Shai Fenwick, Trey Kirby and Dianna Hutzel will face off in a special election Feb. 10 for the Ward 5 Norman City Council seat.
Former Ward 5 Councilmember Michael Nash resigned in August, citing his move out of the ward. In September, a selection committee chose Brandon Nofire to fill the vacant seat through the 2026 election.
Nofire wrote in an email to OU Daily Jan. 26 that he intended to run, but his employer changed its policy after he was selected to fill the seat, barring employees from holding public office. Nofire successfully convinced his employer to change the policy, he wrote, but the decision came a few days after the candidate filing period closed.
“I would have loved to finish out Nash’s term like I had originally planned,” Nofire wrote. “But it’s been a fantastic experience as is, so I regret nothing.”
The elected candidate will serve until July 6, 2027, completing Nash’s two-year term.
Early voting opens Thursday and Friday. To win the Feb. 10 election, a candidate must receive over 50% of the total vote. If no candidate receives over 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held April 7. Oklahoma residents can visit the OK Voter Portal to find sample ballots and their designated polling location.
Shai Fenwick
Shai Fenwick is an English teacher at Moore High School and is pursuing a doctorate in instructional leadership and academic curriculum at OU. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and a master’s degree in professional writing from OU.
Fenwick grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and lived in Houston before moving to Norman in 2011. She has worked as an administrator for an engineering firm, behavior specialist and magazine editor. In 2024, Fenwick was a finalist for Moore Public Schools’ District Teacher of the Year.
Ward 5 candidate Shasta Fenwick during the League of Women Voters forum on Jan. 21.
Fenwick told the Daily being a council member requires learning from your constituents, something she also practices in her teaching. Fenwick said she is a good candidate because she is willing to listen and research.
“Government meets the people in a classroom every day, and government meets the people when you’re working at the local level of politics,” Fenwick said. “We are the final recourse that a lot of our citizens have, and we have to do well by them.”
Fenwick’s husband, Ben Fenwick, was a finalist for the Ward 5 seat last year. Ben Fenwick was editor for the Norman Transcript, but was fired over his candidacy. Ben Fenwick told the Daily in August he didn’t expect his application to be open record, and he planned to resign from the Transcript if selected for the seat.
Shai Fenwick said she was disappointed by the community’s response. She said that as a journalist her husband didn’t have the ability to campaign, but he had the right to apply.
Fenwick said she was motivated to run by her desire to serve others and learn from the people in her ward. She’s compelled by three main issues: the ACCESS Oklahoma turnpike plan, Rock Creek Entertainment District and the city’s natural resources.
“All politics is local,” Fenwick said. “All politics, it’s about policy, and policy helps humans.”
Ward 5 is one of the most diverse areas in Norman, Fenwick said, because it includes rural homes, apartments, single-family homes and subdivisions. She said her opponents can only represent the sections of Ward 5 they know, but she’s experienced apartment, suburban and rural living, so she’s able to represent all Ward 5 residents.
“It is a place with heart … and for me, it allows me to live in alignment with my values,” Fenwick said. “I care about people and I get to care about people here, and it is part of who we are as a community.”
Trey Kirby
Trey Kirby owns Kirby Land and Cattle and works as a facilities manager for a cannabis facility in Oklahoma City. Kirby ran for the Ward 5 seat last year but lost to Nash.
Kirby told the Daily his family has been in Norman for generations, arriving around 1950, and now his grandchildren are being raised here too. He said the Kirby family plans to stay in Norman and help protect it.
“I've grown with Ward 5 over the last 46 years of my life, and we’ve adapted and overcame any challenges that (have) been here,” Kirby said. “It's all been through Ward 5.”
Ward 5 candidate Trey Kirby on Jan. 27, 2026.
Two years ago, Kirby worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service and Market Link to create a program that allows local farms to accept electronic benefit transfer food stamps as payment for SNAP participants. The program now spans Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Arkansas and includes a grant that helps farmers establish and learn the online system.
When the government shut down and SNAP benefits temporarily ceased last October, Kirby Land and Cattle gave away over 600 pounds of food. When people reach out to him and his farm for assistance, Kirby said they always help.
Kirby said he has also provided books and uniforms for local schools, such as Little Axe Public Schools, when teachers reach out for support.
As a council member, Kirby said he would frequently ask his constituents their opinions and learn from them, whether they voted for him or not. Kirby said he denied campaign donations from PACs and special interest groups because he wants to represent citizens, not group interests.
