• Oklahoma County Commissioners extended the deadline for a land swap deal with Crooked Oak Schools related to the new jail site.
• Commissioners remain divided on the land swap, with some citing cost concerns and others seeing it as a revenue opportunity.
• The school district expressed frustration with the process, suggesting the land swap was a tactic to quell opposition to the jail site.

Oklahoma County commissioners have agreed to extend the deadline on closing a deal for a potential land swap with Crooked Oak Public Schools in support of the contentious new county jail site at 1901 E. Grand Blvd. But all parties made clear they were not budging from their previous positions on the agreement, meaning the deal might still not go through even after the new deadline.

The intention was to trade part of the acreage at 1100 S. Eastern Ave. with the school so it can move its athletic facilities farther from the new jail site, which otherwise would have been within 1,250 feet of each other. But District 3 Commissioner Myles Davidson’s land swap proposal effort has been essentially on life support in recent weeks, with District 2 Commissioner Brian Maughan and newly elected District 1 Commissioner Jason Lowe voicing their objections.

The county faced a deadline of May 2 to close the deal and sign real estate documents related to the $6 million purchase of the 33 acres from Allen Contracting Co. — or risk a loss of $250,000 in earnest money. In the county’s meeting as the Public Buildings Authority on May 2, Davidson requested that the closing period for the transaction be extended for two weeks.

Questions linger over OK County land deal for jail. Will Crooked Oak schools trade?

The request was approved, moving the deadline to May 16. But even though the commissioners were unanimous in extending the deadline, they have all said their positions on the potential land swap itself remain unchanged.

“This two-week extension will allow the commissioner (Lowe) the opportunity to meet with Crooked Oak, but it also will allow him to look at other options,” said Lowe’s Chief Deputy John A. Pettis Jr., filling in for the commissioner at the meeting. “This is in his district, and he wants to explore other options.”

“But one thing that I want everybody to understand is that Commissioner Lowe is a person who will do his own research, and this simply was not enough time to do his own research,” Pettis added. “This simply is not the best deal right now for our county, when we don’t know how we’re going to pay for the jail.”

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New site for Oklahoma County jail a longtime point of contention

The proposed new jail site near the boundary between Oklahoma City and Del City has been the epicenter for heated and ongoing disputes about where and how to build a new facility to replace the county’s detention center. County commissioners had considered a land swap numerous times since February 2024 to appease the school district in its opposition to the jail site while the legality of the site was entangled in court.

But when Attorney General Gentner Drummond sided with the county in its case against Oklahoma City after the Oklahoma City Council voted not to rezone the property for jail construction, the school district’s opposition became moot.

The current jail has long been troubled, plagued in past decades with issues of overcrowding, worsening conditions, civil rights violations and numerous detainee deaths. A yearlong investigation by The Oklahoman found the facility to still be one of the deadliest jails in the United States.

In 2022, Oklahoma County residents voted to approve a $260 million bond to fund construction of a new jail, but pricing estimates last year revealed the facility could actually cost nearly three times as much to build.

Most recently, Lowe had attempted to rescind the contract for the proposed land swap property on April 30. Davidson was absent due to being out of town, but Lowe and Maughan both cited issues of cost as their chief reasons for opposing the land swap. But following strong opposition from Crooked Oak district residents, the matter was delayed.

Bradley Richards, superintendent of Crooked Oak Public Schools, argued the entire process of negotiating with county officials “has been fraught with questionable actions and a lack of good faith,” according to a letter he sent to commissioners.

Feeling like he’s been “duped,” Richards suggested that the land swap deal might have been presented merely as a manipulative way of cooling down public opposition to the Grand Boulevard jail site. Richards also described Lowe’s current stance as hypocritical, pointing out the former state representative’s prior intervention in opposing the construction of the jail near minority students.

He also said that Lowe’s perspective that the county is losing $6 million is “a disingenuous representation of the situation,” arguing that the county could potentially turn a profit in two locations.

“Consider the scenario: The county holds a 20-acre parcel adjacent to the jail, ideally situated for attorney offices, bail bondsmen and related services. Simultaneously, the county owns over 12 acres of real estate on Eastern Avenue, directly across from the burgeoning OKANA water park,” Richards said at the meeting. “If, with these assets, the commissioners cannot devise a viable plan to generate revenue, a serious question arises regarding their competence in managing these crucial bond funds.”

But Pettis said that Lowe holds serious reservations about the land swap agreement, arguing that the proposed purchase had been previously agreed to by an interim District 1 representative merely a week before Lowe was sworn into county office. Pettis also said Lowe understands the potential of the Crooked Oak students and the reality of their experiences, but still does not feel like the deal was best for Oklahoma County overall.

Change of plans: Oklahoma County moves the new jail and care center (a bit) west

Commissioner Maughan, for his part, has said he is uncertain if the school district has sufficient funds to even build the stadium that its leaders have proposed. He’s also said that the $6 million land purchase would add to the county’s debt and argued that commissioners no longer needed to appease school officials because the county had now surmounted legal obstacles to build the jail near the school.

Maughan said he voted to extend the deadline because “it was a legal technicality” after Lowe had previously made a verbal commitment to postpone the closing of the agreement.

“We needed to do this in order to not be in a breach of contract,” Maughan told The Oklahoman. “The closing was otherwise scheduled for (May 2), so I don’t want to put the county in harm’s way. But I’ve been consistently against this. I was against the (Public Buildings Authority) bonds in the first place, regardless what they were going to be spent for, and then I was against acquiring additional property that’s not required in order to construct the jail.” 

Commissioner Davidson asked his fellow trustees to approach the next two weeks with an open mind, adding that he would not support Pettis and Lowe’s intention to rescind the contract in two weeks. He also said that Superintendent Richards had a good point about the Public Building Authority bond’s purpose in generating revenue. 

“This will develop us an opportunity for the county to develop an optional revenue for not only next to the future site of the jail, but also with parking garages,” Davidson said. “We’ve already talked with members of FAM (First Americans Museum) and OKANA, (and) they need more space for their parking and their large events. This will allow us to put a low investment for a high-end return.”