At the end of this month, the Oklahoma County Social Services Department will be disbanding, according to its director, Christi Jernigan-Marshall.
Located on the third floor of the Juvenile Justice Center, the county’s Social Services Department has historically housed the Oklahoma County Pharmacy, Homeless Services and the Gatekeeper Program for the elderly. Following Oct. 31, these programs will either stop being in service completely or look much different. Jernigan-Marshall said the department’s overarching structure will no longer exist.
She cited a bill from the last legislative session for the department’s closure. Senate Bill 1931 repeals laws “relating to the care of indigent persons by the county and county commissioners.”
Currently serving as District 1 Commissioner, Chief Deputy Joe Blough said there are 14 full-time employees and four part-time employees that will be affected by the closure.
“The exact number of employees who will no longer be employed with the county may be up to eight,” he said in an email statement. “That being said, if there are opportunities in other areas of the county, and their skill set fits, they would be able to apply for those positions.”
The annual budget allocated to the department was roughly $2.2 million. Jernigan-Marshall said it’s not only county employees who will suffer. She said her staff are long-tenured and have developed important relationships with the people they serve.
“I think that hospitals are going to feel it. Like I said, our numbers aren't huge, but with our indigent pharmacy, that is the hardest population to serve. People who are in the worst condition are not going to be able to be consistent with their medication, so they'll end up back in emergency care and hospitals,” Jernigan-Marshall said.
Policy change pushed out of Cleveland County
SB 1931 flew under the radar as it sailed through the legislature. A Cleveland County press release published about the topic on Apr. 30 called it, “a significant legislative milestone.” In the release, District 2 Cleveland County Commissioner Jacob McHughes expresses appreciation to Sen. Chris Kidd, R-Waurika, and Rep. Josh Cantrell, R-Kingston, who carried this legislation, and Gov. Kevin Stitt, who signed the bill into law on April 26.
"This legislation shields counties from shouldering the burden of providing services better suited to nonprofits and charitable organizations," Commissioner McHughes said in the release. The laws the bill repeals were first enacted in 1910.
“This would have been a nightmare for counties in today’s world with open borders and the influx of migrants into the U.S.,” he said. “I don’t want us in the homeless or the migrant business as a county government. I have a heart toward those people, but there are other nets that can catch them. We don’t even have money for roads and bridges. Constituents have spoken clearly to me that they want core services and not county government building shelters.”
The bill received a unanimous Senate vote and 80 ‘yes’ votes from the House. SB 1931 is set to take effect at the start of November.
“The Cleveland County Continuum’s annual point-in-time count of homelessness reported 240 homeless people this year, an increase for the third year in a row. With the new law’s codification, it is no longer Cleveland County’s responsibility to address that rise,” staff writer Andrea Hancock for The Norman Transcript wrote at the end of a May 28 article about Commissioner McHughes’ efforts.
Ripple effects
Jernigan-Marshall said the bill fails to recognize how much a population’s needs can vary.
“Different counties have different priorities and needs,” she said.
Smaller counties might not need a department to provide social services, but Oklahoma County did, Jernigan-Marshall said.
She and standing Commissioner Blough said when they learned about SB 1931, they tried to keep the county’s social services department open.
“When we found out about this effort, we drafted suggested amendments to the social services statutes that would have made social service programs discretionary in counties over 600,000 in population,” Blough wrote in an email statement. “Unfortunately, these suggestions were not acted upon.”
Blough said his office will try to garner support again in the upcoming session.
Tulsa County Social Services Outreach Specialist Brandon DeLozier said over the phone he had never heard of SB 1931, and to his knowledge, Tulsa County’s Department will continue its daily operations.
“If you're in a small population area, I suppose that area’s faith-based organizations can absorb some need,” DeLozier said, "but faith-based orgs are already strained and have been since COVID.”
Oklahoma County officials said they were advised that the office had to be disbanded by their legal counsel, Oklahoma County’s District Attorney Vicki Behnna’s office. A spokesperson for Behenna said she had no statement on the bill.
"The legislature drafted the bill, it passed and was signed by the governor. So it now becomes law. I would point you to the county officials who are dealing with the transition in services and non-profits who will likely absorb providing those services,” spokesperson Brook Arbeitman said.
With authorizing statutes no longer in place, Jernigan-Marshall said the job she has worked for the last 34 years will no longer exist.
“It’s been a difficult situation for all of us here who have spent many years helping people through this department,” she wrote in an email to the department’s partners. “We have exceptional staff, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their years of dedication.”
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.