Local pastor Jerry Drewery and community banker Joshua Hinkle are the candidates for Ward 6 in the upcoming Norman City Council elections.
Last year, current Ward 6 Councilmember Elizabeth Foreman announced she was not seeking re-election as she wanted to pursue new career avenues. On Jan. 5, Foreman announced the launch of her campaign for State Senate District 15.
Joshua Hinkle
Hinkle is a Norman native who has been in the financial industry for 18 years. As a community banker, he works for small and medium-sized businesses, agricultural businesses, home builders and others.
Hinkle is the Ward 6 representative on the Norman Economic Development Advisory Board and a member of the Cleveland County Community Correction Planning Committee.
Hinkle said he has been engaged in municipal politics for a long time and considered running for city council previously.
“I've actually had thought about running for about seven or eight years ago,” Hinkle said. “But ultimately, I just decided that was time I needed to spend with my kiddos and give more time to them.”
He has also been active with nonprofit organizations like Norman Care-a-Van’s, the Center for Children and Families and the United Way of Norman.
Hinkle said he wants to be a voice for Norman residents if elected.
“Norman is very special to me. It's my hometown. I have a lot invested here, personally and emotionally,” Hinkle said. “I definitely want to be the voice that listens to the people that have ideas and try to find (a) middle ground … and just do the best thing that we can to take care of the business that we have to as a city.”
Homelessness
Hinkle said one of his top priorities is to build shelters with dormitory facilities and single-resident occupancy facilities that have no barriers and are accessible to people with potential mental health or addiction problems.
“If you truly want people to not be on the streets and not have that need be so visible, then you have to have a place where you can shelter them,” Hinkle said.
Hinkle said he would like to do “ID Expos,” so people could get access to their identification cards as well as their personal information such as birth certificates or social security numbers.
The absence of this paperwork can be an obstacle to getting food and housing vouchers or healthcare, Hinkle said.
Hinkle said there needs to be a partnership with other cities within Cleveland County to solve this issue.
“The need is so great. It can’t all fall on the city and on the agencies that have such limited resources,” Hinkle said. “They are doing everything they can right now to help.”
Mental health
In September, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse announced the construction of the Donahue Behavioral Health Hospital on the Oklahoma State University - Oklahoma City campus.
This would replace Norman’s Griffin Memorial Hospital as the state’s primary mental health hospital.
Hinkle said Norman has other mental health facilities, but they are not in the “best shape.”
“If that ends up happening where Griffin leaves and they build some state-of-the-art facility in the city, then I hope that those facilities will be in much better condition to serve mental health needs,” Hinkle said.
In May, Norman Regional Health System and Oceans Healthcare announced the construction of a new behavioral health center at Porter Health Village. The center is set to open in early 2024.
Hinkle said he’s looking forward to this project because it will benefit Norman and the people who are in need of those services.
“I think that if we had an emergency facility with some mental health (services) and things like that over there, it would be beneficial to the city,” Hinkle said. “If I am (elected) to the council, I would be very supportive of it.”
Public safety
As a Norman Citizens Police Academy alumni, Hinkle said he's a big supporter of the Norman Police Department, fire department and EMS.
At the academy, Hinkle said he learned about the finances of the police department and saw all the different specialty teams.
“I learned a whole lot there, and I made a lot of friends who are police officers,” Hinkle said.
Hinkle said he knows many people in Norman are concerned about public safety and if elected, he would try to give residents resources as effectively as possible.
“I think that part of the perception of the police is creating a positive image of the work they do, especially in Norman, where we have such a great community policing model,” Hinkle said. “We can kind of create a barrier around the fear of police, hopefully.”
Development
Hinkle said he has plans to develop more housing, specifically affordable housing.
“We're seeing that right now with some higher rents, some higher housing prices, and just more expenses when it comes to building,” Hinkle said.
Hinkle said more housing developments in Norman, like multifamily units and townhomes, will bring more tax revenues and people to the city, and eventually go back to the city budget.
Additionally, he said the city would benefit by bringing a larger manufacturing industry to Norman, as it would bring more jobs.
