Published: July 09, 2008 12:00 am            

Mayor's vote commitments may have violated Open Meetings Act

Norman city councilmembers may have to take a revote of a controversial 5-4 defeat of an amendment regarding University North Park Tax Increment Financing District funds.

Retired state attorney Lawrence Edmison told councilmembers in the miscellaneous discussion portion of Tuesday's meeting that actions by Mayor Cindy Rosenthal asking for prior commitments on how councilmembers would vote violated the Oklahoma Open Meeting and Open Records Act.

The vote in question was on an amendment offered by Ward 1 councilmember Bob Thompson at the council's June 24 meeting to reduce the total amount pledged to UNP TIF No. 2 by $8.75 million. The funds would be left over from the City's not purchasing the conference center for $16.5 million including contingency funds, after hotelier John Q. Hammons asked that the City build a Rock Creek overpass instead and released them from their commitment to him.

Rosenthal had urged the council to pass a compromise amount of $4.375 million, taking $4.375 million -- or half of the $8.75 million -- off the table, reducing the TIF to a total of about $50.3 million. She said the compromise was needed because some councilmembers wanted to keep the $8.75 million in the TIF and others wanted to eliminate it totally.

Councilmembers defeated Thompson's amendment to Rosenthal's compromise by a 5-4 vote.

When the vote was taken, former Ward 2 councilmember Richard Stawicki told the mayor that he was not going to be able to honor his commitment to her on her compromise.

In an e-mail to several members of the Citizens for Financial Responsibility, Rosenthal wrote that, "I talked with all of the members of council to try to keep them informed of the progress and to get a sense of the opinions of other members ..."

After coming up with her compromise, Rosenthal wrote that she again polled the members.

"I made another round of calls to councilmembers to gauge what members thought of the proposal...," Rosenthal wrote.

Edmison said another unnamed councilmember wrote in an e-mail to a constituent that he had a commitment to the mayor to vote for her compromise. That councilmember helped defeat Thompson's amendment.

Rosenthal's compromise passed by a 7-2 vote, with Thompson and Ward 4 councilmember Carol Dillingham voting against it.

Edmison, who said he had extensive experience with the Open Meeting Act as former general counsel for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, cited an Oklahoma Attorney General's opinion from 1981 about getting commitments on votes before discussion was held on the subject in an open meeting.

"It is illegal for a single councilmember or mayor to poll individual councilmembers one at a time or as a group to get a consensus or to get commitments from them on how they will vote," Edmison said. "You can't do one at a time what you can't do by having a quorum together outside of this room. ... I believe ... that the commitments that were made that night to the mayor violated the Open Meeting Act."

Edmison said the penalty for violating the Open Meeting Act is that the action is invalid.

"Anyone who willfully violates it can be removed from office and precluded from office for five years," he said. "I think the only legal way to fix it is to reconduct these votes."

Edmison also asked that the council have a special study session with officials from the Oklahoma Municipal League to refresh the councilmembers on the Open Meeting and Records Act.

Vice Mayor and Ward 7 councilmember Doug Cubberley, acting as mayor in Rosenthal's absence, said he believes the City staff needs to look at the issue.

"I do believe it would be prudent," Cubberley said, of Edmison's suggestion for an Open Meeting study session. "We get into a rut from time to time. ... It would be good to have a study session so we don't violate (the Oklahoma Open Meeting and Open Records Act.)"

Cubberley and councilmembers did not make any commitment as to whether there should be a revote.

Earlier in the meeting, new Ward 2 councilmember Tom Kovach challenged whether the Norman Economic Development Coalition meetings should be open, because of the contributions of the University of Oklahoma and the City of Norman as two of the three partners in NEDC. The Norman Chamber of Commerce is the third partner with the contributions of 132 Sooner Centurion business members who contribute $1,000 each for the NEDC efforts.

Carol Cole-Frowe 366-3538 ccole@normantranscript.com

        

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