OK County Jail Trust Chairman Jim Holman Sued Over Pay Raises

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Neal Center for Justice, Inc. on Monday filed a lawsuit in district court against the chairman of the Oklahoma County Jail Trust. The filing asks the court to halt pay raises for jail staff which the chairman recently approved – against the stated wish and direction of the Jail Trust.
“It is the duty of elected officials to not only recognize the violation [of the law] but to take action,” said C.J. Webber-Neal, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Neal Center for Justice, Inc.
The lawsuit alleges that Jim Holman, in his capacity as chairman of the Jail Trust, took “unlawful and unauthorized actions… in direct contradiction of a formal vote” of the Jail Trust, “resulting in the improper expenditure of public funds.”
The lawsuit requests a temporary restraining order and a motion for an expedited hearing.
“Without immediate judicial intervention, public funds will continue to be expended unlawfully, the authority of the Trust will be undermined” and “the rule of law will be compromised,” the filing reads.
Members of the Jail Trust, entrusted with oversight of the jail in light of a history of problems and legal and financial woes at the facility, had voted in January to pause all pay raises for those working at the jail.
The Jail Trust had been informed in July 2025 by former jail administrator Paul Timmons that the jail didn’t have enough money to get through the current fiscal year, which ends in June 2026. At that time, Timmons estimated a shortfall of more than $5 million.
Holman contends the pay raises in question had been approved in December, before the board voted to halt future raises. However, members of the Jail Trust noted that Holman failed to notify Trust members of the impending raises.
Jail Trust member Derrick Scobey noted that even after the Jan. 12 vote, Holman and Jail Chief of Administration Tim Kimrey had 42 days to inform the Trust of the impending raises before the payroll change form was submitted to the Oklahoma County Clerk on Feb. 23. The form reflected pay raises for 101 employees.
“During that entire period, not one communication was made to the board,” said Scobey. “The responsible and transparent course of action would have been to return to the board immediately after the vote and ask a simple question – does the pause on raises we just voted for also apply to the Detention Officer raises we had already agreed to and communicated to staff? That question was never asked. That conversation never happened.”
Three days after the payroll change form was submitted, on Feb. 26, Kimrey appeared before the Oklahoma County Budget Evaluation Team, and was asked if he remembered the Jail Trust had voted in January to postpone raises; Kimrey replied that he did not remember.
Holman contends he did nothing wrong.
“The county has a difficult time with the amount of money that’s available, I get all that, but we’re pleased with what we’re doing. We think it’s going the right way,” Holman recently told reporters.
On Tuesday, the Oklahoma County Budget Board approved $4.6 million in supplemental funding for the jail to stave off the possible layoff of about half of the jails 338 employees.
Scobey and Holman faced off at the meeting, with Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson stepping in to echo Scobey’s questions as to how the budget crisis at the jail had developed in the first place.
“There have been a number of attempts as to how we’ve arrived here, and that has never been explained in [the Budget Evaluation Team meetings].”
Johnson, who also serves as both a member of the Jail Trust and the Budget Board, voted against the supplemental funding, noting he still had questions as to how the budget shortfall had occurred.