A LOOK BACK
City Manager Jim Couch’s retirement coincides with beginning of new era
The announcement by Jim Couch on Monday that he is set to retire doesn't just mark the end of a record stint as city manager, nor is it notable only for how it was a time of growth and innovation for Oklahoma City.
One can even note Couch's 18-year run is incredible considering City Hall has had relatively few scandals and when they did pop up, they were handled with transparency and without games.
But just drive the town this week, take note of all that you love, and understand, much of it occurred under Couch's watch.
One might forget that City Hall, downtown, and the Oklahoma City as a whole was very different when then Mayor Kirk Humphreys and the city council promoted Jim Couch to city manager in 2000.
The 1990s were a turbulent time at City Hall as it lurched forward from an era of malaise to a nonstop campaign of reinvention that has yet to conclude. Consider that in the decade before Couch’s promotion, the office was held by Paula Hern, then Don Bown and finally Glenn Deck.
MAPS, which has gone on to become a popular tool with voters for tackling big projects and civic challenges, was anything but loved in 1998. Project after project was derided as being over budget and behind schedule with nothing to see five years after the first MAPS initiative was narrowly approved.
Where Bown had been a master at behind-the-scenes politics, Deck was an auditor at heart. He recognized the need to reorganize and add some new point people to get MAPS on track.
Couch, then the water utilities director, was asked to take over the MAPS office. Teamed up with a new mayor, Humphreys (who had succeeded Ron Norick), Couch oversaw the largely successful completion of each project and then the two engineered the passage of MAPS for Kids.
Couch groomed a bench of department heads and assistant managers who maintained a largely scandal-free City Hall (no easy feat with 4,800 employees), oversaw one big endeavor after another, and shaped a new urban core.
To understand the transformation under Couch’s tenure, consider that the Skirvin was still boarded up and dilapidated, the Oklahoma River was still an ugly ditch and the fate of the Civic Center Music Hall was still a question as some arts patrons sought to build a replacement in the suburbs.
The boathouse district was a distant dream consisting only of a vague idea to build a log cabin to house some canoes. Streetscapes were still being debated by some council members and the idea of walkability and
importance of sidewalks and trails were still deemed a frivolity.
I covered Couch throughout his time at City Hall. Like many engineers, he advocated a clean, orderly process that was intended to be followed to its logical conclusion. When those plans didn't work out— notably the plans to replace Interstate 40 south of downtown with an elevated bypass— he was sometimes stubborn when challenged to change course.
But for a guy who has been challenged for being too much of an engineer (including by myself), the truth is Couch oversaw quite the change in how the city approaches
infrastructure and quality of life.
Schools were falling apart. City staff could have easily resisted giving up a portion of the city’s sales taxes— the lifeblood of its operations— to rebuild those schools. After all, why in the world would the city sacrifice its tax base for another governmental entity?
Risks were taken to bring retail and entertainment to Bricktown. The city partnered with federal programs to revive struggling urban core neighborhoods. Couch’s staff has continuously scrambled to keep up with changing times, whether it involves the demand for bike lanes, sidewalks and more trees, or trying to work with California entrepreneurs all too eager to land scooters throughout the city without getting all the rules and details set.
In an economy long subject to the turbulent ups and downs of the energy industry, Couch and his crew teamed up with the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber and established the Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City to diversify the job base.
Those efforts, dating back years, can be seen paying off more and more with announcements of high tech and aviation jobs. The track record at City Hall of doing what was promised or owning up to bad choices won Couch and his staff the faith of voters who approved economic development funds to woo such employers.
And this last year, voters approved raising the sales tax to hire more police and fire at the same time they were agreeing to extending the MAPS tax and
property tax to pursue an aggressive reconstruction of infrastructure citywide.
With the election of a new mayor, David Holt, and the inevitable turnover of at least three city council seats, this next year is as good a time as any for a new city CEO. Construction of the convention center, an Omni hotel, Scissortail Park, proper staffing for public safety and massive rebuilding of streets and infrastructure leaves Couch’s successor as good a start as one can imagine.
The revival of the urban core is firmly set. Now, with a new mayor and soon, a new city manager, new journeys await our city. Couch, inevitably, won’t be too far from the action and don’t be surprised if he remains a contributor to the Oklahoma City renaissance he guided.