Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It's
Speaker 1: time now for city matters right here on K one,
Speaker 1: the one you trust. Going a little early today, we
Speaker 1: have we have our city councilor Aaron Kirkpatrick here with
Speaker 1: is how you doing there, sir.
Speaker 2: I'm doing great, tim and good morning Bartlesville.
Speaker 3: It's good to be back with you again.
Speaker 1: Bright sunshiny day. We got a bright sunshiny future. I
Speaker 1: guess we're looking at that a little bit here with
Speaker 1: the strategic Plan. I guess tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, So tonight the Planning Commission meets at City
Speaker 2: Hall at five point thirty and one of the things
Speaker 2: that that we're going to be discussing is the long
Speaker 2: Term Strategic Plan. The City Council will approve that back
Speaker 2: in November, and then some people wanted to look it
Speaker 2: over and I guess, you know, suggest some changes and
Speaker 2: you know, see, I don't know. Basically, some people kind
Speaker 2: of I guess discovered it about that time and decided
Speaker 2: they need to they wanted to look it over, revisit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so we got a it's been redlined by a
Speaker 2: small group of folks and sent out to the Planning Commission,
Speaker 2: and so tonight we'll be discussing, you know, the red
Speaker 2: lines that we're put into it.
Speaker 1: Okay, so when we have a strategic plan, this takes
Speaker 1: a look at things like how the city may grow
Speaker 1: and how we're going to grow it, perhaps infrastructure needs
Speaker 1: down the line and things like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really just a lot of guidelines, you know, possibilities.
Speaker 2: None of us can predict exactly how Bartlesville is going
Speaker 2: to grow, what it's going to look like in twenty years.
Speaker 2: But if you don't have a general target, then you're
Speaker 2: absolutely not going to hit it right. And when it
Speaker 2: comes to city planning, when it comes to community organization,
Speaker 2: you want to make sure that you're not just doing
Speaker 2: it totally chaotically or sporadic, because that's that is a
Speaker 2: super easy way to become very inefficient, to waste a
Speaker 2: lot of money, to waste a lot of time, and
Speaker 2: to end up with unintended consequences. So a long term
Speaker 2: strategic plan just helps you say, generally, we want to
Speaker 2: move in this direction, and then you know, as things change,
Speaker 2: of course, it can be adapted. So they're not laws,
Speaker 2: they're not ordinances. It is just a roadmap. For the
Speaker 2: future in very general ways.
Speaker 1: Now, one of the things you ran on was the
Speaker 1: issue of homelessness, and now you're on the committee, correct, Yes.
Speaker 2: So I have the honor of chairing the Unsheltered Homelessness
Speaker 2: Task Force. This is a six month action team whose
Speaker 2: goal it is to understand the homeless crisis that we're
Speaker 2: looking at and then to propose things that the city
Speaker 2: can do, that our organizations can do to help people
Speaker 2: get out of homelessness and hopefully into stable housing, stable
Speaker 2: economic situations, and improve their lives.
Speaker 1: And well, something happened about three or four sundays ago.
Speaker 1: I'm at this kickoff for a fundraiser for a great cause,
Speaker 1: and I'm seeing a lot of people from the city
Speaker 1: council there, and I'm seeing, you know, a lot.
Speaker 3: Nobody even brought it up.
Speaker 1: As soon as that event was over, Facebook was flooded
Speaker 1: with We're gonna throw homeless people in jail?
Speaker 3: What is that? That was wild.
Speaker 2: So I was there with you, and I walked out
Speaker 2: of that that event, I sat down in my.
Speaker 3: Car, pulled up you saw. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I pulled up Facebook and I saw a post and
Speaker 2: it said the Bartlesville City Council is considering ordinances to
Speaker 2: fine homeless people five hundred dollars or more per day
Speaker 2: for being homeless.
Speaker 3: And like, I'm on that team.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm I'm was involved in helping put those
Speaker 2: ordinances together. I know all the people on that team,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, this is.
Speaker 3: Not in there.
Speaker 2: But by the time I saw it, it had been shared
Speaker 2: over fifty times already, which is about as locally viral
Speaker 2: as you can go, I mean, as crazy, and I
Speaker 2: mean the comments and you know, I'm I'm happy to
Speaker 2: engage people and you know, share information, help and it
Speaker 2: was way too late. So yeah, so that I mean,
Speaker 2: if that had been true, I'd have been upset too.
Speaker 2: And also if that had been true, it would have
Speaker 2: made the most expensive lodging in Bartlesville outside.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's crazy. So of course that's not real.
Speaker 1: There are hotels that would love five hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got Airbnbs, I would love five hundred dollars,
Speaker 2: not like you can't.
Speaker 3: You can't get that.
Speaker 2: So and obviously, you know, finding homeless people out of homelessness,
Speaker 2: that's that is as insane.
Speaker 3: As it sounds.
