Oklahoma County Plans To Build Mental Healthcare Center Amid Legal Dispute With OKC

Oklahoma County is pressing ahead with plans for a new behavioral healthcare center despite an ongoing legal battle with Oklahoma City.

On Monday. the Board of Oklahoma County Commissioners voted to secure $38,960,380 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to construct the mental healthcare center.

“We placed the money for the behavioral healthcare center for Oklahoma County into a separate account so we can build that,” said Myles Davidson, Oklahoma County District 3 Commissioner.

Davidson says the contract needed to be locked down by December 31 for a facility that will be part of the new county jail complex at 1901 E Grand Blvd. near Del City.

“The importance of having a behavioral healthcare center close or on-site and having the ability to triage individuals as they come into our system and move them to a proper place,” Davidson said.

However, some people question moving forward on a project the county may not be legally able to complete. Earlier this year, the Oklahoma City Council denied a zoning permit for the proposed 60-acre site of the new jail. The county sued. Mark Faulk with the People’s Council for Justice Reform was one of several people who stood up in protest.

“We are in the middle of a lawsuit,” Faulk said. “If you lose that lawsuit, not only will the door to that behavioral center never open but you also could put us the taxpayers on the hook to repay that money to the federal government for misuse.”

Davidson says he's convinced that won't happen.

“I'm very confident that we will win superior sovereignty in a court case, or it will be declared by the attorney general that we have superior sovereignty,” Davidson said.

Meaning the county could disregard the city’s zoning and build it anyway. Davidson says the county is negotiating a construction contract with Flintco and hopes to have that signed by the end of the year.

The case between the city and county is still pending. A pretrial conference is scheduled for January 23.