Council - Regular Meeting

6 pm. We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. Uh we do have one hour left to vote. So if you have not voted, I would encourage you to go do so. All right. We have Glenn Meer for our invocation and pledge of We pray, eternal Lord, ruler of all, keep this uh city under your gracious care. We thank you for the leaders that you've uh given us in this city to watch over it, to govern it. Give them wisdom tonight uh to consider the business of the city that they may choose uh wise decisions for the general welfare and serve you faithfully in our city. All this we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Cor, would you call the RO Gilmore here? Woodley here. Stone here. Rhden here. Boatright here. Batty here. Mayor

here. And we have a quorum. Uh the recognitions and awards. Um we had uh Kevin Fiddle's funeral the other day. Uh previous mayor of city Mallister. um another big loss to our community. Uh always enjoyed his friendship and everything that he looked out for. Uh one of my favorite things is is getting to see him in retirement. Uh and the love that he had for his dogs. Uh he loved traveling and going to the to the dog shows and he's going to be missed and really appreciate everything he did for the community uh and the music that he put out in the community. I'd like to take a moment of silence for Kevin. Thank you.

All right. Since this is comments on non-aggenda items, residents may address the council regarding an item that is not listed on the agenda. Residents may provide their name and address and council request that comments be limited to five minutes. Mr. Belchure.

Thank you. Good evening. First, I have a few things to comment on. First off, as you might know, I didn't hit the power ball, so I can't help you fix the streets on the calendar. Next, if you recall back on August the 12th, city council, meaning I spoke about the condition of the American flags at the police station and the north fire station, and that the Oklahoma flag was in such poor shape, you couldn't even identify it. I'm proud to say that it was the very next day or the second day that there was a new American and Oklahoma flag was flying beautifully in the wind at the Northtown Fire Station. If I recall correctly, it was about the third day that a new flag was at the police station and flying high. I want to commend whoever jumped on that and resolved it so quickly. Next thing is, if you follow the Mall Calister Facebook sites a few months back, you may recall a discussion about if you could make a right-hand turn in the eastbound lane into Tandy Town. Some opinion experts were saying it was unlawful to turn on red because of an arrow in the red light. Others said you could. Discussions led to interpretations of AI and Google searches. I'm someone who hates misinformation and always wants to correct people. Plus, I don't want to be breaking the law. So, I made it my mission to find out the facts. A week or so ago, I came up here and met with the city judge. They didn't want to answer, but referred me to the city prosecutor. Today, at the city traffic court, I met with him for clarification. He said he would research the laws and get back with me in the next week. A little over an hour had passed after speaking with him. He called me with his opinion. His opinion is you can lawfully

make a right-hand turn on red from that lane since it is not posted. No turn on red. So we have that cleared up now. That's what I'd say. Okay. And also I was I was impressed with the fact with the fast response from Mr. for Mark Fields as was the flag's response. How quick it was. Now, may I add that I made a request for some records from the city clerk yesterday and asked for them by this evening, intended for needing them at this meeting. By 1:15 today, I received them. I want to give big shout out and thank you to city clerk Cory Middleton. Last thing, if no council person is planning on pulling consent agenda A for discussion, I ask that you do so, so I may ask for clarification. Thank you.

Uh, nobody else was on the list. Anybody else need to speak on non-aggenda items? Uh, if not, we'll move on to the consent agenda. All matters under the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the city council, being acted by one motion. There will not be separate discussion on these items. If discussion is desired, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and will be considered separately. Um, I have item number A to pull. Are there any other that need to be pulled? Then I will take a motion to approve items B through L. Motion councelor Boatright. Second, councelor Roden. Cor, would you call the RO? Councelor Boatright. Yes. Rhoden, yes. Gilmore, yes. Woodley, yes. Stone, yes. Batty,

yes. Mayor, yes. The motion carries. Uh, we have a couple of typos on a uh with the spelling of Mr. Susky's number or name and then um get that. That's on item uh at the very end of staff reports. Uh we have John instead of John. Mr. Melture, do you have a comment on a

uh Yes, sir. Also on the on the staff reports in the middle there where it says, see, Mr. Summer, you went to an Oklahoma Department of Aerospace meeting. It says Thursday, September the 21st, which wasn't possible because we haven't got to the 21st yet. And looking at the calendar, it's probably August the 21st since he said the prior week. So I believe that should be August. And when I went back and listened to the watched the video, he said October, which I'm sure he misspoke to, but I believe that should be August.