“As we develop and kind of spread out, I think that it would be great for us to look at some ways to sort of fix the areas that we have,” Hinkle said. “It's going to take a lot of partnerships and a lot of master planning and just a lot of things to support Norman and the way that it needs to for it to grow.”
OU’s move to the SEC
Last year, OU announced it would move to the Southeastern Conference from the Big 12 Conference after the 2023-24 sports calendar, which is projected to bring an influx of visitors to Norman through university sporting events.
Hinkle said Norman has a great opportunity to capture some of the magic that will come from SEC visitors.
Hinkle said Norman may not be fully ready for SEC visitors, but they have a lot of space to work on hotels and RV sites.
In September, city officials announced plans for a $1 billion entertainment district in the University North Park area.
The entertainment district would include a new home for OU basketball and women’s gymnastics teams and housing, shopping and corporate spaces.
“There will be people who want to invest in kind of capturing that, not just for football, but also for men's and women's basketball, softball, and all the other sports that SEC fans travel for,” Hinkle said.
Jerry Drewery
Drewery has been a minister for 40 years and is currently the Norman First Assembly of God pastor. According to his campaign website, he has experience in both marketing and managing customers' needs.
Born and raised outside Oklahoma City, Drewery lived in Tuttle for 28 years before coming to Norman around 15 years ago.
Drewery told the OU Daily he felt God gave him a sign to move to Norman.
“(God) has been helping us, and blessing us, and showing us that we can make a difference,” Drewery said.
As a community member, Drewery said he didn’t like how the current Norman City Council handled homelessness, which led him to run for Ward 6.
In the three months he’s been running, Drewery said he wants to showcase a “conservative and very patriotic” campaign. He said he wants to make Norman better than what it is.
“Norman is so unique. We've got one of the best universities in the nation. We've got culture, we've got museums, we've got parks. We're working on other forms of entertainment and growing,” Drewery said. “In the right direction and with all of those, you've got to look at it and see what is beneficial for all of us."
Homelessness
During the 2024 League of Women’s Voters city council candidate forum, Drewery expressed his concern about the current homeless situation and the council's direction to address it.
Drewery said on the forum that vagrants are lawless and are making the city unsafe, and there should be a separation between the ones who need help and the ones who are looking for a hand-out.
“We need to figure out that there is a difference between those that need help, and I believe we need to help those that need to be helped, but we also need to understand that there’s a difference between the vagrants that are coming in and attracting these people that are coming in,” Drewery said on the forum.
During the Jan. 18 finance committee meeting, it was projected that the city would spend $4.8 million down this fiscal year more than they were making in revenue.
Drewery said during the forum the council was going in the wrong direction, and the city was “attracting people that we don’t need to be attracting.”
Drewery said they must find solutions for this and help the people that need help.
Public safety
Drewery told the OU Daily he fully supports the police and fire departments. He believes these departments are understaffed and underfunded.
He said he enjoys talking with police officers who go to his church and listen to their concerns.
“These are family people. They want to come home and be safe,” Drewery said. “If we meet their needs, then they can meet ours.”
Drewery added the homeless situation is making it more dangerous for Norman residents and visitors.
“We're short-handed in our police department right now, and we're growing, but our police department isn’t. If anything, (it) is going the other direction,” Drewery said.
City development and funding for entertainment district
On Nov. 14, the city council adopted a resolution forming a review committee for a possible tax increment district, or a TIF, to develop the entertainment district.
A TIF allows the cities to use a portion of property taxes to invest in infrastructure with the goal of promoting private investment and development.
Drewery told the OU Daily he needed to do more research about the topic, but he liked what he’s heard about future city development plans.
“My goal, and Norman’s goal, is to improve to become better, to be a shining city,” Drewery said.
During the candidate forum, when asked about his opinion on public funding, Drewery said he supports everything that will bring more visitors and businesses to Norman.
“When the TIF is over with, we’re going to have that revenue that is coming in,” Drewery said.
This story was edited by Peggy Dodd, Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele. Grayson Blalock and Grace Rhodes copy edited this story.
