improvements, and and we have those improvements done now, so if there would ever be an instance in this region, they didn't end up using us, but uh it was an opportunity to have a facility that would handle these major emergencies. And and we weren't just talking regionally, we were talking multi-state. They were looking for one large facility. So uh that worked out for Expo Square, but you know, now we have a facility that can handle something like that.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Yeah. Yeah. Um let's switch over to ARPA. So um ARPA, you know, while CARES was more a um sort of a triage type program, if you would. Right. You will. Um ARPA became more of a strategic program, I think, for us. Um we received a total of $126.5 million, and those payments were divided in two. We got the first one in May of 2021, the second one in June of 2022. And I remember I I remember, I believe when we started the program, you were chair of the BOCC, the County Commissioners that year. And we had we had formulated this committee to where the chair of the Board of County Commissioners would be the chair of the committee for each year. So um that rotates here. Um every commissioner rotates being chair, and I guess in 2021 was was your year, I think. And um we had a we had a a lot of discussion amongst the committee and other people from the community talking about how we needed to shift gears between what we did with CARES and what that program was really for versus what ARPA was for. ARPA came out with a lot more guidance, um, although it did also change throughout the months and years. Right. Um but we decided, and you know, I credit this to you and our uh other two commissioners and you know, really the people that uh participated on the committee, we shifted this into more of a strategic and really a true recovery effort type situation. Um you want to talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Yeah, yeah. Little did we know we were our bank account was going to get even even bigger. Uh, you know, who would have ever thought that uh county government would be in charge of a quarter of a billion dollars to distribute? And so, you know, uh where I would rather be out paving roads and taking care of bridges and those kind of things and the other obligations that we have, but this consumed a lot of our time. Uh and but one of the first things I did was reach out to Mayor Bynum and said, you know, we don't want to be duplicating things. Let's get together. And his whole staff came over to our offices, and uh, I think you were there as well, and we sat down with uh with his staff himself uh and kind of went over some some needs that they were looking at and and which that really facilitated in us working with them, going over to the City Hall and sitting down with their counselors that were appointed to a ARPA board and uh and worked together to make sure uh major projects, as you know, uh one that was on the list was uh the airport tower. Um you know, federal government were one of the few communities, Tulsa, that owns its own feder uh owns its own airport tower, and the federal government was breathing down our neck to uh the airport authority to build a new one or maybe relocate it somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Uh, I'll interrupt you just real quick. One of the key differences here, so as we're talking about ARPA, yeah. The city of Tulsa actually got an ARPA allocation on this one, whereas they didn't with CARES. And so that was the the reason why we had the sit-down talk uh about how we would collaborate with the each award.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Yeah, we we thought our monies together on regional projects and and And you you mentioned that. I meant our thought was long-lasting transformational projects that would uh just last our region forever. And the airport tower was one of them. Uh as you know, the Veterans Hospital was another, and you might talk about that as well. You're involved in that.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Yeah. Um, you know, just blocks away from us here in downtown Tulsa, you have the old um well, I was actually born there. The Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital is what it originally was. Yeah. And then it's become several different things, but now it's the OSU Medical Center, and right across the street is the old state um office complex that has been repurposed. Right. Um I think it was OSU was the group that came to us and said, hey, we would love to have some help with this project. And you know, uh one thing I think um if there's one thing we focus on and do a pretty good job with in Tulsa County as an organization, it's attempting and trying to support our veterans as much as possible. And you know, we have um homelessness issues and all those kinds of things going on, and the veterans' population is probably impacted as much as any and part of that. And so we were really excited. Um I was really excited for us to make the recommendation. I mean, we awarded $4 million, um, it was one of our single largest awards that we um that we granted to an organization to help them make their facility happen. And um I think you were at the at the groundbreaking or whatever, and they're they've got it going on over there now.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

They do. And and there was also another element, uh the state psychiatric hospital. Uh our monies also uh help facilitate that, come f uh go from a 50-bed operation to a hundred-bed operation, and parking garages need to go with that. And so uh it was a great uh partnership with a lot of lot of people involved and and uh so proud of that that we can serve those with you know mental health issues, but our veterans key is is uh to be a part of that is very, very, very special.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Yeah, agree. But yeah, we um I mean, in addition to the um air traffic control tower at the airport, that was probably our single largest award, I think, um about seven million dollars, I think is what we ended up putting into that. Does that sound right?

