Kris Wyatt, Bristow Mayor

09/01/2026

This was the first big challenge I faced. Unless you or someone you know lived at Cape Drive, you probably had no idea…

The Bristow Housing Authority is not “part of the City” but the Mayor and Council appoint the board of directors. In June of 2023, I got a call from the HUD regional office. The Bristow Housing Authority manages the 157 units at Cape Drive. Without going into specific details and not naming names, there was inadequate maintenance, too many of the units not in service and many people on the waiting list. There were security issues and some residents were involved in illegal activities. The Board did not have the right mix of members and they were uninformed to make decisions. There was turnover by retirement of a key person. In hindsight, that person had knowledge and experience especially related to financial management and reporting. Preparing and submitting those reports dropped through the cracks. After many written warnings at STATE AND FEDERAL levels and an external audit, the BHA was on the verge of being put into receivership. Several years of financial reports were long past due. Basic accounting, bookkeeping, annual budgeting, record keeping were in complete disarray. The Board repeatedly asked management for information. Time and again, information and reports were promised but never delivered. The entire operation was stagnant and there was no leadership or direction.

I reviewed information provided by HUD and hosted a meeting of federal, state and local leaders to understand details of the problems, the consequences of no action and find workable solutions.

My office put together an action plan which was approved by HUD. Ultimately many of the long time board members retired. They were replaced by people with financial, operational and leadership knowledge, skills and experience. With a new board in place and focused on results, committed to righting the ship and determined to save the homes of Cape Drive residents. Management retired. The board evaluated its options for hiring a proactive team with experience in managing housing authorities. The board contracted with the Shawnee Housing Authority. They manage Shawnee and also several small town housing authorities. It was the right decision. We took quick action, and after 3 years of hard work, things are on the right track. BHA is now operated by a professional team, employees are trained and there is accountability. Most importantly we have saved the homes of the residents.

When I visited Cape Drive while campaigning, one of the residents who was on their Board asked me to please come to their board meeting. She said that it had been many years since any Mayor had attended a Housing Authority meeting. During my first 2 years, I attended frequently. I am not on the Board, but Ward 1 Councilman Frank Groom is and I received regular updates, both from him and from the Housing Authority.

[email protected]

08/30/2026

There’s a saying that “the good old days” weren’t always as good as we remember. Often, they only seem that way because we didn’t yet know what problems were waiting around the corner. In government, there’s another truth: the bills always come due. When I announced my intention to run for Mayor back in December of 2022, I made it clear that I was running because I believed our City needed to change the course of its leadership.

I wasn’t running because I believed that everything that had been done before was wrong. And I certainly don’t believe that every problem we have today can be attributed to one person, one administration, or even the last few administrations. 

I want to believe that every Mayor who came before me did the best they could with the information, resources, and circumstances they had at the time. Sometimes, maintaining the status quo - or even doing nothing - may have genuinely seemed like the best decision available at the moment.

But circumstances change. Information changes. And eventually, decisions that were deferred have to be made.

For years, Bristow functioned. Budget were balanced. Water flowed. Streets stayed open. Employees came to work. From the outside, things appeared to be working just fine. But “functioning” is not the same thing as “being healthy,”

Deferred maintenance doesn’t repair itself. Outdated policies don’t become compliant simply because they’ve been in place for a long time. Temporary fixes don’t become permanent solutions just because we get used to them.

And problems that aren’t addressed don’t disappear. They wait.

Over the past 3+ years, our administration and City Council have taken a much deeper look at how Bristow operates. We’ve looked at our finances, our personnel practices, our infrastructure, our policies, our records, and the way we make decisions.

What we’ve learned is that many of the challenges facing Bristow today did not suddenly appear. Some of them have been developing for years. Some for decades. We are simply the leadership team that reached the point where many of these decisions could no longer be postponed.

