We didn’t upgrade any infrastructure, we didn’t weatherize anything, we didn’t put caps on natural gas,” [VOICE leader Singer] said. “This could all happen again tomorrow. [Our utility companies] left themselves very exposed to broken commodity markets and they need to share in that burden and be held accountable.”

VOICE leaders are deeply concerned that the Corporation Commission Public Utilities Division, OG&E, and other interveners have an agreement for fuel charges related to the February 2021 freeze that sticks consumers with $1 billion in fuel charges and interest payments for the next 28 years while OG&E continues to increase its dividend to shareholders.

The OKC ordinance criminalizing panhandling has reached its inevitable end: The city has to pay lawyers for a lost legal battle. “It is sad that we did not heed the work of social service agencies and other citizens groups to craft a workable solution that would have avoided this costly situation,” said Fr. Tim Luschen, president of the VOICE Education Fund.

Oklahoma City was ordered to pay the opposing attorney’s fees and expenses in a total amount of nearly $1 million in a suit brought against the City for their panhandling ordinance of 2015, an ordinance VOICE fought against.

Few answers for ratepayers Tuesday when asked why consumers, instead of shareholders, should shoulder the burden for “astronomical” electricity costs

VOICE is raising questions about how power providers planning to pass along an estimated $4.5 billion spent on fuel during Feb.’s severe winter storm.

Community organizers say many of these changes would make it nearly impossible for citizen-led initiatives petitions to be successful

As VOICE has listened and organized, we know that the need in our community is great and that there is more to be done.

Ahead of the Nov. 3 election, many believe the recent turmoil has helped prompt voters to become more engaged. “We know the city council is important. The school board is important,” said Sundra Flansburg, a [leader with] local civic engagement group VOICE. “But county government has been invisible in most cases.”

The Oklahoma City Council is considering appealing its unconstitutional anti-panhandling ordinance passed in 2015, this time at the U.S. Supreme Court. . . . Appealing it to the Supreme Court would require hiring expensive outside legal counsel to consult in the case.

VOICE clergy urge Gov. Kevin Still to designate local grocery store workers as first responders. "They are literally risking their lives to be with the public every day, ensuring that families across Oklahoma can have access to the food they need in order to survive," the Rev. Diana Davies.

Transparency, community building to be focus of Oklahoma County Sheriff's Community Advisory Board

VOICE leaders pushed for the social components to be included and is backing the MAPS 4 package.

“I think people have seen the impact that MAPS has had downtown,” Craghead said. “But they also see, in their daily lives, so many things that are still lacking.”

Candidates faced an audience at a packed First Unitarian Church on Sunday afternoon.

VOICE has advocated for the formation of a citizens advisory board for more than a year, after hearing stories from people incarcerated at the jail.

It was in a VOICE meeting about five years ago when I first felt in my soul the social and political segregation we live in here in Oklahoma.

Among some of the first issues VOICE sought to address were concerns about policies and experiences of families in our public schools.

Working with VOICE, we learned that one-quarter of the children who failed the third-grade reading test were English language learners.

We heard from parents of a third grader who had to be prescribed anti-anxiety medication because of the pressure to pass the third grade reading test.