LAWTON – As her first term draws to a close, Lawton City Councilwoman Linda Chapman is hoping to remain in office for another three years.
Chapman, who joined the council in 2019, is seeking a second term in office. Her opponent in the upcoming primary election is Cartessa Smith, a licensed professional counselor.
The two women are the only candidates in the Ward 3 race, so whoever wins the Aug. 23 primary election will claim the seat.
Southwest Ledger recently interviewed Chapman about her decision to seek a second term, her skills and other topics. Here are questions and answers from the interview, edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: What is your occupation?
A: I’m a retired elementary music teacher, and I do direct choir at Centenary United Methodist Church.
Q: What made you decide to seek another term?
A: There’s so many exciting things that are happening in Lawton, and I would like to see some of them come to fruition for our future.
Q: What are some of those things?
A: Definitely, our economic development. FISTA. Seeing CIP funds being used.
We have more roadwork right now – road and street work – than we’ve had in a long time.
Just many, many projects that sort of had been taking sidesteps during COVID.
Q: What challenges for City Hall were created by the pandemic, and how do you feel that the city responded to those?
A: I think we did the very best we could with the information that was given to us at that time. It was like a roller coaster, because the most knowledgeable people were trying to learn about the pandemic.
Our goal here, besides our obligation to public safety, was also to minimize what the hospitals and the medical professionals were having to deal with at that time. Because it was very severe.
Q: What were some of the economic challenges that the pandemic created?
A: We had to stop a lot of projects that were on the list because of COVID.
I think we have totally seen our way through this and we’re past the pandemic, and that’s why we are progressing forward and moving forward with so many of the different projects – wastewater treatment, sewer lines, water lines, all of that.
Q: Do you feel that you are a better council member now than you were when you first took office? Why?
A: I was given very excellent advice after my oath, and that was, “Linda, it’s going to take you a good 12 months to know how everything operates.” And that was 100% true.
I feel more secure in knowing who does what and who do I go to for answers.
You learn a lot in that seat on the dais. You don’t realize all the mechanics of working through a city. It’s a huge operation, with many departments.
Q: What is one thing you learned during your first term that you weren’t expecting?
A: That’s when COVID hit.
I think trying to keep people calm during that pandemic and trying to make the best decisions that we could under all the circumstances of the unknown. That was very difficult.
Of course, there was the big issue of closing some businesses and the mask wearing and all of that. I think every town and every city had those kinds of concerns.
But you have to think about the whole. You just can’t think about me – what my thoughts are. What’s best for the city?
Again, I think we’ve moved past this now.
Q: What skills do you have that make you an effective council member?
A: I have worked with people all my life, whether it’s through my paid employment. I have done tons of volunteer work. And you just learn how to work with people and listen to people and try to figure out how you all can – building those relationships, I think, is important. That’s something I’ve done all my life.
I think I’m a listener. I actually don’t talk much, but I listen.
I know there’s always two sides to every issue, and I try to come to a point of a decision after researching things out or asking questions.
Q: Some of the other candidates have said they think the city needs to be more transparent, especially when it comes to financial issues. Do you feel the city is sufficiently transparent? And if not, where could it improve?
A: I think we are much better at transparency than we have had in the past.
Everything is open to the public. Meetings are open, the finance meetings. We have a financial report. We have a new finance director, who I think is doing a great job of explaining things – not only to us, but to the public.
I don’t understand the negativity part of thinking that we’re not transparent.
Again, I think reasonable people understand that we’re not up there taking money. Look at that independent audit that we had yesterday (Aug. 9). That’s why we have that.
People say, “Well, why are we spending money on someone in Oklahoma City?” Well, they don’t understand the process. Yes, we have our own accountants and our own audit, but you have to have that independence to show people – and working with a company who is knowledgeable with municipality financing – to show the public.
We have a very good rating right now. …
I don’t know the answer to that, because they can come up here and get a financial report. So, I don’t know what the concern is.
Q: A council member’s term is three years. If you are elected, what would you like to see the council accomplish over the next three years?
A: Well, definitely continue with the FISTA.
The infrastructure is – if we could get more employees. We are 100 employees short still.
I know people complain about cleanup and neighborhood pride and infrastructure, but if we don’t have employees – we’re doing the best we can.
We’re doing the very best we can because we don’t want to cut services in any way. I say kudos to our department heads because they’re making things work under very difficult challenges with just simply not having the people to work.