Clark graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Wichita State University in 2005 and then received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 2008. She also served on various task forces with Norman Public Schools. Because weve got a lot of major issues and difficult issues we will be facing. I dont make partisan decisions, because partisan politics dont fill potholes. Clark said the election was not about her nor was it about her opponent it was about improving Norman. If youre able, please He also serves as an ordained Deacon and Sunday School Teacher at a local church. Clark also stated a desire to increase the civic engagement of OU students, describing them as student citizens of Norman. She faced criticism for the city's response to the pandemic and for a vote over the city's police force that many deemed as "defunding". It is vividly clear that she inclines toward the democratic party. Ruggiers picked up 64.17 percent of the vote, compared to Snells 35.83. Current Legislative Committees keyboard_arrow_down. In-person absentee voting takes place Thursday and Friday, Feb. 3-4. Im thankful for Maricha and my family, as well as the many friends and volunteers who have supported me.. In 2019, propositions for stormwater utility bond projects and a stormwater utility fee received 42.62 percent and 39.68 percent yes votes, respectively. KOCO 5 asked the five about COVID-19 mitigation measures, working with a divided City Council, police funding, federal funds for cities and how to address Norman's growing homeless population. Liberal Oklahoma Mayor Faces Recall Posted August 16th, 2020 by Iron Mike Unite Norman just turned in 20,560 signaturesin their attempt to force a recall election of their new mayor - Breea Clark. In addition he holds many technical certifications in Disaster Relief Operations, Occupational Safety, and Construction. Larry Heikkila has defeated Breea Clark and clinched the position of Mayor in the recent election. 405-876-9216. perm_identityWho exactly is Clark? NORMAN, Okla. (AP) Former Norman safety manager Larry Heikkila defeated incumbent Breea Clark on Tuesday in the race to be mayor of Oklahoma's third-largest city. She also serves as director of the J.C. Penney Leadership Program in the Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a27ac526b8852e3 Clark said she stands by her handling of the pandemic that earned her recognition from the Oklahoma State Medical Association. [2] General Results [ edit] OU women's gymnastics: Trautman's 10 helps Soon, Paramedic reunites with tornado victim family, Train ride home turns unusual for county commis, By Mindy Ragan Wood | Transcript Staff Writer, Digging out: Tornado damages home, downs power lines; minor injuries reported, Maverick's brings dive bar feel to Campus Corner, Norman man charged with murder in Lake Thunderbird case, Cleveland County Sheriff's Office identifies inmate who hanged himself, Judge sides with homebuilder in lawsuit against city, Southern Baptists oust Saddleback Church over woman pastor, Cleveland County Detention Center inmate hangs himself, Tornado Coverage: Highway 9 reopening among second day developments. 32. After that, I am not at all opposed to these bond sales as an alternative or adjunct approach. Dunn stressed oils importance and called several times for residents and businesses to use less of it. She addressed her relationship with the university in an interview with NonDoc. In 2019, propositions for stormwater utility bond projects and a stormwater utility fee. Address: 307 W. Brooks. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Heikkila received more than 53% of votes, with . Clear skies. Breea Clark, the current Norman Ward 6 council member, works as the director of the J.C. Penney Leadership Program at the University of Oklahoma's Michael F. Price College of Business. At one point during the pandemic, I called our city manager (Darrel Pyle) and said, Darrel, I am like 99 percent sure Im not running again.. Norman remains the largest city in Oklahoma without a dedicated stormwater utility. Thompson, who has owned and operated the Norman eatery Midway Deli for 36 years, is mounting an intraparty challenge against Clark. She serves on Normans ABLE Board, and continues to champion opportunities for the disabled. Post Office Box 370 Norman, OK 73070. Heikkila is a 26-year Navy veteran. He credited "a grassroots campaign" who wanted a change. I am not at all in favor of it, Dunn said. Breea Clark (incumbent) Breea Clark Profession: Current mayor of Norman and director of the J.C. Penney Leadership Center at the University of Oklahoma. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Clear skies. Do you appreciate the work we do as the only independent media outlet dedicated to serving OU students, You have permission to edit this article. Education keyboard_arrow_down. Norman residentCasey Holcombrecently filed a lawsuit against Hickman on the grounds of free speech violations. Clark received 4.45% more of the votes than Heikkila in the primary. Voting rights and elections: How new state laws could affect you. Low near 40F. in Political Science from Wichita State University in 2005. I think we could have a ward-specific citizen commission, and experts in stormwater infrastructure and water quality combine again and make a proposal.. Clark graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Wichita State University in 2005 and then received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 2008. I dont think people know a single barrel of oil contains 25,000 hours of human muscle power, Dunn said. Kishhas litigation pending against several people she says made false statements about her that led her to endure death threats andlose clients and business income. (Kyle Phillips / The Transcript). Funding the project has been a lengthy processfeaturingmultiple failed proposals. I interned for (former President) George W. Bush, and at the state capitol of Kansas.. As mayor, Dunn said his first priority would be for people to understand the need to conserve oil and fossil fuels in society. