EDMOND — Edmond’s Mayor Patrice Douglas faces an intriguing and challenging two years ahead of her. The city is known for its quality of life and excellent school system. Each City Council’s mission is to help propel Edmond even further into a better future. We believe Douglas will be well-suited to this task and we welcome her energy and enthusiasm.
As Douglas embarks on her new mission of assessing the city’s needs and its wants, this board has three items for her consideration.
First, a new Police Department, Central Communications and Emergency Management facility remains at the forefront of this board’s agenda for 2009. The need for an expanded and modern facility is clearly documented. All that remains is for the city’s leadership to chart a course on how to reasonably achieve the goal with the public’s support.
We hope the mayor can assess the previous work of both the citizen’s task force, the consultant’s study and the many ideas offered by the public and begin building a coalition within her first 100 days that will help the city achieve the objective. Cost, location, project scope and funding all remain on the table for consideration. It’s time to begin the hard work of resolving those issues.
Second, Edmond long has struggled with the dual goal of being more business friendly while demanding high quality projects and enforcing stringent code and zoning requirements. Several solutions have been tried in the past 10 years with none of the involved parties really feeling that either objective is being fairly achieved.
The city staff has added the Site Plan Review Team, which has been a huge benefit to developers as they go through the city’s process to gain permits for projects. But there remains more work to be done in addressing what happens between an approved site plan and a permit being issued and the final product receiving its sign off in order for business owners and developers to feel the city is really addressing their concerns.
Some developers will openly tell the council that the process can kill them before they can even open their doors. We hope Douglas will guide the city in an effort to streamline some of these hurdles and that businesses in Edmond will work harder to be a part of the process in order to improve upon it.
Third, one of the main reasons this Editorial Board supported Douglas in her bid for mayor was her response to how she will address revenue stream concerns for the city as the economy continues its malaise nationally. This final item is really more for the public and our government to consider together because we believe Douglas already understands the issue. Edmond and its residents must consider how we will support the government and the services that we want when faced with falling revenues.
The community and City Council will need an ongoing dialogue to help city staff navigate what the city’s priorities should be for the next 20 years and how we will pay for them. It all comes down to money. This community has gained much in quality of life because our government has had the money to support forward-thinking and cutting edge initiatives. We are at the beginning stages of seeing what running a city with less funding will be like. Just like every other government across the nation we will need to start making choices. We ask residents to begin communicating with Douglas and the City Council their wishes now to help Edmond continue to be a great place to grow.
In the meantime, we wish Douglas success and good fortune at the start of her two-year term. Success will not be achieved solely upon the shoulders of one person, but under Douglas’ leadership we can all strive for a better Edmond together.
Our View
3 items to watch
- Our View
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OUR VIEW: Fundraisers make an impression
Edmond students in both public and private schools showed their community spirit in February and March by raising $1.18 million total for charity.
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OUR VIEW: Taking care of some old business
Earlier this month, the City Council filled an unexpected vacancy when Ward 4 Councilman David Miller took an out-of-state job opportunity.
Filling the position until the 2013 election is financial adviser Nick Massey. He’s a familiar face to Edmond Sun readers, having contributed a regular financial column for almost five years. We would like to congratulate Massey on attaining the Ward 4 council seat and we wish him the best as he learns the ropes at city hall.
But Massey’s appointment caps an almost unprecedented amount of change within the City Council structure. -
OUR VIEW: Public safety needs support
Oklahoma politicians talk often and loudly about how much they support public safety. It’s often cited as a core function of government supported by conservatives and liberals alike.
But do we really support public safety? -
OUR VIEW: Super campaigns need a revamp
Super Tuesday offers Oklahomans the chance to give their input in the presidential primaries, but the question is how much input do we really have these days?
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Our View — Voter turnout remains tepid
On Feb. 14, 809 voters decided between two candidates for the Edmond Public Schools District 2 seat on the Board of Education. That number of voters would not sound so bad all by itself, but when you stand it up next to the number of registered voters in the district, the story changes quite a bit. According to the Oklahoma County Election Board, there are 17,475 voters in that school board district in northwest Edmond.
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OUR VIEW: Teacher certification payment causes concern
Educators have become pitted against legislators once again over a program that should have brought nothing but good things to our schools and students. However, teachers and lawmakers alike have soured over the National Board Certified Teachers program due to insufficient state funds to keep up promised annual payments to those teachers who earned the designation.
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OUR VIEW: Gov. Fallin scores big with speech
Gov. Mary Fallin defined her governorship on Feb. 6 and cemented her legacy as a leader. In her State of the State address, Fallin laid out her vision for how Oklahoma can grow or lead in several important areas.
Nowhere in that speech did she throw down the “my way or the highway” gauntlet to legislators or the people of Oklahoma. No, she truly offered a multi-point plan that offers opportunity for discussion that could bear rich fruit for our state. -
OUR VIEW: Feb. 14 vote about ideas
If you read any of the letters to the editor in the past two weeks regarding Tuesday’s District 2 Edmond school board race, then you already know that this election is not about the individual candidates so much as it’s about what type of school board do Edmond residents really want governing their school district?
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OUR VIEW: Bright spots highlight 2011
Last year was mostly marked with grim economic news and continued worries for the future by most individuals and businesses. However, there were several bright spots that highlighted 2011 and they are good examples why Edmond continues to weather the nation’s economic storms better than most.
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City still needs a business navigator
At the outset of her first term in office, then-Mayor Patrice Douglas appointed a task force dedicated to helping the City of Edmond better understand the needs of small businesses in our city. This task force met for several months and released a number of recommendations for how the city could better serve this huge sector of its economy.
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OUR VIEW: Fundraisers make an impression
