City Council - Regular Meeting

Beginning on page 15, item 11 and one dilapidated structures, all the items that I listed on this will be stricken from the agenda. Item A is 124 North Allen Street. We're reworking for a new owner. Continuing on page 15, item 11, N1 unsecured structures. Item A, 124 Allen Street for the same reason. And then item D, 740 Northeast 19th Street. The owner has secured. And then on page 16, under abandoned buildings, item 1101, item A, 124 North Allen Street to rework for a new owner. And that's all the items that I have.

Okay. Item 8, revocable permits and events. Item 8A is a revocable permit with the Perry Public Publishing and Broadcasting Company for the Juneteenth Art and Music Festival, June 19th through the 21st. And we have... Ken and Neil? Connie. Sorry, Connie.

No, you all right. Got it. How y'all doing this morning?

Great.

Yeah, this is Perry Publishing Broadcasting, 17th year doing our Juneteenth Festival at Washington Park. This is our second year adding a second night, which will be Jazz in the Sunset. Hate that we can't play the Thunder, you know, but last couple years we was able to, but at the same time we will have a great celebration on June 19th and the 20th. Family, food, and friends. So if you get opportunity to come out, come out to Washington Park. That Friday starts at 6 o'clock, Jazz and Sunset. That Saturday it starts at 9 a.m. and it runs until about 7.

All right, thank you. Councilman Pennington. Thank you, Mayor. Just wanna thank Perry Publishing for, again, hosting this really great community event. I always enjoy going in Washington Park. It's gonna be even better when the Washington Park upgrades are made, so we're very excited about that, but happy to move approval.

We've got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Thank you. Item B is revocable permit with the River Sport Foundation for the River Bowl on August 1st. And we have Tiffany Briggs here. Oh, also, Trisha Downey, I guess. You guys can decide how you want to divide it up.

Yes. Good morning. Trisha Downey with the River Sport Foundation. I'm the national event manager there. This morning we are going to talk about two events, but the first would be the River Bowl, and I'm going to introduce to you Tiffany Briggs, who is the River Bowl chair. Take it over. Thank you.

Good morning, Mayor Holt and council members. My name is Tiffany Briggs, and I serve as the planning committee chair for the River Bowl Classic. I'm here today to respectfully request approval for our event, which will take place Saturday, August 1st, along the Oklahoma River. This year marks our fifth anniversary of River Bowl Classic, founded by Oklahoma City community leaders. The event was created to bring people together through culture, fellowship, healthy competition, and shared experiences while increasing awareness and participation in the sport of rowing. What began as a reunion-style rowing event for alumni of Oklahoma City's historic high schools has grown into a regional celebration of community and legacy. Sorry, today we proudly welcome participation from institutions including Langston University and Xavier University of Louisiana, alongside students, alumni, family, and community organizations from across the region. River Bowl Classic is more than a race. It is an opportunity to build connections, honor traditions, create a space where community can thrive. As we celebrate our fifth year, we are excited to continue growing an event that brings people together and showcases the power of collaboration and civic engagement. On behalf of the planning committee and community members and partners, we respectfully request your support and approval for this year's event. Thank you so much. And do you have any questions?

Thank you, Councilman Pennington. Thank you, Mayor. I'm very excited about the River Bowl. It is so much fun. And so I think that as a resident of Northeast Oklahoma City, sometimes we forget that the river is part of our community too. And so it's great to see all of our high schools. Northeast didn't win, unfortunately. My Vikings did not win.

Okay, hold on, wait a minute, I'm Northeastern.

Okay, okay, I'm glad to see we're proudly represented, but looking forward to this year's River Bowl, it's always a really fantastic event, and I'd ask my colleagues to please come and attend, because it's really great to see, so I move approval.

Thank you so much.

We have a motion and a second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item C is a revocable permit with the Riversport Foundation for the Stars and Stripes Regatta. Tricia Downey, you wanna speak to that?

