County Commissioners approved an agreement Monday that will allow Garvin County Sheriff’s Deputies to be commissioned as Chickasaw Nation Lighthorse Police when answering calls involving Native American citizens.
The agreement will allow the two agencies to work together to provide consistent law enforcement coverage across the county and to address jurisdictional challenges that have arisen as a result of last year’s Supreme Court ruling in the McGirt case that the Creek Nation’s tribal reservation in Oklahoma was never disestablished.
In March of this year, a ruling in the case of Shaun Bosse, confirmed the same was true of the Chickasaw Nation’s tribal reservation, which includes 13 counties in south central Oklahoma, including Garvin County.
“I believe this is a good contract.” Garvin County Sheriff Jim Mullett said. “I believe this is going to benefit the county, and it’s also going to benefit Lighthorse.”
Mullett has been working with the district attorney’s civil division and Chickasaw Nation representatives for several months to hammer out the details of the agreement.
He explained to commissioners during their regular meeting on Monday the agreement is not a cross-deputation agreement, but rather allows Lighthorse to commission Garvin County officers to act as Lighthorse officers in certain situations. Mullett said the contract will allow them to better serve Native American citizens in the county.
Kristina Bell, civil assistant district attorney for the county, said the commissioning agreement fits the needs of the county and Lighthorse better than a cross-deputation would.
“There’s actually a state statute already in place that gives jurisdiction to the tribes to enforce state laws if it’s on tribal property. In reviewing that statute it didn’t really become necessary to do a cross-deputation. A lot of the concerns here are the McGirt decision relies so heavily upon the citizenship of the defendant and/or the suspect or victim of a particular crime, which isn’t always known when a call comes in,” Bell said. “So part of this is just making sure there are prompt response times to make sure citizens of Garvin County, as well as the tribe, are all being taken care of. And making sure everything holds up in court if there does end up being some sort of criminal prosecution. The point of this is to get Garvin county deputies commissioned so when they show up on scene there’s not any question of jurisdiction.”
The final contract addresses several issues regarding liability that Mullett originally had concerns about when county officers are acting on behalf of Lighthorse. It also requires the Sheriff’s Office to comply with Lighthorse standards, procedures and training, which Mullett said are already in line with Sheriff’s Office standards.
Lighthorse officers will also be available to assist the Sheriff’s office when requested.
“Lighthorse’s resources will be available to help Garvin County in any situation that they need. We’ll be here to help,” Jason Williams, community partnerships director for Chickasaw Nation, told commissioners during Monday’s meeting.
“I will say the tribe has been excellent in working with us and addressing our concerns,” Bell said. “We had, really a pretty lengthy meeting, where we could talk about a lot of our questions, and (tribal attorney Matthew Morgan) was very patient and very helpful with that.”
“I do agree with the Sheriff that this is a good contract,” Bell said. “I think it’s a really good starting point to get this partnership in place.”
During the public comments portion of Monday’s meeting, the board of commissioners also heard a proposal from Tom Whitaker, manager for Garvin County Rural Water District 6.
Whitaker requested the board consider granting up to $1.7 million of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to the rural water district for infrastructure improvements. The money would be used to lay 12 miles of pipe, secure water rights for three more wells, and purchase smart meters for the district.
Whitaker said the project will serve 1500 customers in Garvin County and will allow the rural water district to become independent of the City of Wynnewood’s water supply, a move that is being required by DEQ.
Since 2003, the rural water district has grown from a customer base of 800 to the 1500 it currently serves.
“This is going to give us enough water that we can take care of all the people that we serve, and add and grow,” Whitaker said. “We’re growing at pace that I didn’t anticipate, and I don’t think anyone else anticipated it, but it’s happening.”
Whitaker told commissioners the rural water district has spent $750,000 of its own funds, and another $450,000 granted by the Chickasaw Nation, in preparing and purchasing materials for the project.
Garvin County is allocated to potentially receive $5.3 million as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. Half of those funds were disbursed to the county in May. Though federal guidelines on how the money can be used appear to have a broad scope, there are restrictions on the types of projects that can be funded. County officials have been researching and soliciting legal guidance as to how those funds can be used.
According to the U.S. Department of Treasury documents allowable uses do include investing in water and sewer infrastructure, making necessary investments to improve access to clean drinking water and supporting vital wastewater and storm water infrastructure.