Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. Idio. Is time now for our community connection right here on K one, the one you trust and with you today is ward for City councilmen. Quinn Shipper and Quinn welcome aboard today.
Hey, thank you, Tom. It is like sitting right at seventy degrees. Got've been a cloud cover bit.
Of Oklahoma wind going up there, and it's going to be in the studio today.
It's great to be in the studio today. And you're going to be on our forum tonight, which will by the way, we'll be indoors at our best Bank east side location.
Yes, I'm looking forward to that and joining you and others.
Alrighty, So I keep seeing these leader ship signs all over the place. Leadership er, Okay, I think I got it. What's his play on words? Well?
Three things I want people to understand about me, Tom is I'm experienced, I'm informed, and I'm engaged.
And I think a lot of people know that.
I was unanimously appointed out of seven applicants to fill the uncompleted term of the late Billy Rohan.
I joined the City council.
Formerly in June, but prior to that, I attended forty five regular city council meetings. I've been in the City Planning Commission since spring of twenty twenty one, the Water Resource Committee, and then came onto the Comprehensive Planned Advisory Committee, And so there was a lot of experience kind of leading up to that appointment that's informed the various ways
that I'm engaged. So when you come onto the city council, there are a lot of other committees and trusts and authorities and commissions that adopt you as a city councilor so I went from like three of those to ten, and so now you're engaged in a lot of different spectrums of how the city operates. That informs decisions that I or city Council brings to the decision making process
at a meeting, for example. So there's that experience that I have leading up to the opportunity to be representing word four.
Okay, so you have experience, you're very important. You went to virtually every city council meeting that you could.
I haven't missed one in fifty months. Five years old.
Wow, engaged, explained engage? How are you engaged?
Well, I will just give it.
We could talk about different engagement all day, but I want to talk about the City Planning Commission.
Let's do that because I heard you talk about that earlier. Being a part of that earlier, Yes, and that seems to be kind of like the buzz this morning.
It is, And I just want to back up by saying that a lot of people in the community are listening to this today, and citizens have all kinds of opportunities to make applications, to serve on again an authority, a commission, a board in the city, and there are dozens of those and hundreds of citizens here that contribute to the operation, the decision making, the forward movement of our city. And I'm very, very grateful for that, and that was sort of my gateway to engage that begin.
To inform things.
And I said, the very first appointment was to the City Planning Commission, and we address a lot of things. But prior to the City Comprehensive Plan, the city adopted something called the next a strategic Plan. So in simple terms, this is how I explain it, Tom. The strategic Plan for the City of Bartlesville is kind of like a roadmap. You know, it's got the roads, the different lanes, the bridges, you cross, intersections, you come to things you have to
navigate and move around. That brings strategies and plans for the foreseeable future. And then part of that act, I want to address two things on that by the way, childcare and homelessness are part of that strategic plan.
And it's not like just something is checked off the list.
Although we do get monthly updates, there are very strategic things addressing those two matters that are important to our citizens, and they can go look that up for the present as well as the future story of those two particular matters, and some of those that come back to the City Planning Commission or directed towards a proposed task force. So oft from underneath that, we are state mandated to have
a comprehensive plan, updated approximately every twenty years. So while the strategic plan is like a road map, I think of the comprehensive plan kind of like the GPS. Oh yeah, we set the GPS for the destination of infrastructure or land use, or housing or transportation or parks and recks and quality of life, and how do we move towards those destinations over these next twenty years, So that twelve month process. Tom, We've talked about this before. You've had
other programs with the city others. It's been a twelve month journey. It's involved obviousely's city staff, It's.
Involved strategic community partners.
There have been pop up events and surveys have been all kinds of opportunities.
We've had great feedback from.
Citizens to guide the final product that we call our Comprehensive Plan, so a state mandated it's been a twelvemonth journey.
We met with the consultants, we met as a Planning commission.
Groups for about four hours recently going through all of that, combing through it. Are there things to change, update recommend Those were approved by the City Planning Commission at their recent meeting. I was part of that and that final recommendation will go to the City Council on Monday evening. So it's been a journey and it's not set in stone.
These are guidelines again, the signposts along the way. The GPS tells us so much, but they're sign markers, guide posts that will guide us into a sustainable future for growth and development and.
All kinds of things. It's very exciting.
What sets you apart you mentioned three things. We talked about experience, about being informed, and we were now up to engagement here.
Yeah, so thank you Tom for bringing that up.