The Stars and Stripes Regatta is a one-day Independence Day-themed event that River Sport holds dearly because it's all day, all ages, and lots and lots and lots of spectators. The morning, starting at 8.30, is a master's event. Master's is anyone out of college, and there are plenty who are very competitive, up to age 90, honestly. The afternoon, we take our Paddle Fest Dragon Boat Festival to the river, 200 meters, and this is a growing project at River Sport. Last year, we had 400. This year, we'll have 500 competitors. Dragon boating is a team sport and a proud group each boat, and we love to have them. And, of course, at night, the OG&E Night Sprints, which is a combination of corporate teams and master teams, And that's a 500-meter event. And I just wanted to remind everyone the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City is the first and only dedicated rowing, paddling competition venue in the world that is equipped with stadium lighting for night racing. So it's definitely a... bucket list for any rower to come to Oklahoma City and they are coming because of that. Nowhere else can you row under the lights. So I hope you all can make it at any time of the day and see these athletes compete.

Great. Thank you. Councilman Paynton.

Thank you, Mayor. Again, another great event on the river. I'm definitely going to need to get there early because it's going to be hot, I think, but it's going to be an awesome, awesome event. So I move approval.

Got a motion and a second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Item D is a revocable right-of-way use permit with Oklahoma City Pride and Outreach to hold OKC Pride on 39th, June 5th through the 7th on Northwest 39th. Eric Jones. As well as Christian Traylor.

Hello and good morning. I'm Christian Traylor and this is Eric Jones. We are on the OKC Pride Community and Outreach Board. We are asking for you all's approval of our fabulous Pride on 39th Street event. It is June 5th through 7th with opening ceremonies at, sorry, opening ceremonies on the 5th. at 5 p.m., is that correct? Yep, okay, cool, just making sure. So we are celebrating 39 years of this pride. And so with it being a completely new board, we are looking to celebrate the history of 39th Street and also the people that have contributed and made it to what it is to be what it is today. So we ask that you all come out and have a good time. It's a great time to celebrate diversity in life and just individuality. So yeah, hopefully we can see you all there.

Thank you. Councilman Cooper is out today, but I'm sure someone else will jump in.

I'm happy to jump in. Very excited for a really landmark occasion, it sounds like, with 39 years. I'm excited to celebrate Pride this month, so I'm happy to move for approval.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Classes unanimously, thank you. Thank you. 8E is a revocable right-of-way use permit with the Plaza District Association to hold live on the plaza June 12th and August 14th on Northwest 16th. And we have Rachel Crawford here.

Hi, good morning, City Council. Thank you for having me. My name's Rachel Crawford, and I'm the Executive Director of the Plaza District. We do a Second Friday event every month, but some are larger than others. And two of those events are Pride on the Plaza and Skate the Plaza. Just a show of hands, how many on City Council or in the audience have been to a block party in the Plaza District? Okay. Thank you, first and foremost, for attending. If you haven't been in a while, I encourage you to come Currently, just between, on 16th Street between Indiana and Blackwelder, we have 65 award-winning businesses. And the district's really had an uptake in the last few years since the pandemic, and a huge part of that are our events. Kamal, you remember, you served on the board as I came in, and I deeply appreciate your support. And Jo Beth, you've been to many of our events. Pride on the Plaza is tremendously jam-packed We will have a significant amount of 2SLGBTQIA plus entertainers. We're very intentional about that. We're bringing back a very popular club called Club U-Haul. Yes, we are intending to be punny with that. And we welcome really anybody who wants to be a community vendor that's with a nonprofit. Even if you don't have the funds, we can find a scholarship for you if you're trying to get the word out. I think we'd love to have you as long as we have the space, and we do at this time. So we expect roughly 14,000 people for Pride on the Plaza. And for Skate the Plaza, which is in August, the second Friday in August, we partner with Money Ruins Everything, a skate shop here in town. And we do skate contests, we work with Backroom Records, and Backroom does a lot of punk and really hardcore shows in Plaza Walls. A lot of artist vendors, probably about 40 that we'll have. It's free, all ages, open to the public, so I hope you'll join us.