Where is this? Friday, October 24th. Thursday, September 21st. Oh, Thursday, September 21st.

Does that sound right, Bill? That is correct. August. And you corrected the the jogging. Yeah, to jog. Okay, that's all I had. Y appreciate. Good catch. All right, take a motion to approve item 8. Uh, councelor Gilmore. Councelor Woodley would call. Councelor Gilmore, yes. Woodley, yes. Stone, yes. Rhoden, yes. Boatright, yes. Batty, yes. Mayor,

yes. The motion carries. Right. We have one public hearing. All persons interested in the ordinance listed under the schedule business shall have an opportunity to be heard in accordance with article 2 section 212B of the city charter. Uh tonight we have an ordinance uh for amending city code chapter 62 land development planning zoning and subdivisions off streetet parking and loading and that does not have an emergency on it. Um have a motion to go to public hearing. Motion. Councelor Batty. Second. Councelor Gilmore. Corwood. Color. Vice Mayor Batty. Yes. Councelor Gilmore. Yes. Stone. Yes. Rhoden. Yes. Boatright. Yes. Woodley. Yes. Mate.

Yes. And we are now a public hearing. Anybody like to speak on this ordinance? Seeing no one, I'll take a motion to close the public hearing. Motion. Councelor Boight. Second. Councelor Stone. Cor. Would you call the RO? Councelor Boight. Yes. Stone. Yes. Rhoden. Yes. Batty. Yes. Gilmore. Yes. Woodley. Yes. Mayor. Yes. And the motion carries. Now to scheduled business. Item one is discussion of possible action to approve an ordinance of the city of Mallister Oklahoma amending Mallister City Code Chapter 62 land development planning zoning and subdivisions article six off streetet parking and loading. Repealing all conflicting ordinances and providing for severability. Good evening council.

This is one I've been looking forward to. Yes. And it's just a a band-aid. um for our off streetet parking. Uh oh, I hope he's not finding.

Okay, so um this is a draft ordinance for some of the off streetet parking standards that we know um based on variances that the board of adjustment has graded in the past that need to happen uh especially like retail. Uh there was another one for um the theaters which I don't know that the theater theat's going to do a whole lot of changing or anything but we just went ahead and did that one. But also um so there are standards in parking that are kind of national you know accepted and so I went through a lot of our off- streetet parking standards looked at those compared them try to make sure that I'm not going to hurt anybody with some of these changes. Um I don't think we will because we're a lot more restrictive. um in our off streetet parking and so we require a higher amount of parking spaces than the national you know um requirements. Um so this uh this draft went to planning commission. The only change that they had was the uh parking space dimensions. Uh rather than 18 ft, they asked to extend it to 19 ft long because we do still kind of have some bigger vehicles in this area. Although the consensus is that it doesn't really affect a lot of the, you know, even in rural areas, it's really not that much of an impact. So, but we went ahead and changed that. So, that was the only change from planning commission. Otherwise, they liked what they seen and they recommended the approval of this and they this was on August 19th and they did vote unanimously to recommend this ordinance. So, we just ask that you approve this tonight and uh kind of relax some of those off streetet parking standards for Mallister.

I will say during my time during planning and zoning and board of adjustment, every new permit that came through, parking hit every time. Every time there was not enough, it was oh, you don't have enough parking spaces. Oh, you don't have enough parking spaces. Almost to the point where it was like, we've either got to quit granting the adjustment or we got to change the rules. One or the other. It is it is a big issue. And I mean it does need to be probably overhauled. Um but this is a a good fix for now. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I appreciate you tackling it. Any questions, comments? Motion to approve. Motion councelor Batty. Second. Councelor Boight. Cor, would you call the role? Vice Mayor Batty? Yes. Councelor Boight? Yes. Gilmore? Yes.