“We need to have councilmen who are going to listen to what their ward (wants),” Kirby said. “Michael Nash … he listened and he voted the way that his constituents wanted him to, and that is not really a matter of whether you agree on it personally or not. If your constituents want you to vote one way, then that's how you have to vote, because you're there to represent the people and not your personal interests.”
Dianna Hutzel
Dianna Hutzel was among the finalists for the interim Ward 5 seat last year. According to her campaign website, Hutzel is an “experienced public servant and community advocate” and has lived in Ward 5 for 29 years.
Hutzel is currently retired, but worked at Tinker Air Force Base for 37 years. She is a recipient of the Department of Defense’s Exemplary Civilian Service Medal, according to her website.
She graduated from Norman High School and has a master’s degree in business administration and management from OU. According to a press release she sent the Daily, Hutzel is endorsed by the Norman Fraternal Order of Police.
Ward 5 candidate Dianna Hutzel and Ward 6 candidate Joshua Hinkle during the League of Women Voters forum on Jan. 21.
Hutzel’s campaign website lists four key issues: standing against the turnpike, minimizing urban sprawl in Ward 5, protecting water and responsible spending. The website also states she seeks to preserve the ward’s rural appeal and represent residents’ values.
“Even when we may think differently, we need to create space for dialogue to find the best solutions,” Hutzel wrote in the release.
Hutzel was unable to coordinate a time with the Daily for an interview by the time of publication.
Candidates responded to topics important to Norman residents including the proposed homeless shelter, entertainment district, the Lake Thunderbird watershed and city spending.
Entertainment district
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday the gist included in the petition to turn the entertainment district to a public vote is insufficient. According to an update on the city of Norman’s website, the project will move forward as originally planned.
Fenwick, who spoke with the Daily before the decision, opposes the proposed tax increment finance district, or TIF, to fund an OU arena and entertainment district near University North Park. She said the funding mechanism of the tax district — which diverts a portion of property taxes to the project — takes taxpayer money that would otherwise go toward Norman Public Schools.
“Good economic policy is not fiscal redirection and the allocation of funds away from public good, …” Fenwick said. “When we have tax dollars redirected away from our population to benefit other populations, that is not something I am comfortable with.”
Such a significant redirection of funds should go to a public vote, Fenwick said. If elected, she said she would push to amend TIF statutes to prevent such an expensive proposal.
Kirby, who spoke with the Daily before the Tuesday decision, said the city charter should be amended to state the public must vote on TIFs over a certain amount.
“I don't think that all TIFs are bad,” Kirby said. “I just think that they have to be used responsibly.”
The city can’t spend money it doesn’t have, and it can’t afford the entertainment district, he said.
More information on the entertainment district, including a timeline of events, can be found on the OU Daily website.
Turnpike
Fenwick opposes the turnpike plan and said the city must fight the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority by working with state legislators. She said the plan is unjust, and the city must make unjust policies expensive. Fenwick said the OTA should cover road tolls on the new turnpike for law enforcement, ambulances and school vehicles.
“The kind of overreach that we're seeing is because we have not yet been able to counter this narrative that (the turnpike) is inevitable,” Fenwick said.
Two turnpikes are planned for Norman as part of the OTA’s ACCESS Oklahoma project: the East-West Connector and the South Extension. The South Extension has been rerouted twice in the past year, and the latest planned route will reportedly impact around 75 homes.
Fenwick said residents worked hard to buy homes in the area and losing them is devastating. Apart from forcing people out, the turnpike would also increase first responder times, damage the watershed and damage property values, she said.
Fenwick also said she wants clarity on OTA’s inner workings so the city can determine if it is abiding by the rules.
Kirby said he is concerned about properties and farms the turnpike will go through, and he wants the city to continue to stand against the OTA. Council members must continue to work with state legislators to halt the turnpike.
“We absolutely need somebody who's going to be in there to represent the Ward 5 community against them,” Kirby said.
A timeline of ACCESS Oklahoma’s development, including the city’s responses to the plans in East Norman, can be found on the OU Daily’s website.
Lake Thunderbird watershed
Fenwick said conversations about the city’s watershed and development are connected, because both have to do with land use. The city must develop responsibly to protect the watershed, she said.
