Cornett’s departure will leave large void
ABOUT a year from now, Oklahoma City voters will choose a new mayor to replace Mick Cornett. Whoever that person is will have large shoes to fill, to put it mildly.
April 2018 will end 14 years in the mayor’s office for Cornett, who announced Wednesday that he won’t seek re-election. No Oklahoma City mayor has served longer, and few if any have done a better job representing the city and its citizens.
Cornett entered city government in 2001, when he won election to the Ward 1 council seat. He successfully ran for mayor the first time in 2004, after Kirk Humphreys resigned to seek a U.S. Senate seat, and he has been there ever since.
As a former television broadcaster, Cornett proved to be the ideal spokesman — glib, polished, always upbeat — for the city as it grew and prospered following taxpayer investments in the original MAPS initiative. That was followed by MAPS for Kids, which he helped implement, and in 2009 by MAPS 3. Cornett led the MAPS 3 campaign that resulted in passage of a group of projects including trails, sidewalks, a streetcar system and a new convention center.
Cornett played a central role in convincing NBA leadership that Oklahoma City had what it took to host a professional basketball franchise — first, as the home of the New Orleans Hornets for two years following Hurricane Katrina, and later as the home of the Thunder. This city has never been the same.
In 2007, after Oklahoma City was listed as one of America’s fattest cities, Cornett challenged residents to collectively lose 1 million pounds. He shed about 40 pounds himself (and has kept it off), and in early 2012 the city reached its goal. He has continued to promote healthier lifestyles while noting the toll obesity takes on Oklahomans.
Voters have clearly appreciated his work. After getting 87.6 percent of the vote — a record margin — in his first re-election bid in 2006, Cornett won with 58 percent in 2010 and then 65.7 percent in 2014.
His colleagues on the city council have appreciated his work. They have spoken of his open lines of communication and his willingness and ability to build consensus. “He sees the city as it can be, not as it is,” former Ward 8 Councilman Pat Ryan said in 2014.
His colleagues across the country showed their respect for Cornett when they elected him last summer to a one-year term as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He is the first Oklahoma City mayor so chosen.
Cornett has a busy final year ahead. The city council is preparing a list of projects to place before voters in September in a general-obligation bond election. Also to be considered is a potential follow-up to MAPS 3, whose 1-cent sales tax expires at the end of December.
Cornett, 58, said Wednesday he loves his job “as much as I ever have.” But all good things come to an end, and having Cornett in the mayor’s office has been a very good thing for Oklahoma City. We thank him for his service and wish him all the best.