Joe Williams
In the past 19 years, Joe Edward Williams has used his seat on the Bixby City Council to become a highly regarded leader for intergovernmental cooperation and economic development in the greater metropolitan area. At the same time, he oversaw numerous developments and facilities to improve the quality of life for citizens of Bixby. Joe has been a member of the Bixby City Council since 1989. Fellow council members elected him Mayor for terms running from 1989 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 2006.
He has also served on the boards of the Indian Nations Council of Government and the Regional Metropolitan Utility Authority. The Bixby Chamber of Commerce recognized him four times - in 1994, 1997, and 2000 with the Progressive Leadership in City Government award; and in 2004 with the Chairman’s Award. Youth Services of Tulsa honored him for his services to Project Safe Place.
In the early 1990’s Joe was active in the effort to establish a toll-free calling zone in the Tulsa metropolitan area. He shepherded initiatives through the courts and at the state Corporation Commission which eventually resulted in commission action to establish 35-mile radius calling zones for Lawton, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa. Throughout this time he also tended to a growing electrical contracting business and to the other passions in his life – his horses and his family.
During his first term on the city council, he helped to organize the Tri-Cities Economic Development Association. His work on this initiative led others to seek his counsel and support for other regional projects. He was appointed by the Tulsa County Commissioners to co-chair the committee to determine how to fund a new jail. And he is credited with being the person who persuaded all area mayors to be unanimous in their public support for the sales tax proposal to fund the new facility. Likewise, he was instrumental in the development and passage of the Tulsa County Vision 2025 program and in coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers for the Fry Creek Project to reduce severe flooding in south Tulsa County. He also marshaled local, county, and state forces for numerous road projects which benefit all of south Tulsa and surrounding counties.
As stated in one support letter, “there is a collegiality among local government leaders that transcends jurisdictional lines, the size, and population of a community, or individual partisan views. Mayor Williams understands that being an advocate for Bixby did not preclude his interest in other municipalities in the region, and he advocated for partnerships that could leverage greater benefit for all.”