I've been involved in a number of things, obviously city related, community related. We love Bartlesville, were very committed to Bartlesville. So I mentioned the City Planning Commission. I'm a graduate of the twenty twenty one Bartlesville Citizens Police Academy. I
recommend people to take that as pretty intensive. This last year, the city inaugurated a citizens Academy All Things City of Bartlesville, which was informative and fun and hands on, and we studied and learned so many things about how the city operates. I started as a citizen, I ended up as a city councilor at the graduation. I'm also the standing recipient of the Chamber of Commerce Jake Bartle's Award. So in addition to that and some other things that I sit on,
I've got to keep Barsville beautiful. Committee meeting midday today, for example. There are all kinds of experiences that inform my engagement the decision making when we go into a city council meeting. At the last city council meeting, I think the pack of the company.
The agenda is.
Like four hundred and fifty pages long, and you don't just you know, thumb through that in five minutes, you know, I spend hours scouring that because I want to be an informed contributor.
To the City Council.
And when we come out of the City Council tom because of the Open Meetings Act, we've not had an opportunity to discuss among ourselves certain things coming well, anything coming to the City Council corporately is like an open forum at the City council meeting for us to have studied, learned, prepared, and then we bring our in put not just representing our war, but we're making decisions on behalf of the
entire city. So being experienced, being informed, then engaging, you know, with various input is really really important part of that comprehensive plan. They've looked at two focus areas of a number. One was on the east side, one was on the west side, and so of course I live in Ward four.
The west side of Bartlesville is part of that Ward And prior to coming out of the City Council, or before I even went to my first City Council meeting, the very first meeting I went to was actually the West Side Community Center two weeks after.
We moved here.
And I've always been very interested and motivated about the potential for development on the west side of our community. So those are some things you know, I'm interested in. Of course, we're very concerned about the homeless situation. It's
not just one part of the city. It's pervasive. We're doing some strategic things as a city through the Comprehensive Plan, through a proposed task force, and I'm very motivated to continue representing not just my ward but my city to move that forward in some very strategic, practical ways, in other words, not just conversation tom.
It's a time limited task force.
Citizens will have an opportunity to apply to be part of that, and let's see what we can do in our little corner of the United States. Because it's pervasive across the entire country and our state and now here in Bartlesville. We want to do things that are going
to be redemptive for people's lives and restorative. They're the companion issues of mental health and substance abuse, public safety, and again, the experiences I've had the last number of years serving the community in various boards and commissions and things are going to help me engage with some resources and some experiences that hopefully will bring some really good conclusions for our entire community.
You bet you that you keep learning things all the time. Yes, I guess that makes you teachable.
Well, I like to think that I'm teachable. I'm a person who listens, you know. I got I logged almost fourteen thousand steps yesterday canvassing. Of course, we're campaigning, door hanging and meeting people yesterday. And I got home last night to emails and text messages and stuff. So about courts and eye last night I'm addressing those. I took a phone call or answered a phone call from a citizen.
We talked for about thirty five minutes because he had a real personal concern and I spent, you know, going into my evening.
And there's still a stack to address. But I listen to people.
You know, they don't give us a magic Wand with this job, Tom, it was it was an issue he had that the city couldn't deal with. But I could help him direct and give him some resources and some ideas.
And I said, look, let me do some study.
I'll get back with you if I have something more concrete. But I like to listen, and I do listen, and I really do care, and I'll do everything I can to help people find solutions to their issues. Whether it's the pothole in the street, or the trucks that are tearing up the road, or the grass that's too high at this intersection they take it, or the deer that's eating my hostas that happened.
I got stumped on that one, but that has happened.
We got Early voting started tomorrow.
Yes.
Down at the election Board, which is in the City Hall downtown, fourth floor.
They've been doing a lot.
Of preparation because early voting is a day earlier than usual. Wednesday eight to.
Do.
I have it on there eight to six, eight to six Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, then eight to two on Saturday and go to the election board. A lot of people don't realize in my ward they're going to be three ballots.
There's going to be the.
General election, which includes the president, Corporation Commission, Congressman, judicial retention, state questions. There's a separate one for Washington County. There's a proposition, and then people are going to be handed if they have a counselor that has an opponent, they'll be handed.
A separate ballot, a third ballot for that.
So I in Curasisms, please go to the election board, download your ballot.
Be informed.
You've got a voice, and you've got a voice and a vote and you need to be heard.
So please please be informed and engage as voters.
Very good quid shipper for ward for. We'll see you tonight at the east side branch of our best bank, looking candidate for Thank you very much for being with us today.
Thank you Tom. How does timhow at