Late last year, Board of County Commissioners of Oklahoma County (BOCC) approved the seven members of the Jail Bond Oversight Committee, comprised of four at-large members and three members appointed by the commissioners themselves. Each appointee will serve three-year terms. At-large appointee Steve Mason, who has an extensive background as a business owner, engineer and developer, will serve as committee chair, while former Edmond city manager and at-large appointee Larry Stevens will serve as vice-chair. Other members of the committee include: • Joanne Davis, executive director of the Oklahoma City Black Chamber of Commerce. • Pat McCoy, president and founder of PEC Enterprises, Inc., a nationally known developer of governmental projects and a leading private corrections facility designer. JAIL BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE ANNOUNCED
campaign to pass the jail bond issue and build a new jail, which was to make sure there is transparency, openness and accountability, said Tim Tardibono, executive director of CJAC, which was formed in 2018 from a recommendation by the Chamber’s Criminal Justice Reform Task Force to help ensure accountability and transparency in the county justice system. “[Accountability], quite frankly, wasn’t there 30 years ago and has gotten us into this trouble we’re in right now (with the current jail),” Tardibono said. “It is such a huge community issue that the public needs to see other citizens with expertise leading and guiding the county through this process and working with county elected officials to make sure this gets done, and gets done right this time.”
• Mike Mize, retired, with nearly 50 years in construction, real estate and development.
• Xavier Niera, founder and president of Logatoré, LLC, a real estate development and consulting firm. • Sandino Thompson, community developer with more than 20 years of experience in managing commercial and residential construction projects. The board accomplishes one of the promises of the Through a partnership with the Chamber, the Criminal Justice Advisory Council (CJAC) has produced three videos that tell the stories of previously incarcerated or justice-involved individuals who are now gainfully employed as part of fair-chance hiring efforts. The videos talk about the role some of Oklahoma City’s diversion programs, such as ReMerge and The Education and Employment Ministry, or TEEM, play in helping to break the cycle of incarceration and poverty for many individuals. Featured in the videos are interviews with justice- involved individuals who have benefited from local CJAC CREATES VIDEOS TO BOOST FAIR CHANCE HIRING
diversion programs and are now earning a paycheck, as well as interviews with some of the local businesses that hired them, including Candy Company, Locke Supply and SendaRide. “What we wanted to do in the videos is find actual employees and actual employers and then talk about the diversion programs and how these three things work together,” Tardibono said, noting that a total of five more videos will be produced by the end of the summer. The videos are set to appear on CJAC’s social media accounts and its YouTube channel, he said, with the overarching goal of finding more employers to partner with local diversion programs so that more justice- involved people can find jobs and graduate from those programs.
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