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Yeah. Uh that with our partnership with the City of Tulsa, we were putting in seven, they were putting seven, and the airport uh authority was putting in seven in hopes that we could do a matching grant with the with this uh State of Oklahoma for uh $21 million, and the initial price was uh around $45 million, is what it was going to cost. And you know, during all of this, inflation or the price of everything, uh availability of goods, uh getting them in supply chains uh kept getting worse or going up in cost. And uh if it wasn't for Jim Enhoff, uh we wouldn't have got that airport tower. It went from $45 million up to now close $100 million. Uh Senator Enhoff was able to get a $40 some million dollar grant from the funding from the uh federal government. And uh uh just with without his support, we wouldn't be building that airport tower. So it was uh a great thing for the region.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Huge for the region, for sure. Um some of the other things that I want to talk about with with ARPA, um we had you know, the county has a really good working relationship with our tribes, our tribal governments. And really in in the county, your district over the years, even with your predecessor, Commissioner Smolego, now you, we have some really good working relationships with the Cherokee Nation to help us with road projects and all that kind of stuff. During the uh during the pandemic, we were approached by the Muscogee Creek Nation and they had uh asked other organizations to help. Um they built and bought the Old Cancer Treatment Center Hospital over in Southeast Tulsa, and in that they wanted to uh set up a monoclonal antibody treatment for people dealing with pandemic conditions and people who were infected, and it was a very I think effective treatment at the time. And they came to us, asked for funding. We ended up giving them half a million dollars for their uh for their program and I think it really helped kick start um a really good relationship or or bolster a really good relationship we already had with the tribes. But that was uh that was one of my favorite projects we did because they were really able to activate an or a facility that was set up for something similar when it had been the Cancer Treatment Center.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Yeah, they they had the stations already set there, so it was it was just a natural. Um I'll tell you to this day, Secretary of Health Terry, uh whenever I see him, we we talk about that. And he said, not a day goes by that that uh somebody, uh tribal, non-tribal, uh because it it did, it was for for anybody, not just tribal members. And uh it was for the general public. But he said the non-day goes by that somebody doesn't come up to him. And so, you know, I really believe that saved my life or my father's life, and and uh we've we've bonded because of that. But it's just been something that meant a lot to people that uh needed the help and that wasn't available everywhere. And so it was a a big partnership and uh the Cherokee Nation and Tulsa County, Muscogee Creek Nation, and uh Tulsa County uh are forever grateful for each other for that partnership.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yeah, agree. It was a life changer for lots of lots of folks. You bet. Um you know, one of the other things that I think came up during the pandemic conditions that we were dealing with, and and a lot of it was really more I think due to the the mandates that we had to lock down and do some different things is that domestic abuse, family issues started to to crop up. A couple of the organizations that were some of my favorites that we helped, uh the Family Safety Center, we put two million dollars into their project, which they're now um have at least part of it open.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

I think over there on Sheridan. And then our friends at the spring shelter, they deal with domestic violence issues. Um I think those are a couple of the real meaningful ones. And in a future podcast, I want to actually invite some of them over, so we'll maybe revisit with them at some point. Uh but that was a big thing that we did. We helped a lot of nonprofits.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Well, we we we did, and and some of them it was the first time I heard of the nonprofit, you know, and they were all coming out of the woodwork to to need they needed help. And uh and what I started uh was really pushing to get the whole committee to go out and s tour these facilities to really understand where this money's going. It wasn't just a presentation and we're okay, sounds great, but it was really to put our hands on, see what they're doing, see the impacts, and and uh that was eye-opening for me to know the amount of people that are out there in need, organizations in need, but the the good work they're doing.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

One of the ones we spent a fair amount of time going to visit is right over here in downtown, the Retrain Tulsa. We uh we made some awards to those folks, and that was one of your uh you kind of spearheaded some of that.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Yeah, i i it it was uh, you know, putting people back to work and uh getting them retrained. And uh Karen Pennington that runs that uh operation just does a phenomenal job and and they needed some assistance. And we really made an impact on uh having young people ready for employment that teaches them uh how to do a job interview. And a lot of you know they don't have uh college degrees and so and a lot of them don't think they're capable of this job. So it was really an education for our youth and uh to to get them into the workplace, but to get them prepared to go into the workplace and to make sure they're aware of all the opportunities that are out there for them. And and so uh tremendous program and and one of many, but uh uh it was a uh good investment for the region.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yeah. One of the last things I wanted to kind of highlight is we did a fair amount of internals to Tulsa County stuff with the with both these programs. Um but one of the things we talked about initially, really throughout the whole uh situation is what can we do to activate some of the assets that we already have at the county. And we're unique because we have a parks department. No other county in Oklahoma has a parks department. We did a fair amount of investment and we're hoping to get people back outside and doing stuff and active and all those sorts of things. So we we did shoot lots of work on tennis, uh trails. We recently opened a disabled accessible trail over at Chandler Park, a lot of stuff up at O'Brien Park, um including ball fields that we just talked about, and we uh did the uh ground or the ribbon cutting on recently, um, other you know, facilities that help our parks. So that was a big deal to our program as well.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