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. [1] On April 5, 2022, Larry Heikkila won the runoff election and became mayor of Norman, Oklahoma. In the Norman community, she served on the Norman City Council from 2016-2019 representing Ward 6 in NE Norman and currently serves as its first Millennial Mayor. I felt like it would be a disservice to my community and my legacy of service and all that weve accomplished over the last three years to walk away. OU Daily and Crimson Quarterly magazine provide real value to this community both now by covering OU, and Its hard to focus on my professional career when the City of Norman requires so much attention. is a wildly inappropriate breach of municipal governments non-partisan nature, Clark said. After withstanding a recall attempt in 2020 and coming under fire from some residents for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Clark, a Democrat,is vying for a second three-year term on the nine-member city council. (Kyle Phillips / The Transcript). Norman Mayor candidate Larry Heikkila watches as election numbers come in Feb. 8 during his watch party for the general election at Red Rock Canyon Grill. Clark said the issue remains too important to continue administering band-aid solutions. She called local business closures at the start of the pandemic"devastating" forher practice. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, won the electiondespitewidely debunked claims of election fraud spread by Trump and his supporters. She teaches several undergraduate courses, includingIntroduction to LeadershipandLeadership in International Settings. I have a servants heart and I want to be a voice for the people. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Clear skies. She also previously served as interim Pre-Law Club Advisor and was a member of the 2018-2019 OU Leadership Council class. received 42.62 percent and 39.68 percent yes votes, I know theres a candidate (Bob Thompson), trying to say that we shouldnt be red or we shouldnt be blue, and I absolutely agree, Clark said. Clark and Hickman feel the same about many Norman issues and both have city council member experience. Department: JCPenney Leadership Program Breea Clark is Of Counsel at WhitbeckBennett. Breea Clark's Political Summary . Before receiving her J.D. So I'm glad that people are watching and participating.. Clark was elected mayor in a three-way contest in 2019 after serving on the city council for three years. After a decade of service in that office, I . Lets work this out so that we can make the town that we want and help me define it, he told supporters. I dont make partisan decisions, because partisan politics dont fill potholes. If elected, Thompson said he wants to drop the political temperature by changing how the mayor's office is presented. He said its the key to bringing our community back together., Im proud that my message has been both positive and optimistic, he said. We'd love to hear eyewitness Performance & security by Cloudflare. The more we can collaborate, the more we can stretch our dollars to do the most good.. At a packed election watch party in Norman on Tuesday night, Heikkila called for a more conservative Norman and encouraged other conservative candidates to run for upcoming City Council seats. news. The past three months have been a bumpy ride for Clark, 37, a Kansas native who put herself through college at Wichita State and law school at OU. Affiliations:Member of the Oklahoma Bar Association; Oklahoma Bar Foundation; member of the Family Law Section; member of the OBA Law Schools Committee; member of the OBA Legislative Monitoring Committee. You have permission to edit this article. I think theres a lack of trust with what they did with our money.. At a watch party Tuesday night, Clark told supporters she will weather the loss. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Heikkila got 32 percent of the primary vote, and Clark received 36.5 percent. Low near 40F. At a mayoral forum held by the Norman chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police last month, the candidatesvowed toprioritizepublic safety funding after the Norman City Council, including Clark, in 2020 approved a cut to the proposed police budget an issue that has embroiled the city ever since. He also touted his experience as a small business owner and attorney, saying he had the tools to negotiate contracts and stand up for his client when the need arises. Runoff: Mayor Breea Clark to face Larry Heikkila in April. Evan Dunn, a community activist and former teacher, attempted to set himself apart from his opponents by discussing moral problems in Norman. Its very clear that everyone wants to keep moving in a positive direction.. E-mail: breea@ou.edu. The future of our community and the future of our state is not something I'm willing to risk. Mayor Breea Clark will face Larry Heikkila in a runoff after neither candidate captured a majority of the vote Tuesday, preliminary election results indicated. She also touted the city's hiring of a sustainability officer and a chief diversity and equity officer, saying the latter and the city council passingpro-LGBTQ policies and protectionscontributed to Norman getting a perfect score in the Human Rights Campaign's municipal equity index. Be Proactive. She also completed the 2018-19 Oklahoma Municipal Leagues Community Leadership Development class and founded the Norman Eastside Business Association. In April, Norman will vote for a second time on a stormwater utility bond to address flooding and pollution problems. During the Feb. 8 primary, Heikkila and Clark defeated opponents "Midway" Bob Thompson, Dr. Nicole Kish and Alice Stephenson-Leuck. The mayoral race came down to incumbent Mayor Breea Clark and challenger Larry Heikkila. They dont put debt on future generations to repay those bonds back.. