Calls for Oklahoma County Commissioner Myles Davidson’s resignation have heightened as county commissioners voted Monday to buy land for a proposed new jail site.

The Board of Oklahoma County Commissioners voted 2-to-1 to buy 71 acres of property at 1901 E Grand Blvd., a heavily industrial area in Oklahoma City near Crooked Oak Public Schools and just blocks away from the Oklahoma City/Del City border. Board Chairman and District 2 County Commissioner Brian Maughan said the move was an effort to utilize a $50 million allocation of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds earmarked for a behavioral health facility.

“We just went ahead and purchased the property outright today without a contingency like we had previously offered, and that means that we don’t need to have the landowner currently go forward and get any kind of request from (Oklahoma City) approved,” Maughan said. “This allows us to move forward, we believe, to build the mental health facility and save the ARPA money.”

Whether the county goes forward with other purposes for the land — like building the actual new detention facility — would be determined at a future meeting, Maughan said.

Maughan and District 3 Oklahoma County Commissioner Myles Davidson voted yes to support the purchase. Board Vice-Chair Carrie Blumert, District 1 County Commissioner, was not present Monday, but her first deputy Cody Compton voted no on her behalf.

“For District 1, we have been a ‘no’ on this pretty consistently,” Compton said. “Commissioner Blumert would like to still consider other sites.”

The county commissioner majority moved forward with purchasing the Grand Boulevard site despite overwhelming opposition from Oklahoma City Council members in late May to rezoning the property. Residents from the adjacent Del City community have frequently voiced their opposition to building a new jail near the city’s boundary, arguing it would negatively affect Del City’s economy and property values.

Maughan said the county could declare sovereignty over the Grand Boulevard site to build the jail without city council approval. Del City leaders are exploring legal action against the county in an attempt to stop the project, but Maughan said a lawsuit was likely regardless of where the county decided to build the jail.

“I think that’s why it’s important to establish whether or not we have sovereignty,” Maughan said. “There’d probably have to be a court case to determine that. We have the plans already designed for this site, and that would have to be completely redone if we go somewhere else, so that takes a step back.”

The current 13-story jail has operated since the 1990s at 201 N Shartel Ave. Some thought that transferring authority over the facility from the county sheriff’s office to a jail trust would improve conditions and lessen the number of deaths, but a yearlong investigation by The Oklahoman found the facility to still be one of the deadliest jails in the United States.

In 2022, local voters approved a $260 million bond to fund construction of a new jail, but pricing estimates earlier this year revealed the facility would actually cost between $610 million to $677 million.

Residents call for resignation of county commissioner over alleged conflicts of interest

Several residents of Del City and Midwest City, along with Oklahoma City-based activist groups, called for Commissioner Davidson to recuse himself Monday and to resign. Calls for his removal follow allegations of collusion after Davidson accepted donations from the Garrett family co-owning the Grand Boulevard property during his election campaign.

Mid-Del Public Schools board member Gina Standridge requested text messages, communications and emails involving Davidson, the Oklahoma County Citizens Bond Oversight Advisory Board and Crooked Oak Public Schools about a proposed deal to swap properties as part of the county’s jail plans.

Text messages between Davidson and his oversight committee appointee Xavier Neira were later obtained and shared with The Oklahoman. In conversations ranging from February to May, Davidson discussed Neira’s request with the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce “to aggregate as much land as possible for the old jail location so we may do a larger tif (sic),” or tax increment financing district.

Davidson also expressed frustration with the Chamber over the 2022 bond election for “put(ting) the cart before the horse in asking for money on a project we had no idea how much it would cost.” Other text messages exchanged between Neira and Davidson in February described Maughan as “a moron” and “cowardly,” while additional messages in March indicated a plan “to file for sovereignty as soon as re-zoning is filed” and were further critical of both Maughan and former District 3 County Commissioner Kevin Calvey for “screw(ing) the county.”

Most of the direct criticism came from the appointee, with Davidson at one point saying “Clearly.” Some of these text messages also indicated Maughan had “changed his tune” and was now willing to move forward on the Grand Boulevard plans.

Standridge openly called for Davidson’s recusal Monday, arguing that “your donors are profiting off of your votes” and that he had failed to follow ethics reporting guidelines.

“As far as the sovereignty — that is just crazy,” Standridge said. “That is normally reserved for unincorporated lands or Native American lands. Or kings and queens, which we don’t have any of here in the United States.”

When asked about calls for him to recuse himself, Davidson was dismissive, saying, “If we had to recuse ourselves on every vote that we make, the legislature would never make a vote.” He also said he speaks with his appointees regularly to remain updated on proceedings and that he had “no idea” why he was being accused of doing backdoor dealings.

“I am but one vote on a commission of three,” Davidson said. “I cannot make any deal for anybody. It’s only the body politic that can act. These are ideas that I present not only to my board appointee, but to the board (of commissioners) as well, and they’re able to tell me to take a flying leap and say ‘no.’”

“But I’ve always said that that facility, that spot down there, was 1,238 feet away from a stadium, and I voted against it originally because of that fact,” Davidson added. “And when I went and sat down and spoke with Crooked Oak and they said that they’d be willing to move, I started putting a plan together to make that happen, so we can protect the kids at that spot.”

But Del City Mayor Floyd Eason expressed concern that county commissioners were not listening to their constituents and that a potential TIF development district was being prioritized over the concerns of the residents.

“You seem to listen to your contributors more than you do your constituents,” Eason told the commissioner board. “We have heard all along how unprofitable it is to rebuild or restore the jail downtown. Now we find there’s already a TIF program being worked on to renovate the existing jail position. It looks to me that somebody’s trying to make money by moving the jail out of downtown and renovating that area. And I think that, if that’s the case, then you’re putting money interests and developers ahead of the citizens’ concerns. You’re selling off their security and their rights for profit downtown.”

Others oppose the mental health facility construction at the 71-acre Grand Boulevard site because of the likelihood the jail will still be built at the location. Commissioners said last week the county’s intention all along was to build a behavioral health facility separate from the jail, but residents weren’t buying that explanation.

“Your plan is to build a mental health facility, and I don’t know how many acres that will take,” said Del City Ward 4 Councilman Scott Tatom. “Let’s say five — let’s say six. What do you plan on doing with the other 65 acres? Are you going to build a park? Are you going to build a playground? What are you going to do? We all know what it’s going to be. There’s no skirting around this issue. I mean, it’s plain as day.”

Mark Faulk, an organizer with the People’s Council for Justice Reform, described the effort to move forward on a mental health facility at the site as “a con job” and that the ARPA funds could be put to better use.

“We believe that you should take that money and either build one out in the community somewhere separate so that we don’t criminalize mental health,” Faulk said. “Or you should split that money up between some of the communities and let them build their own mental health facilities, or use existing buildings and have it run by the community.”

Text messages between Davidson and Neira in late April also show a discussion about “why the narrative on scope change works” and getting “the county pregnant with the property purchase to build the mental health facility” will “force them a bit.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma County commissioners buy land for new jail amid controversy