Woodley? Yes. Stone? Yes. Rhden? Yes. Mayor, yes. And the motion carries. office does not have an emergency, so it'll take effect in 30 days. Thank you. All right, we're going to skip new business for a moment. Uh staff reports, no staff reports tonight. Uh interim city manager report. I really have no report other than to thank council for their involvement in the strategic planning session we did yesterday. Um all the directors were very receptive to the things that were mentioned and I think we have a good start to move forward from there. Excellent. Uh remarks and inquiries by the city council. Councelor Gmore.

You now have about 47 minutes left to get involved. So if you haven't done it, go get it done. That's all. Woodley. Um I'd like to thank all of the department heads that came yesterday and and everyone that was involved. Jared for facilitating. I learned a lot in the day and I appreciate the effort. I know they took time away from their jobs to come and to share their ideas and projects and information. So, it was very informative. I appreciate that.

Uh, citywide garage sale coming up the last weekend of September and yesterday in our meeting. U it was a it's kind of a a big uh everybody agreed that we need to clean up the city just wherever. But so, we've got the fall cleanup coming October uh 4th, 5th, and 11th and 12th. So, everybody stack up your stuff. I've got a stack to take and just uh just remember that. Put that on your calendar.

I want to thank Ken for putting that workshop together for is really informative for me and stuff. And uh keep my wife in your prayers tomorrow. She's having her hip surgery done tomorrow at Tulsa. We're leaving out about 3:00. We're not going and spending the night this time. So pray for us. All right. I want to thank everybody for coming to the meeting yesterday. It was long, but it was well worth the time we spent and getting along with the department heads or seeing that they are willing to trade information with us so we could we can make this city move forward. That's all I have.

Maybe.

All right. Mayor's comments. Um really to reiterate um you talk about an amazing experience and I don't know if if this anything like this has ever been done before in the city that I'm aware of but to bring all the directors and all city council together and I feel like we're unified and then seeing a meeting where we come together and we are literally all going the same direction without any prompting or asking. You know we threw the ideas on the board and everybody just flowed the same direction. It it was absolutely amazing and and to not have a divi a divisive city council, not have divisive directors with each other, anything that I mean we we are unified and going the same direction and I don't think there's anything that can stop us with with that. That's definitely something I would continue. I think it was great for the directors to be able to see the vision that we have so they're not running left when we're wanting them to go right and do those things and understand where we're coming from and then at the same time we get to hear from them and know what their needs are. And so it was it was fantastic. It it was I felt like we we jumped ahead 5 years. Um it was such a a good meeting to figure out where that direction and what it is. So definitely appreciate uh because I I know there's only so many hours in a work week and into and to I think what do we go till about 1 or so with the directors. Uh so to take that time out of your workday that that was extremely wellreceived on our end and thank you so much for doing that. Uh game this week is away in Ada. Um, and I believe the uh the band is actually going to perform their show there, too. So, you kind of get a twofer if you come out to ADA with us. And with that, uh, we I will take a motion to convene as the Mallister Airport Authority. Motion to include approval of minutes from the August 26, 2025 regular meeting of Mallister Airport Authority. Confirm action taken on city council agenda item B and adjourn. Motion councelor Batty. Second, councelor vote right. Cor, would you call the role? Vice Mayor Batty,

yes. Councelor Botright, yes. Rhden, here. Gilmore, yes. Woodley, yes. Stone, yes. Mayor, yes. The motion carries. Now take a motion to convene us at the Mallister Public Works Authority. Motion to include approval of minutes from the August 26, 2025 regular meeting of the Mallister Public Works Authority. Confirm action taken on city council agenda item B and adjourn. Motion councelor Stone. Second, councelor Roden. Corw. Councelor Stone, yes. Rhoden, yes. Gilmore, yes. Woodley, yes. BRight, yes. Batty, yes. Mayor,

yes. And the motion carries. I take a motion to convene as Mallister Economic Development Authority. Motion to include approval of minutes from the August 26, 2025 area meeting the Mallister Economic Development Authority. Confirm action taken on city council agenda item B and adjourn. Motion councelor Batty. Second. Councelor Boight. Co. Would you call the vote? Vice Mayor Batty. Yes. Councelor Boight. Yes. Woodley. Yes. Stone. Yes. Rhoden. Yes. Gilmore. Yes. Mayor. Yes. The motion carries. Uh we'll now jump back to new business. We have two items of new business. Go first.