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Dunn spoke on his vision for Norman and set lofty goals for the citys role in national politics. What Is Breea Clark's Political Party? Mayor | City of Norman, OK Information on City Council and Committee Meetings City of Norman, OK Building an Inclusive Community Mayor How Do I? Mayoral and city council elections will take place Tuesday, Feb. 8. At OKC, a record high temperature of 83 degrees occurred mid-day, then plummeted to a record low of 17 degrees at midnight. This is hard.. Be Truthful. He and his wife Janet were married in 1976, and moved to Norman from Tulsa in 1978. Its the same reason why Donald Trump won after leftist Barack Obama left the White House," he said. Box 370, Norman 73070 Phone: 405-876-9216 Phone: 405-366-5402 e-mail: mayor@NormanOK.gov Vital Information: Sworn In: 07/05/22 Current Term Ends: 07/01/25 We need someone who can bring us together moving forward.. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, Prior to his election as mayor, he served as the Chairman of the Excise Board and Equalization Board, Vice-Chair of the Tax Roll Correction Board and as a Member of the Industrial Authority for Cleveland County. Analysis Efforts in Norman, Oklahoma, to recall Mayor Breea Clark and councilmembers Kate Bierman, Alison Petrone, Sereta Wilson, and Stephen Holmam were initiated in July 2020. Her portrayal as a raging liberal by campaign opponents is wildly untrue and inaccurate, Clark said, given her voting record and past political experience. In-person absentee voting takes place Thursday and Friday, Feb. 3-4. It's time for the drama and the partisan politics to end, she said. The 2022 Norman, Oklahoma, mayoral election was held on February 8, 2022, with Larry Heikkila and Breea Clark going in the runoff. For accessibility assistance please contact the ADA Technician at 405-366-5424. He is a member of the Norman Chamber of Commerce. Numerous polls show most Republicans agree with Trump's falseclaim that the election was stolen. Mayor Clark's police budget-cutting seemed to many as a ME-TOO reaction to the groundswell of DEFUND movements following the death of George Floyd. Heikkila received 53.39% of the votes, beating incumbent Breea Clark. On campus, she has served on the Universitys Legal Panel, Speakers Bureau and as an interim Pre-Law Club Advisor. First. As mayor, he said he would deliver on projects people had voted for. Grant, who works at Oscillator Press in Norman and serves on several municipal committees, ran on a platform of bridging the divide between Normans urban core and its outlying areas. We moved to Norman in 2005 from Wichita, Kansas, and started our family while I was in law school at the University of Oklahoma. A total of 22,712 voters cast ballots, with 8,281 for Clark, 7,269 for Heikkila, 4,292 for Thompson, 2,838 for Kish and 32 for Leuck, preliminary results from the Oklahoma State Election Board showed. The fire department is down 8 or 9 percent, and police is down about 7 percent. He retired as the Command Master Chief, 9th Naval Construction Regiment. Here's how they could affect voters in future elections. Earlier in the pandemic, some Norman residents criticized Clark for requiring some businesses to close and imposing capacity limits on businesses and public gatherings to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Long-term maintenance and staffing of such facilities could pose an obstacle for the city, Clark said. I would like to create a rural commission to educate the city folk, if you will, on issues facing our rural community because I dont know what its like to have livestock and run a farm as my profession, and I dont pretend to know. He serves at the Cleveland County Detention Center and at Mission Norman as a Chaplain endorsed by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. We make a whopping $100 a month to do this, so its certainly not for the money. Blake Douglas joined the OU Daily news desk in October 2018, and is currently the editor-in-chief. [We need] to combat the ease with which alcoholism, casino addictions can all cause the moral corrosion and collective decay of our society and the common culture, he said. You have permission to edit this article. "We had stumbled into this real combative scenario here in town," he said. E.W. On Tuesday, the total ballooned to more than 24,000. Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. on the 2021 Human Rights Campaign Municipal Equality Index a measure of how supportive municipal governments are of their 2SLGBTQ+ residents as a notable accomplishment of her term. Citizen efforts to force a recall election of Norman Mayor Breea Clark have fallen short, yet the recall effort also showed broad public displeasure with Clark's performance. "I will be the champion Norman needs to make a positive impact for everyone in our community.". Norman mayor-elect Larry Heikkila Norman's new mayor will be Larry Heikkila, who is far to the right of the more progressive Clark, as he made clear in a campaign ad earlier this year. After nearly deciding she would surrender the mayorship after a single term, Clark said support shes received from community leadership inspired her to run again. After beginning her stint in local government as Normans Ward 6 city council member in 2016, Clark defeated opponents Bill Hickman and Evan Dunn in the 2019 mayoral election with 51.43 percent of the vote. She saidRiverwind Casino,owned and operated by the Chickasaw Nation, is the reason homelessness is on the rise in