Tulsa County Commissioners have been making themselves and their meetings more available to the public.
Being more efficient and transparent has been a stated goal of Tulsa Board of County Commissioners Chair Lonnie Sims since he began his tenure earlier this year.
Public Radio Tulsa previously reported about Sims' plan to hire someone to gather data about government efficiency and work as a liaison with the public.
In July, Ethan Hutchins was hired as the new Tulsa County public information officer. The position handles the county’s social media, press relations and various strategic communications.
There have been noticeable changes in the county’s social media posts since the move, with meetings now streamed, commissioners' corner segments and regular appearances on Tulsa news outlets.
County commissioners planned a Nov. 3 vote on whether to start a communications team with a new title for Hutchins.
Commissioner Stan Sallee was absent from the meeting. Sims and Dunkerley agreed that it might be too early for a team because, at the time, it had been roughly three months since Hutchins was hired.
Where Sims and Dunkerly differ is the strategy for the county’s communications team.
Sims wanted to use other members of county government to assist.
“We've identified some people internally that are in other departments. I think we have support from the other departments to let those individuals support the PIO position when needed.”
Dunkerley appreciated that other county government employees are willing to help, but he said a communications team should be one unit.
“We really need a streamlined team to do that. It's great to have a collection of individuals that work together,” Dunkerley said at the Nov. 3 meeting. “I think we could really step up our team quite a bit more under a unified position.”
After the discussion, the decision was deferred to a later date.
That later date was Nov. 17.
County commissioners unanimously decided to strike the motion at that meeting.
Sims told Public Radio Tulsa after Monday’s meeting that the county commissioners plan to hash things out during a management conference in December before deciding on the composition and title of the county’s communications team.
“There's more of an open dialogue in that situation,” Sims said about having Hutchins speak in front of the commissioners at the management conference. “Not that, that doesn't happen at the Board of County Commissioners, but that's usually the preliminary step where we kind of vet some of these things out.”