Yeah. Uh and and as you mentioned earlier, the the ARPA program changed. You know, and sometimes things weren't qualifying, and then later they relaxed them and uh because there was counties and cities that were having problems getting the money out the door on what they could invest in or support. And so as the Federal Government relaxed that, some of those outdoor activities uh or activities uh was something that uh uh fit right into what we do. And so, yeah, Chandler Park, O'Brien Park, uh Lafortune Park all received substantial investments and and just enhance the uh the quality of life for the people in Tulsa County.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Well, I think that pretty much wraps up everything I wanted to cover. Is there anything else you want to add to the discussion about CARES or ARPA or any of the federal funding?

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Yeah, I mean, you know, we we talked about all the help we gave the courthouse, you know, and that was to uh continue court process, but there was also the courthouse itself that we I wouldn't say you know, government's not always the best in sometimes maintaining their assets. And uh, you know, but uh uh and and we've done a good job, but we're also restrained on the funding that you have available to do projects. So this was an opportunity to really spend some money for the people that are in that courthouse every day. And uh we had marble uh facade pieces that were falling off from time to time, kind of a life safety issue. Major liability. Major liability. And so uh another thing that Commissioner Keith and and Commissioner Peter wanted to do uh is put money back in our courthouse and get that in a better uh position. So we had an assessment done, we really targeted on life safety issues for the public, for the judges, for the people that work there, our county employees, and so that's ongoing now that we're doing that. And we looked at our election board. Uh we'd been talking for a decade plus about what we'd like to do this. We're running out of space, we want to expand it, just don't have the money to do it. And that presented that problem. Same way with the sheriff. He was in a very old building that didn't have to be downtown and and uh not very functional. Not functional at all. And so we relocated him and built him a new facility and we'll sell the old one. And uh it was those kind of things that we made these investments that impact all the taxpayers uh for their services here in Tulsa County and didn't raise their taxes at all. And those are the programs I want to get behind for sure that we could invest in our region and for the people that pay our taxes, but not uh uh make them uh uh obligated to build all of these facilities. And it's transformed our county government, it really has, with the quality of assets we have for the people.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Yeah, I totally agree. I you know, I in my spare time, I'm a Sheriff's Reserve deputy. Uh the facility out there with training facility, operations facility is not fancy or anything, but it's very good, um, way better than what the Sheriff's Office had before. The election board has plenty of space to be able to uh do all of their operations and conduct elections. So far, they've they've been moved in for several months now, right? And they are doing well over there. I think they've had at least one election that's happened in that facility and it's running just the way they thought it would, which is good.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

And we've upgraded. I mean, it they're it's safe and secure, more secure than it ever has been. So this facility we have right now, uh, you know, that's what people expect, you know, the safe and secure elections, and this will give them, you know, decades and decades of room to grow and and uh continue that operation.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Yeah. Last thing I would say really is that, you know, we have an incredible team here at Tulsa County. Our staff is unbelievable. So many of these people work super, super hard, including some folks from my office, some folks from your office, um, and a lot of the departments around the county to make this happen. And, you know, we we still are working on wrapping up a few projects, spending a little bit more money. I just approved a report that goes to the federal government um, I think a couple of days ago, that we have to do a quarterly report. Um, so we continue to do that kind of stuff, but we're wrapping these programs up. Um I don't think any of us are sad to see these programs go. Um we're glad to kind of get back into, you know, your routine of getting roads paved and things like that. We're we're trying to get back in our routine of recording land documents and keeping the books and making payroll happen and all that kind of stuff. So uh but a huge thank you to our staff that um and and the folks from around the community that helped us with this project and with these funding programs, because we could not have done this without a lot of people from the community. Of course, we had a lot of people asking for funding, but a lot of people really did an earnest job of helping us uh make determinations that we needed to make and make some of these happen. So that was that was really good, but I think we're excited to have it, this chapter closed.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Absolutely. And uh our employees here at the county just did a yeoman's job. I meant uh thank every one of them. Uh it was a difficult time, but we got through it and really we we did our job. We got those funds out to where it was needed and and expeditiously uh uh at that. And so uh can't can't thank everybody enough. Glad it's over.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Yeah, for sure. So that wraps up this episode of the Government Mule Podcast. My guest today has been County Commissioner Stan Slee. My name is Michael Willis, your Tulsa County Clerk, and we'll be back with another episode soon. Great. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

Thank you, Michael. Appreciate it.