Speaker 2: So let me tell you a little bit about this,
Speaker 2: about this team that we've got together. This team is
Speaker 2: led by local nonprofit leaders that work daily with our
Speaker 2: homeless neighbors. It is led by people who work in
Speaker 2: homeless shelters. The Arrow from the Lighthouse Keith and Christie
Speaker 2: from Be the Light are involved in it. It is
Speaker 2: staffed by mental health professionals. It is staffed by a
Speaker 2: police officer who deals with and interacts with our homeless
Speaker 2: neighbors regularly. We have multiple formerly homeless people on our team, Like,
Speaker 2: this is a team that is steeped in compassion from
Speaker 2: the very beginning. So these when people read, you know,
Speaker 2: they saw the number five hundred dollars, you know, as
Speaker 2: a potential up to five hundred dollars a potential fine
Speaker 2: for certain violations, things like you can't camp in Sooner Park.
Speaker 3: If you're camping in Sooner Park. Here's what actual happens.
Speaker 2: The police interact with this person and give them at
Speaker 2: least forty eight hours to vacate, Okay, So it's not
Speaker 2: even like we're kicking you out right now. If you're
Speaker 2: camped in Center Park, like, you can't do that. It's
Speaker 2: unsafe for everybody. And they say you've got at least
Speaker 2: forty eight hours to get out of here. If that
Speaker 2: person refuses, then there's a process for cleaning up the
Speaker 2: trash because there's always a lot of trash.
Speaker 3: In these encampments.
Speaker 2: For what happens with our actual police force when they
Speaker 2: interact with these folks, as they say, do you have
Speaker 2: a place to go? Can we try to get you
Speaker 2: into a shelter? Do you need mental health help? They
Speaker 2: do all of these things. But that five hundred dollars
Speaker 2: number that people latched onto is actually very strategic. And
Speaker 2: what that does is that is the jurisdictional limit for
Speaker 2: the municipal court. So what that means is if one
Speaker 2: of our homeless neighbors is, you know, in a situation,
Speaker 2: maybe they're having a mental health crisis, they can't comply,
Speaker 2: or they're not complying whatever, we don't want them going
Speaker 2: to a higher criminal court. We want them to be
Speaker 2: in our municipal court because our municipal judge already knows
Speaker 2: a lot of these people by name, and the the
Speaker 2: finds of the penalties are there, so that he has
Speaker 2: leverage to incentivize them getting help. Because we see a
Speaker 2: lot of people who have a mental health crisis, they
Speaker 2: have a drug addiction, and so regularly what what are
Speaker 2: What Judge Gentist will do is he'll he'll tell these people,
Speaker 2: he'll say, listen, I'm gonna have to find you one
Speaker 2: hundred bucks. Or if you'll go to you know, one
Speaker 2: of our mental health facilities that Grand Lake, meet with
Speaker 2: your caseworker and then bring me back a note, I'll
Speaker 2: wave the fee. And it's just it's a way to
Speaker 2: incentivize people getting the help that they need, because when
Speaker 2: you have somebody in a schizophrenic break or a psychotic break,
Speaker 2: they they are they can be so detached from reality
Speaker 2: that that if you don't give them a push in
Speaker 2: a helpful direction, they are they're on a path that
Speaker 2: is really destructive for themselves.
Speaker 3: And the community around them. So it's a steering Mechadi. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And and the goal from start to end with this
Speaker 2: thing is to treat individuals with dignity, to treat them
Speaker 2: with compassion, which is which is being able to empathize
Speaker 2: with what they're going through, but also then saying I
Speaker 2: want to help. The challenge is and where where you
Speaker 2: tend to start to find disagreement. And I think we
Speaker 2: saw some of this on that Facebook blow up, was
Speaker 2: people feeling like, hey, you're not helping the individual. But
Speaker 2: we have to balance the needs of the individual, the
Speaker 2: health of the individual with the needs and the health
Speaker 2: of the community. It's fine for me to be a hoarder.
Speaker 2: I can hoard stuff in my house. I can fill
Speaker 2: my house with stuff, yes, But if I fill up
Speaker 2: my house with trash, it's not okay for me to
Speaker 2: start throwing my trash over the fence into your yard.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: I can't externalize the negative consequences of my choices. Once
Speaker 2: you start doing that, the whole community structure begins to
Speaker 2: break down. That's not different for our homeless neighbors. So
Speaker 2: it's not that we don't want them to. If you
Speaker 2: want to live outside in a tent, I'm fine with that,
Speaker 2: assuming it's not in a place that's going to become
Speaker 2: dangerous for the people around you. Our city crews or
Speaker 2: police officers sometimes are firefighters. They end up interacting with
Speaker 2: these folks when there's a fire in the woods or
Speaker 2: a homeless encampment that is sprawled and spread out, and
Speaker 2: they deal not just with trash. They deal with drug
Speaker 2: paraphernalia and needles. They deal sometimes with sharp objects and weapons.
Speaker 2: They also deal with like you know, five gallon buckets
Speaker 2: of human waste.
Speaker 3: I mean, like it's really this stuff.
Speaker 2: It's not like there's no consequence if this stuff just
Speaker 2: is allowed to spread. So we are balancing trying to
Speaker 2: help the individuals get help and get off the street
Speaker 2: while also making sure that the rest of our community
Speaker 2: is also protected. And that's a tricky balance. But the
Speaker 2: group that we have put together, this team is Man.