Yes. This item was uh received yesterday as a in reference to a torque claim that was filed um I'm assuming in April. That's the date of the loss. The claim number is 216946-1- DD. uh Oklahoma or sorry OMAG has completed its investigation regarding the above reference claim and it is their recommendation that this claim be denied because OMAG finds no liability on the city's part that motion a second to approve OMAG's request or to approve pay the claim.

Okay, I'll take a motion to approve OMAG's request to deny the claim. Was that motion? Councelor Gilmore. Second, councelor Boight. There discussion. Oh, yeah. Discussion. I I don't know what this is. I hate to vote on something, but I have no idea. Yeah. What this Can we table this? And I I'm not familiar with it. The you want to talk about it or It was uh as a result of a sewer backup into a house. Okay. Um the claimant, from what I understand, felt that the city was responsible because of work being done in the area. Jared went over and checked um the work location and determined that it was not impacting the problem at that house.

You want to talk a little bit about tort claims and and why we approve or deny with under the governmental tor claims act that is the principal source of tort liability for the city of Mallister. Whenever someone believes the city has committed a tor against them they have to submit to us a tort claim notice. Uh we then submit that to our insur. The insur makes a recommendation to us. We then have to either approve that claim or deny it. Uh if we deny it, they have the right to sue us in district court and then we will fight that if they do. That's usually in our consent, right? Yes, ma'am. So, we have an opportunity to go back and research it. That's in our consent. Just we we received this yesterday and we're having the meeting and timelines were Yeah, I think what what was the timeline issue? So, they can move forward with the

they they can't bring a lawsuit against us until we deny it. So by denying it that allows them to that lets them go forward. Correct. So that's the lets them move faster. But but that's where we investigated and we agree with OMAG and stick with our insurance on that. That's Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good call. That was that was a fast Is that over on Poke Street? Which one was that? Yes,

I'm familiar with that. But if he can't do anything unless we deny it, then I'm going to deny it then. But anyway, in my opinion, it's the city's fault. He had a plumber out there and stuff. But anyway, I mean, keep my mouth quiet when I Any further discussion? Uh, so the motion was to deny the claim. denied the claim in the concurrent with Omega. Correct. Cor, would you call the RO? Councelor Gilmore, yes. Vote right? Yes. Batty, yes. Woodley, yes. Stone, yes. Rhoden, yes. Mayor, yes. The motion carries.

We do have a second item uh for an executive session. Pursued to 25307B4, consider convening an executive session as a for the purposes of proceeding confidential communication with the city attorney regarding case number CV-25-141 filed in Pittsburgh County Bed 4 versus City of Mallister and take appropriate action in open session. We also have a second executive session. So that first the one I just recited will be under new business and then we have an existing executive session under 307B1 to discuss the appointment of the interim city manager. So a single motion to go into executive session at this time is all that's necessary. We will take action if there is action on them separately.

Motion to go into executive session. Councelor Gilmore. Second. Councelor Batty. Would you call the RO? Councelor Gilmore? Yes. Batty? Yes. Woodley? Yes. Stone? Yes. Rhoden? Yes. Boight? Yes. Mayor, yes. We're now in executive session.

704. We're back from executive session. Only those items as stated were discussed. Um we'll have two motions. You want to state the first motion? Yes. U regarding the the executive session on the lawsuit of Bedford versus City Mallister, case number CV-25-141. I believe approve motion would be to authorize the city attorney to employ outside counsel to represent the city in that case. Make that motion. Motion. Councelor Batty. Second. Councelor Stone. I was watching for you. Cor would you call the role? Vice Mayor Batty. Yes. Councelor Stone. Yes.

Rhoden. Council. Indeed. He left. Okay. What time did he leave? He left, let's say, right at 7:04. 7:04. Okay. Okay. Vote right. Yes. Gilmore. Yes. Woodley. Yes. Mayor, yes. And the motion carries. And then the second motion. The second motion would be to adjust the interim city manager compensation in the amount as discussed in executive session. Have a motion to approve. Motion. Councelor Boight. Second councelor Gilmore. Cor, would you call the role? Councelor Beltright, yes. Gilmore, yes. Woodley, yes. Stone, yes.

Batty, yes. Mayor, yes. And the motion carries. Like to remind you to help us control the pet population. Have your pets spade or neutered and we are ajourned.