Public Officials of the Year: A Special Note from Our Publisher

Editor's Note: This article appears in Governing's Fall 2024 magazine. You can subscribe here.

The Bynum family has been helping run Tulsa for generations. When G.T. Bynum was born, his grandfather was serving as mayor — the third member of the family to hold that office. As Bynum prepares to depart City Hall in December at the end of his own two terms as mayor, he can look over a city that he’s helped reshape for the better.

Oil and gas are still central to Tulsa’s economy, but Bynum has diversified it by luring the two largest employers in the city’s history — Amazon and Greenheck, an air conditioning manufacturer. The mayor has overseen a vast expansion of the city’s parks. More than a half-billion dollars have been spent transforming the riverfront into a place to enjoy and cherish. And, in his seemingly unassuming way, Bynum has helped bring peace among once-combative players both within City Hall and between the city and Tulsa County.

We are recognizing Bynum in this issue as one of our Public Officials of the Year. This is a program Governing has run for more than 20 years, raising up highly effective officials in both elected and appointed posts. In a nation this large, it would be absurd to label any group of mayors, governors or other officials as the “best” at their job. All I can promise is that the members of this year’s class have made a real difference in the lives of their constituents.

Consider Patricia Rucker, a state senator from West Virginia. She sponsored a massively ambitious private school choice proposal that has not only reset the educational landscape in her state but helped kick off similar revolutions in many other states. Or Kim Reynolds, the governor of Iowa. She’s been both a beneficiary and a cause of that state’s switch from perennial purple to solid red. Reynolds has won notable victories on a number of ideological issues, but she’s also overseen a generational streamlining of state agencies, boards and commissions.

You can read more about them, and our other honorees, on this page.

Throughout my career, it’s been my pleasure and my privilege to meet, learn from and work with innovative public officials all over the country. I have been inspired time and again by individuals who have not only identified problems and come up with workable solutions, but managed to overcome political resistance and institutional inertia to bring their ideas to life.

We know that making change in government is hard. That’s why we’re going to keep telling the stories of the people who are making it happen.