Norman. "We were the first to put a maskmandate in place, the last to remove it, and so I'm very, very proud of how we managed to protect our residentswhile keeping our economy going.". Ruggiers is a former Norman Public Schools teacher, and he said his election shows that the community wanted to give teachers a voice. Heikkila and Leuck did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. E.W. The Wichita, Kansas natives Norman ties began in 2005, when she moved to Oklahoma to attend the OU College of Law after receiving a bachelors degree in political science at Wichita State University. While some of us had different opinions of what means, I thank all of the candidates for their dedication and their love for the City of Norman," he said. Midway Bob, Dr. Kish, Ms. Leuck, and again, mayor-elect Heikkila, I wish you the very best.. Some formed a group called Unite Norman and began collecting signatures with help from Norman police officers and Republican political strategists to recall Mayor Breea Clark, Bierman. Kevin Stitt, Kishsaid she wants tobring a new perspective to the Norman City Council and draw on her experience managing her own practice to create a more inviting business environment in Norman. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. If reelected, Clark aims to find solutions to Norman's storm water issues, improve infrastructureand focus on making the community more sustainable and inclusive. Experience: Before her election. Breea Clark, Larry Heikkila make final cases to voters ahead of Norman mayoral runoff election Ari Fife, senior news reporter Apr 3, 2022 Updated Apr 4, 2022 0 Mayoral incumbent Breea. During her tenure as mayor, the Norman City Council allocated CARES Act funding to local businesses and vaccine distribution. This is a really important election for Norman, Hickman said, adding that the new mayor will appoint a new city manager and a new city attorney and that he has the necessary experience to do so. He began his quest to become Normans mayor amid a crowded field of five candidates that took part in Februarys general election. (The office) came at great personal cost to me, Clark told The Daily. There was a problem saving your notification. Don't knowingly lie about anyone Members of a Facebook group opposing Normans COVID response sent Clark death threats online in May 2020, and Clark said she was continually targeted and harassed online throughout the pandemic. Janet was employed as a Special Education Teacher for 38 years, most of that time by Norman Public Schools. Saying she couldnt previously support the status quo of policing in Norman, Clark defended her vote nearly two years ago to cut $865,000, or 3.6%, from thedepartments proposed budget request that sought a funding increase. Sworn In: 07/05/22 Ultimately, despite what many have characterized as a year of polarizing local politics, Clark said she is grateful more Normanites have been interested in local participation. "If you have a city that has good public safety, there isn't a homeless issue, the crime isn't going up, your city is going to prosper," she said. Three years ago, the police union endorsed Clark, but the group rescinded its endorsement after the 2020 vote on the police budget that led the Norman Police Department to eliminate nine unfilled officer positions. A proposition that would have raised the base fee charged to Norman residents who use city water services failed Tuesday, capturing just 45.75 percent of the vote. It is absolutely possible for us to sell war bonds, not necessarily just stormwater bonds or school bonds, but if you sell war bonds to residents, you save on underwriters fees. On campus, she has served on the Universitys Legal Panel, Speakers Bureau, and the Committee on Discrimination and Harassment. The proposition called for the monthly base fee to all customers to be raised from $6 to $7.80 for metered users. The city also needs to update its master plan for development that reflects how Norman intends to grow, he said. She also previously served as interim Pre-Law Club Advisor and was a member of the 2018-2019 OU Leadership Council class. Member of the Oklahoma Bar Association; Oklahoma Bar Foundation; member of the Family Law Section; member of the OBA Law Schools Committee; member of the OBA Legislative Monitoring Committee, Emergency Authorization of Medical Treatment, Family Law, Criminal Law & Other Cases Involving Mental Health Issues. Her campaign for a second term, she said, is focused less on restating commitments made in her first three years and more on goals she will pursue, if reelected. Clark said she had not heard from other candidates, but was working to contact them. We spoke truthfully about the issues that I know are important to voters including public safety, homelessness and jobs. Clark broadcast her concession speech to her official Facebook page. "We were the first todeclare a state of emergency," she said. Heikkila was endorsed by Cleveland County Commissioners Darry Stacy and Harold Haralson, the local fraternal order of police and the firefighters union, among others. With offices around the country, including in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida, you can choose the right location for you. online throughout the pandemic. Helen Grant won the Norman City Council Ward 4 seat Tuesday, defeating opponent Gale Hobson. in June 2020. Mayor Breea Clark will face Larry Heikkila in a runoff after neither candidate captured a majority of the vote Tuesday, preliminary election results indicated. When our city council made Norman the first city in Oklahoma to commit to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2035, the community was all for it. Clear skies. Previously, Blake has served as an intern reporter, senior news reporter, summer news editor and news managing editor.