Couch looks toward retirement
People say Jim Couch is smiling more since announcing his retirement.
Couch says there is something to that.
“I’m sleeping better,” Oklahoma City’s longtime city manager said Monday.
Couch retires Wednesday after 31 years with the city, the last 18 as its top administrator.
When he announced plans to retire, Couch said the job’s stresses came from “all over the place” — from dealing with corporate leaders to labor issues, development, budgets and public safety.
“When he announced his retirement ... it’s the first time I’ve seen him smile in years,” former Mayor Ron Norick said at a reception last month. “Color came back into his face.”
Couch, 62, is the longest-serving city manager in Oklahoma City history.
The weight of the years and a sense of relief were evident in the photograph of Couch taken Dec. 14, riding the Oklahoma City Streetcar on opening day.
The hair is gray. Lines radiate from the corners of his eyes.
The smile, though, was for the ages.
Holiday travel
Couch was determined the streetcar would go into service in time for the holidays.
The date was “strategic,” he said, intended to be free downtown for shopping, dining and entertainment, for ice skating, for Thunder basketball and New Year’s Eve festivities after two years of disruptions for streetcar system construction.
Couch had several conversations and meetings with state Transportation Secretary Mike Patterson who, he said, “could not have been more helpful.”
The letter certifying conditional compliance with safety standards arrived hours before service began.
Couch’s negotiating skills were a theme at last month’s retirement reception attended by three former mayors.
Norick recalled how he and Couch attended the first meeting on Sardis Lake water.
Negotiations over managing southeastern Oklahoma water resources eventually led to the historic 2016 agreement
guaranteeing tribes a management role and Oklahoma City a share of Kiamichi Basin water, enough to meet needs deep into this century.
“It’s going to provide for our kids, our grandkids, our great-grandkids,” Norick said.
Other big deals
Couch negotiated revival of the historic Skirvin Hilton Hotel and joked he could have gotten it for $500,000 less if Mayor Kirk Humphreys hadn’t been in the room.
He negotiated deals with two NBA teams, the Hornets when they were displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and, later, the Thunder.
Former Mayor Mick Cornett said the deal with the Hornets was so good the NBA owed the city several million dollars at the end of the season.
“He has a history of making difficult things look easy,” Humphreys said.
Craig Freeman, who was Couch’s finance director, takes over as city manager at 5:01 p.m.
Wednesday.
Couch will swear him in, in a ceremony in the council chamber at City Hall.
What’s next
Couch and his wife, Cathy, will remain in Oklahoma City.
Their sons are, like their father, engineers. Couch likes to say that among himself and the two boys, there are six engineering degrees “and I only have one.”
Earning and maintaining citizens’ confidence in local government has been the foundation of the city’s 25-year renaissance, Couch said, and musn’t be taken for granted.
“It takes years to build and a single day to destroy,” he said.
And how the city leads on health and educational outcomes will have longterm ramifications, he said.
He urged city leaders to embrace criminal justice reforms, as well.
“It’s the right thing to do for our community,” he said, “and it’s hard.”