And that is an important distinction. This isn’t about looking backward in assigning blame. It’s about looking honestly at where we are today. Because if we refuse to acknowledge how we got here, we will have very little chance of making sure that we don’t end up in the same place again. 

 Over the next several weeks, I want to share some of what we’ve discovered, and, more importantly, what we’ve been doing about it. 

We’ll talk about the City’s budget process and why we change the way we develop our annual budget.

We’ll talk about personnel practices, accountability, employee, evaluations, job, descriptions, and the work we’ve done to bring our policies into compliance with current laws and standards.

We’ll talk about infrastructure, our water system, waste, water system, roads, drain drainage, and the consequences of years of deferred investment.

We’ll talk about planning, including our GIS system in our new Capital Improvement Plan, because responsible government isn’t just about solving today’s emergency. It’s about knowing what’s coming next. 

Some of this work is visible. Much of it isn’t. There’s no ribbon cutting for a completely rewritten employee handbook. There isn’t much excitement surrounding a new system from mapping underground waterlines. A five-year Capital Improvement Plan isn’t something most people will notice driving down Main Street.

But those things matter. They are the foundation of a city that is better organized, better informed, and better prepared to make responsible decisions. And sometimes responsible leadership means making a decision today that is harder than doing nothing but much easier for the people who come after us. I’ve told our staff that my position is temporary. And whether that means nine more months or four more years is ultimately up to the voters. But regardless of when my time as Mayor ends, my responsibility is the same: leave this city in better condition than I found it.

I don’t want the next Mayor to inherit the same problems I inherited. I want that person to inherit better records, better policies, better financial planning, better infrastructure information, and a City that is better prepared to face whatever comes next.

My goal isn’t simply to serve Mayor. My goal is to make this job easier for the person who serves after me. That, to me, is what stewardship looks like. And that’s why, over the next several weeks, I’m going to tell you some of the changes we’ve made - and why they were necessary. 

[email protected]

08/25/2026

Hello! Two weeks ago, I paused this page while I took some time to consider how I want to manage it going forward.

I started this page back when I was on the City Council as a way to keep residents informed about what was happening within our City. Over time, however, it has increasingly become a landing place for people to vent or air grievances. There are already sufficient public forums for that purpose, and I don't believe this page needs to be one of them.

Going forward, I will not be allowing comments on posts on this page.

I do not monitor this page or Facebook Messenger consistently during working hours, and I don't believe social media is the appropriate place to conduct City business or address individual questions or concerns. I also don't want someone to ask a legitimate question here and have it go unanswered simply because I didn't see it.

If you have a question, concern. or City-related business you'd like to discuss, please contact City Hall directly. That ensures your question gets to the right person and receives that attentions it deserves.

Thank you for understanding. I appreciate everyone's interest in, and support of, our community.

08/11/2026

I want to give more detailed background on the “trash processing fee,” because I understand why the increase has raised questions.

Historically, Green Environmental Services paid the City to handle the billing for its trash service. Beginning in FY 25–26, GES turned the entire process over to the City - including daily account adjustments, record keeping, reconciliation and accounting. At that time, GES was reimbursing the City $2,500 a month for this work.

With approximately 1,750 accounts, that worked out to about $1.43 per account. The original processing fee was set at $2.94, with $1.43 intended to replace the reimbursement the City had previously received and the additional $1.51 intended to cover the extra workload and training we anticipated.

What we have learned since then is that we significantly underestimated the workload. Keeping up with the trash accounts, adjustments and reconciliation takes several hours of staff time every week - far more than we originally anticipated.

So, we have had to take another look at what it actually costs the City to provide this service. The purpose of the processing fee is to recover that administrative cost, not to generate additional revenue for the City.

And I think it’s important to say this plainly: we should have had a better understanding of the actual cost when the original fee was established. We didn’t. We made an estimate based on what we knew at the time, and that estimate proved to be too low.

I know that doesn’t make an increase any easier to swallow. I understand that every additional charge on a utility bill matters. But our residents deserve to know how we arrived at these numbers, and I believe it’s important for me to be straightforward when we get something wrong.

