Del City officials turned in last week what they thought would be enough signatures to have an Oklahoma County commissioner investigated by a grand jury . Now, however, uncertainty over how many verified signatures were needed on their petition has one side declaring victory and the other confused about what's next.
Del City organizers said they had gathered more than 5,000 signatures when they submitted the petition on Aug. 12, but the Oklahoma County Election Board validated only 4,180 of them.
The group, headed by Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Del City; Mayor Floyd Eason; and local school board member Gina Standridge, have alleged that Oklahoma County Commissioner Myles Davidson should be investigated for "corruption in office and willful maladministration."
Judge Kory Kirkland's June 28 order gave the group 45 days to gather "a sufficient number of signatures" to empanel a grand jury. Eason admitted uncertainty as to how many signatures were actually required, but the group, by their own unofficial count, submitted about 5,700.
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Signatures submitted by the group to Oklahoma County Court Clerk Rick Warren were turned over to the election board Aug. 13, and officials had seven days to verify that the signatures were from valid Oklahoma County voters.
Although the election board said the verified count fell short of the threshold Eason had hoped to reach, officials also said they did not have the authority to determine if the petition attempt had actually failed.
"The only authority the election board has is to announce the number of certified signatures," said Oklahoma County Election Board Secretary Doug Sanderson.
Judge Kirkland of Caddo and Grady counties will make the final decision. He was assigned the case in late June after Oklahoma County District Court Judge Richard Ogden recused.
Kirkland's order in June cited Oklahoma Statute 38, Sections 102 and 103, which says only that petitioners have 45 days "to obtain a sufficient number of signatures," and that failure to do so within that timespan would render the petition null and void.
Article 2, Section 18 of the Oklahoma Constitution also gives a numbered range of needed signatures for a petition in any county, "with the minimum number of required signatures being five hundred (500) and the maximum being five thousand (5000)," according to the statute.
Eason said Wednesday he suspects that his group's submitted signature total might have been insufficient, but added that the vagueness of the language in the judge's order had left too much room for interpretation about the required number.
"I've never gotten a solid answer on how many we needed," Eason said. "The judge that wrote the opinion said we needed a 'sufficient amount.' Well, what's sufficient? The minimum is 500 and the maximum is 5,000. But I haven't gotten a final absolute word from anybody yet. And if you ask five different people, you'll get five different answers."
"Until the judge says, 'You didn't make it. It's over,' then I don't know," the mayor said.
But comments from Commissioner Davidson sounded triumphant, as if the matter was indeed settled.
"Once again we see failure as the result of a frivolous lawsuit attempt," Davidson said in a statement shared Wednesday with The Oklahoman. "It is wrong to put ego before service at the expense of the tax payer. Voters have spoken not once, but twice about the importance of public safety. I am happy to move on from this distraction and continue serving the people of Oklahoma County."
Davidson has fallen under intense criticism for his actions during recent negotiations for a proposed jail site at 1901 E Grand Blvd. near the boundary between Oklahoma City and Del City.
Many residents called for Davidson to recuse himself after it was discovered he’d held a decades-long friendship with the property's owner, Patrick Garrett, and that he had accepted donations from Garrett during his successful 2022 campaign for the commissioner seat. Davidson denied, however, that the donation swayed his support for the potential jail site.
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A legal dispute is ongoing between Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County after a city council majority earlier this May denied the county's special use permit to rezone the East Grand Boulevard site. Attorneys for Oklahoma County argue the county should be allowed to declare sovereignty over the property, adding that that the humanitarian need for a new and improved jail to replace the current aging and troubled facility was in the best interests of county residents.
Eason said that calls to investigate Davidson were separate from that dispute, and that future attempts to see the county commissioner investigated were likely to still gain traction in the near future.
"I don't think Myles Davidson is out of hot water, so to speak, by any means," Eason said. "I think that's going to continue until there is a resolution here through an investigation that shows the truth of what's going on, and I think that's what it's going to take to solve this. This may have been a battle that we lost today, but it's not the war."
Standridge ― whose public records request regarding Davidson's communications furthered accusations of "backroom deals" involving the commissioner ― said the issue boiled down to one of transparency.
"We're hopeful that we're shedding light on things that are happening maybe behind closed doors that shouldn't be happening, and should be happening in front of the people and voted on by the people as witness," Standridge said.
Fugate agreed, adding that, for him, the point of the petition was not about a possible new county jail location near Del City, but rather the ethical behavior of government officials.
"There are a number of us who remain very concerned about the lack of transparency associated with the commissioner's relationship with the owner of that property," Fugate said. "Whether we got enough signatures or not, we're still concerned about that entire process. And, for me in particular, I don't know that this does anything to change the trajectory on where the jail goes. This was all about how we have better government — through transparency."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Del City leaders uncertain if petition effort against OK County commissioner met threshold
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