The League of Women Voters of Norman hosted a mayoral candidate forum Monday evening in partnership with the Pioneer Library System.
Norman residents asked the three candidates questions in a panel format. Candidates include current mayor Larry Heikkila, Ward 7 Councilmember Stephen Tyler Holman and attorney Riley Mulinix.
Heikkila was elected as mayor in 2022 following 17 years of service to Norman. Heikkila served as street supervisor, personnel analyst and safety manager before becoming mayor.
Heikkila said his first priority as mayor is to support and grow Norman’s police and fire departments. He said to grow those departments, he wants to focus on economic development including the University North Park arena.
“We have to have economic development,” Heikkila said. “To me, that’s the UNP. That’s (the arena) sitting down there and earning us the money we need and bringing those folks in so that we can have more housing.”
Holman has served on city council for nearly 12 years and has worked with four mayors and nearly 40 council members.
If elected, Holman said he would support policies that protect lakes and safe drinking water including groundwater supplies. He said his main focus is housing affordability, economic development and creating more jobs.
“A goal of mine is to absolutely make sure that Norman is a place where a family or a single parent can continue to afford to raise a family in this city,” Holman said. “And then economic development in the sense of quality jobs that people can make a living wage and be able to afford to live here.”
Mulinix said his goals for Norman are to promote environmental sustainability and plant “food forests,” a sustainable method of growing food that mimics natural forest ecosystems maintained by the community. He said one of his goals is to protect Lake Thunderbird from pollution and stormwater runoff. Mulinix also said he has new “out of the box” solutions to homelessness in Norman.
“My major goals for Norman are to stop spraying (herbicide) on public places, to install food forests there, so fruit trees, fruit bushes, perennial plants,” Mulinix said. “And this would solve a lot of issues. Help feed the homeless, it builds community, puts pride in the community.”
Norman residents submitted questions to ask the candidates. Each candidate had about one minute to respond.
Norman Public Library Central
The Norman Public Library Central closed indefinitely in April after mold was found throughout the building.
Holman said the city is taking legal action against Flintco, the company that built the library. He said while the building was designed correctly, it was not constructed correctly, which led to mold development.
Heikkila and Mulinix agreed that the company should be held responsible.
“A few months ago, the council gave approval to enter into litigation over that issue,” Holman said. “And it is now in the courts to determine who will be responsible for the situation.”
Heikkila reiterated Holman’s statement and said he wants to reopen the library as soon as possible.
“We have to be able to get this fixed,” Heikkila said. “We need this $39 million building sitting out there, and we have to be able to get the library back into operations.”
Mulinix said he agrees the building should be reopened and supports litigation against Flintco.
“Whoever is responsible for it not being built correctly obviously needs to be held accountable,” Mulinix said. “I understand construction litigation can be pretty complicated at times, but I think that with our city attorneys and with me as mayor, we would get to the bottom of it.”
Homelessness
In Cleveland County, the 2023 point-in-time count found there were 213 total people experiencing homelessness. Of those, 30 were found to be experiencing chronic homelessness.
Candidates were asked what they believe is the most workable way to solve the issue of homelessness in Norman.
Heikkila said the city should fund experts who know how to handle the situation rather than the city handling the issue on its own. He said he wants to provide services that can best help those experiencing homelessness.
“The most workable approach, as far as I’m concerned, is to allow the people that know how to do this business to do it instead of the city,” Heikkila said.
Mulinix said the city should take the initiative and facilitate solutions to the growing issue. He said the solutions wouldn’t take a lot of taxpayer money, but it will require facilitation from the city of Norman.
“(People experiencing homelessness) deserve respect and dignity and a real opportunity to rebuild their lives,” Mulinix said. “That takes the city taking a leadership role, facilitating and connecting with nonprofits, with churches, with private businesses and thinking outside the box on this issue.”
Holman said affordable housing is necessary so people don’t become homeless in the first place. He said for the past two years, the city has funded a shelter that provides 55 beds each night. Holman said the shelter has helped hundreds of people find permanent housing.
“We’ve recently entered into a new contract with City Care to operate our overnight shelter,” Holman said. “To be clear, the city of Norman is not operating a shelter, we are funding it and providing a building.”
All candidates said efforts should be funded by the city but solving the issue should be left to experienced experts.
Holman said Norman’s population has grown over 20,000 people in the last decade, but there is not enough affordable housing to hold the growing population.
“We have to have a wide variety of housing types,” Holman said. “What we have a lot of in Norman is single family housing and apartments. We don’t have that middle part that can be more affordable for people and give people choices, which is how we can bring down the cost of rent.”
Heikkila said many options have been discussed, and a greater variety of housing options is necessary to keep Norman affordable.
“I think it is mixed use ideas and apartments and all kinds of rentals that we can do to get people inside houses,” Heikkila said.
Mulinix said he wants to implement Phoenix Camps, a safe and supportive place for people experiencing homelessness to live. He said these communities would allow for people to learn life skills and work toward finding permanent housing.
“It’s going to be homeless helping homeless,” Mulinix said. “Homeless will be running these camps, teaching people life skills. Allowing them to have a safe place physically to rebuild their lives, learn life skills, learn job skills.”
Economic development
Holman said Norman’s growing population helps foster more jobs and increases business and economic growth in the city. He said this growing population helps generate more sales tax revenue to invest back into the city.
“We have a lot of growth based on demand as commission for the second Target, second Lowes that we just approved is being done based entirely on the fact that there are so many new homes being built in that part of Norman and North Noble,” Holman said. “Norman has to be a place where people want to be and we have to keep working towards that.”
Heikkila said Norman has to figure out new ways to support businesses and increase public transportation. He said more public transportation will allow people to explore new places in Norman.
“If you can get kids from the university to get on a bus and be able to go all the way up and follow all the shopping areas, maybe we can bring them out and get some more money while they’re here,” Heikkila said.
Mulinix said he is passionate about supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs but he said he wants to address the departure of graduating OU students from Norman. He said his solution is growing the number of jobs and opportunities in Norman.
“We have all sorts of talented people that graduate from OU and they go to Oklahoma City or Edmond or Dallas,” Mulinix said. “It’s partnering with OU, nonprofits, other developers to create business incubators and coworking spaces and mentorship programs for new small business owners and networking opportunities.”
Heikkila said the best way to generate revenue is by appealing to people in neighboring cities and getting them to spend money in Norman. He said in order to support new businesses, jobs and projects, the city has to bring in more sales tax revenue from people living outside of Norman.
“We have to find things that make people want to go downtown and buy stuff in (Norman),” Heikkila said. “We have to figure out ways to get businesses more opportunity. Some of that is building, some of that is through more arts things that they can come to see.”
The municipal election is Feb. 11. The voter registration deadline for February’s election is Friday. The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Jan. 27. Early voting is Feb. 6-7. If no candidate receives over 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held on April 1.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele. Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