According to Fenwick, the solution is infill development, a planning strategy that prioritizes new construction on underused lots in urban areas to create density. To allow for infill development, she said the city needs a stormwater solution to prevent flooding.
Kirby is concerned about “forever chemicals,” long-lasting chemicals, and “humanure,” human waste and other byproducts damaging water quality. He said companies like OG&E need to be transparent about what chemicals are sprayed on areas in the watershed and the city should push people to use less harmful pesticides.
“We can't just outlaw chemicals, but we could make people a lot more aware of what they’re spraying and the damages they could do in the long run, and hopefully encourage them to use other chemicals that are less invasive,” Kirby said.
Kirby also said Lake Thunderbird, which provides drinking water for Norman, Midwest City and Del City, should be dredged to remove silt. According to a state information page, the lake has been a designated “sensitive water supply” since 2002, with stormwater and other land runoff contributing to quality issues.
Hutzel said she wants Moore and Oklahoma City to increase their effort to preserve water quality, because they share the watershed, when asked at the League of Women Voters of Norman candidate forum on Jan. 21.
Housing, homelessness
The city has a shelter services contract with City Care to operate an emergency shelter and Norman residents will vote on the $8 million bond project to construct a shelter on Reed Avenue on April 7.
Fenwick said the City Care shelter is a good, economically stable plan because it partners with and enhances existing services. She said people deserve homes and she wants those experiencing homelessness to see Norman as a place they can have a home.
Fenwick said she’s seen how homelessness impacts her students and reducing the time people spend without homes is the best way to improve outcomes.
“The best goal is to keep people in their homes,” Fenwick said. “The second best goal is to get people back into homes as soon as possible.”
Kirby supports the City Care shelter, he said, because he likes the plans for management and design. Kirby said the city also needs to learn what services churches, nonprofits and charities offer so they know where to direct people who need specific assistance.
Hutzel said at the League of Women Voters forum, about a week before council added the proposed shelter to the April ballot, that she wants the City Care shelter to go to a public vote, citing resident concerns about operating costs.
City spending
In September 2025, the city finance committee presented findings that city revenue was less than predicted for the fiscal year. At the meeting, city Finance Director Anthony Francisco said revenue can’t keep up with increasing expenditures. Within a decade, the city is projected to have a negative fund balance, which is illegal in Oklahoma.
Fenwick said the city needs creative solutions to address the budget deficit and prioritize long-term growth. Norman must be able to collect the taxes it’s owed, but the entertainment district TIF would divert money from the budget and worsen the deficit, she said.
“We need to have effective return on investment, in terms of everything that we choose to do, that includes the funds that we choose not to collect when we need to collect them,” Fenwick said.
Fenwick said city policies should cycle funds back into the budget by prioritizing job creation and population growth, which would increase tax revenue. To resolve the deficit, she also said the city must tax outside populations, and she supports an ordinance city council discussed last month that would increase the guest room tax from 8% to 10%.
Kirby said as a business owner and farmer he knows how to work within a budget and not overspend.
“Cities are going to have to start being ran the same way as people's households and their farms and their personal bank accounts,” Kirby said. “If the money’s (not) there, you can’t spend it.”
Kirby said council members must look closely at the budget, communicate when there are deficits and work closely with city staff, like City Manager Darrell Pyle, to avoid spending money they don’t have. That includes not spending money on every new, exciting proposed project that comes along, he said, like the entertainment district.
To make up that money, he said the city should use existing spaces to host large events, like concerts, to bring in more sales tax and help cover the deficit.
“Being born and raised and living in Ward 5, we know a lot of the neighbors, and we know a lot of the issues with Ward 5, and we know that it's not an endless checkbook,” Kirby said. “There's a lot of stuff you have to solve without endless funding.”
Hutzel wrote in a press release that to address the budget deficit, the city must cut spending without sacrificing important services. Council members must consider data and community input to make informed decisions, she wrote.
“We need solutions that protect our finances while addressing the residents’ needs, including public safety,” Hutzel wrote.
At the League of Women Voters candidate forum, Hutzel also suggested that to increase sales tax revenue, the city should bring in visitors.
“On Campus Corner, (there are) seven vacant storefronts during the middle of an SEC season with five home games,” Hutzel said. “Why is that?”
This story was edited by Macey Thaxton, Anusha Fathepure, Natalie Armour and Madisson Cameron. Sophie Hemker copy edited this story.