08/09/2026

UPDATE: I don’t receive notification on Facebook, and I was with family on Sunday so was an unaware of the number of comments; I’ll answer some now. Others I will address after I get to the office and have access to some older info.

In no particular order:

• The 3% annual increase (every July 1) went into effect in 2018. I don’t know the genesis of that. It continues until we end it. (Not the Mayor - this is a Council decision.)
• I haven’t looked into all of the past water rates, but it is my understanding that there was a 4-6 year period when there were no employee salary increases or utility increases, which would likely stretch a municipal budget and limit revenue for infrastructure maintenance
•Yes, coming to City Council meetings would help. Or talk to your Council representative.
•Cities don’t “operate in the red.” By law, we are required to work within an approved budget.
•We are audited annually. By law. FY 24-25 audit recommendation was to increase utility rates by 20%. Obviously, we didn’t do that, but we did cut departmental budgets by 20% for 25-26.
• We are in the process of completing a water model study, which will determine what it costs to deliver water. This had not been done, probably ever.
• Currently, the City is working to address the many “deferred maintenance” issues: storm drains, sewer lines, street repairs, building maintenance, City vehicles. Every one of these projects require capital investments, and none of them are less expensive now than they would have been previously. (The water tower maintenance and the WWTP are examples of the types of things that could not have been delayed any longer. Because those weren’t budgeted in, they required increased/additional fees.)

As a rule, I am not on social media during the day. I may check a few specific things, but don’t monitor comments. (And I cannot disable comments on this page, unless I do it permanently.) I created this page back in my City Council days as a way of sharing information, not to conduct business. I would much prefer a voice-to-voice conversation.

I will gather - for comparison - the increase in our essential costs: insurance, trash service, and the like, so the public can get a better idea of what it looks like from our side.

I pledged transparency. I keep no secrets. I have apologized - sincerely - for the lack of advance notice on the recent utility increases.

I want to address the concerns about the recent increase in utility costs, particularly the fact that residents weren’t aware of the change before receiving their bills. I understand why people are upset. If I received a higher-than-expected utility bill without knowing the increase was coming, I’d be frustrated, too. You deserve reasonable notice when the cost of something as essential as water and sewer service changes.

Historically, utility rate changes have not been something the City separately announced months in advance, so there wasn’t an established practice of doing that. But I believe we should have recognized that this was something our residents needed to know about ahead of time. I take responsibility for the fact that we didn’t communicate this increase well enough, and I’m sorry.

We can’t change how this particular increase was communicated, but we can learn from it. Going forward, significant changes that affect residents’ costs will be communicated clearly and in advance - not simply because we may be required to do so, but because it’s the right thing to do. I appreciate those who have brought their concerns to us. You may not always agree with the decisions the City Council makes, and that’s okay - but you should always expect us to communicate those decisions honestly, clearly and respectfully.

08/01/2026

Next City Council, Municipal and Hospital Authority meetings are Monday, August 3, at 7pm.

07/20/2026

Thanks to Post Commander Thompson for helping to organize this. 💜💜

07/18/2026

Next City Council, Municipal and Hospital Authority meetings are Monday, July 20, at 7pm.

07/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1F2144weNh/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I am seriously considering applying for this grant. I read the suggestions and MY picks would be: 1) paint the backsides of the businesses along Main Street, creating some uniformity and “intention”, and 2) the amphitheater. I am totally open to other suggestions, as this is a community project. Which requires community participation. Anyone who seriously want to help, chime in. Whatever project is decided on needs measurements, and a paint color. The deadline is July 15, which doesn’t give us a great deal of time, but I think we can do it! Comment here, or email me at [email protected]

Paint Oklahoma Beautiful provides recycled outdoor latex paint and supply stipends to Oklahoma communities for painting historic and community structures. Applications open June 11, 2026.