Speaker 2: I walked in the first meeting really not sure, Okay,
Speaker 2: what can we accomplish and how's this going to go?
Speaker 3: And that group is phenomenal.
Speaker 2: I've walked away every single time from those meetings feeling
Speaker 2: so filled up, like man, this group is getting it done,
Speaker 2: Like these are the right people having the right conversations,
Speaker 2: and we're making breakthroughs and coming up with ideas that
Speaker 2: have never.
Speaker 3: Been shared before like this. So it's just really, really,
Speaker 3: really cool.
Speaker 2: I'd encourage anybody to come to We meet on the
Speaker 2: second and fourth fridays of the month at eleven o'clock
Speaker 2: and we have a drop dead of no later than one,
Speaker 2: so it's two hours maximum, and we have new people
Speaker 2: there every time, watching the commonversations, and every time I
Speaker 2: talk to somebody.
Speaker 3: Afterwards, they are encouraged by the progress or making.
Speaker 1: One of the things I imagine is that everybody knew something,
Speaker 1: but not everyone knew everything, and putting those pieces of
Speaker 1: the puzzle together had to be, you know, a big moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I assumed that these organizations just always communicate.
Speaker 3: Well, surely they must. Of course they don't. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's now that I know they don't. It makes perfect sense, right.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm a pastor, you know, and I've got
Speaker 2: lots of other friends and connections in the community to
Speaker 2: do similar work. But you know, if we don't force
Speaker 2: ourselves to get together once a month, we're all working,
Speaker 2: you know, ministering to our churches. Well, the same thing
Speaker 2: is true for these helping organizations. They are nose to
Speaker 2: the grindstone day in and day out, helping individuals. So
Speaker 2: what this team has been able to do is put
Speaker 2: these people around a table sharing information and resources and
Speaker 2: perspectives that have not been shared in this way, at
Speaker 2: least to my knowledge. And I would say that pretty
Speaker 2: confidently because I've seen people around that table light up
Speaker 2: and they go, oh, like the data that I have
Speaker 2: and the data that you have, Like they didn't seem
Speaker 2: to line up and then somebody comes in with a
Speaker 2: third piece of data and all of a sudden, everything
Speaker 2: clicks and we go, oh, man, if that's like there's
Speaker 2: real potentially here. So for instance, and I'll use myself
Speaker 2: as an example of you know, I'm always learning, like
Speaker 2: these people are the experts. I just get to facilitate,
Speaker 2: which is fun for me. Last week, as we were
Speaker 2: talking about okay, where we started looking at what resources
Speaker 2: does Bartlesville offer and where do we have gaps? You know,
Speaker 2: are their hindrances to getting to the resources, for instance,
Speaker 2: And so we kind of came up with, like with
Speaker 2: five just right off the bat that we're big, But
Speaker 2: the one that was at the top of the list
Speaker 2: was transportation. Our homeless neighbors spend a lot of time
Speaker 2: walking from place to place, waste their entire day just
Speaker 2: trying to get from one resource to another, because even
Speaker 2: though most of them are on the west side of town,
Speaker 2: they're still spread out.
Speaker 3: And we have you know, great resources like.
Speaker 2: City Ride, but we're finding that that it doesn't always
Speaker 2: match up to the to the.
Speaker 3: Movement patterns that people need.
Speaker 2: So one of the things we're looking at right now
Speaker 2: we're explore or is there a way and we're learning,
Speaker 2: like this is research still ongoing. Is there a way
Speaker 2: to streamline the ability for people to use public transportation
Speaker 2: to get from place to place so they can meet
Speaker 2: the needs, so that our resources can meet the needs
Speaker 2: they have, and that maybe through a public entity, you know,
Speaker 2: something like city right, or it may be through volunteer
Speaker 2: organizations or churches with veh because we don't.
Speaker 3: Know, Like it's just once you get, once you see
Speaker 3: the need. I have this a hot on.
Speaker 2: Wait, I'm here and everybody say, like, transportation is really
Speaker 2: a challenge, and like the entire room with yeah, I'm learning.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that because I had not been sitting
Speaker 2: around a table like this with people who are working
Speaker 2: with these folks and go, this is a need.
Speaker 3: So now we're looking at that need. I don't know
Speaker 3: what will come of it, but it's.
Speaker 2: The right people having the right conversations, making progress hopefully
Speaker 2: on the right issues.
Speaker 1: All Right, Folks want to get a hold of you,
Speaker 1: ask you a question or maybe offer some advice. How
Speaker 1: can they do that?
Speaker 3: Let's see.
Speaker 2: You can always email me at Aarin Forward four at
Speaker 2: gmail dot com. I've got a website Aaron for Ward
Speaker 2: four dot com My Facebook is Aaron for Ward four
Speaker 2: as well, and then of course you know my phone
Speaker 2: numbers on the city website or actually tonight at seven
Speaker 2: o'clock I will be out at Oak Park, the Methodist
Speaker 2: Church out there doing a town hall.
Speaker 3: Anybody who'd like to come participate. Love to have you.
Speaker 1: There, all right, see you then, take care, folks. You've
Speaker 1: been watching and listening to our community connection.