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Ted Wright -- last update 10/7/2003 (cityComisOct06.html) www.cvilleok.com Copyright 2003

Election Changes Debated Oct. 6 , 2003 City Commission Meeting City Charter Changes In The Works

All commissioners and the Mayor were present for the Oct. 6th City Commission / Municipal Authority meeting.

(Note: I missed the opening minutes of the City Meet while covering the School Board, but I understand the City approved closing Main Street (from 5 to 7pm between 10th & 14th Streets) for the Oct. 31 Kids' Halloween Parade as requested by the American Legion and their Auxilary. I also missed a discussion on City Hall rennovations and architects.)

The commissioner approved retaining Grabel and Imel as the design architects for the City Hall / Fire / EMS / Community Center rebuild. That same firm had done the conceptual phase recently.

The City denied a $231 Tort claim for windshield damage by Robert Elsner. The City had already paid Mr. Elsner for damage to a rear window of his car due to a rock thrown by a weed eater operated by city crews near under the Highway 169 overpass east of town.

Ken Underwood (City Attorney) provided another version of modifications to the city charter which would need to be acted on by the commission and then voters. The agenda topic for this meeting was selecting a date for the voter's to decide on the charter change. The selection of that is complicated by the narrow window of days that meet election criteria in the existing city charter as well as Tulsa County election rules. The first date possible would have been Nov. 11 (Veterans Day) so Nov. 18 is the new target. Meeting that date will require a special city commission meeting (most likely this Friday Oct. 10th) to approve the resolution and proclamation to be voted on. The discussion that followed indicated that there was not yet total agreement within the commission and the mayor on all the charter changes being proposed. Having the mayor selected by the commissioners from within their (expanded) ranks was being explored. A portion of the small group of citizens attending the meeting indicated a desire to leave the mayor's selection directly with the voters. Regardless of the eventual charter change put on the ballot, it was agreed that considerable information would need to be made available to the voters for them to fully understand the changes and why they were being proposed.

The commission went into executive session, but returned to open session with no actions to discuss or vote on.

-- Ted Wright -- 10/7/2003 -- www.cvilleok.com