Thank you, Councilwoman Hammond.

Yes, like you mentioned, these are super great events to go to, super fun block parties. So I am very excited for this year's sort of program of events for the summer and happy to move for approval.

We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously, and of course that was for Live on the Plaza. This next one might be for Plaza District Festival.

Thank you. I'll keep it short and sweet. 27th Annual Plaza District Festival. I want to give a shout out. It's a lot more work. There's eight volunteer subcommittees. Saturday, September 26th, I've got co-chair Maddie Hendricks in the City Hall with me. We're putting in a lot of work. The poster design, we've got a lot of compliments on. Love to give a shout out to our artist, Tony Thunder of Canopy in the Plaza District. Coincides with Plaza Walls Mural Expo. Typically see around 30,000 people. It's an all-day festival. Again, all ages, free, open to the public. And we have live music. We also do a partnership with ACM at UCO. And we have a stage dedicated to them. Right now we are working with... our kids committee, because we do have a kids area. Turns out insurance said inflatable castles are a really bad idea. So what we're doing as an arts and culture district is, they don't know this yet, but we're working on reaching out to about four or five children's music schools, well, I say children, ages preschool through high school, to have a live music stage just for kids for the first time this year, which I think will be really great. It's the biggest day of the year in the Plaza District, and again, I hope you'll join us for that.

Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Hammond?

I'm excited to hear that you all keep growing and changing and iterating to meet the need to mitigate risk, I suppose, but that's such a neat opportunity to bring young people into being part of these events. So I'm very excited for this year and happy to move for approval.

We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Item G is a revocable right-of-way use permit with Red Coyote Running and Fitness to hold the Red Coyote Juneteenth on the East 5k run on June 19th on North Rhode Island. We have Melissa Hodgson here.

Good morning. I'm Melissa Hodgson. I'm here for Juneteenth on the East 5k. It will be, of course, June 19th at 7 p.m. It starts near Northeast 23rd and runs through the community. This year is the fifth annual, and I believe As of today, we've more than doubled the registrations for last year. So we're looking at about 3,000 people this year. It's a free event, and it just keeps growing and growing. It's a good time. So I do encourage you to come out. But I would register soon, because we have 3,000 medals, and you want to get a medal.

Thank you, Councilman Pennington. Thank you, Mayor. I can't believe it's been five years already, and it's just amazing how many runners you're continuing to recruit. It's always a great event, and so just excited to move approval.

We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item H is a joint revocable permit with the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust and Bodies Race Company to hold the Treat Trot 5K, 10K, and 15K at Lake Hefner, and we have Morgan Danker here.

I'm Morgan Danker with OKC parks the permit whole or the permittee for this is actually located in Missouri and couldn't make it down here for City Council today But I figured I'd tell you guys a little bit more about the event so treat trot they do about or body sprays company does about one event with parks at a park every month and and here they'll be at stars of stripes park pickup for packets going to start at 5 30 in the morning there's a kids dash starting at 6 55 and then seven is when the races will start the treat trot is in reference to receiving a fun treat after you run so run a little bit then enjoy a treat Something exciting that they're starting with this event and that they're going to potentially do with new events is partnering with the OKC Animal Welfare. And they're going to have adoptable dogs at this event that participants can actually take one of the dogs with them on their run. So the dog is getting exercise as well as hopefully getting adopted.

All right. Thank you. This is in... Wards one, two, and eight.

So is the treat a secret?

It's going to be popsicles. So considering this is in June, a cold treat is probably what you'll want after you're done running.

Can you have more than one?

I hope.

What a great event. I move for approval. Thank you.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Cast your votes.

Five's a yes.

Ward seven's a yes. Mine's not working. Pass is unanimously. Thank you.

All right, now we're gonna recess the council meeting and convene as the Oklahoma City Municipal Facilities Authority. We do have a resident who has signed up to speak on item C. Donald Clytus.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Council, Mayor, first and foremost, and the specific affirmation of the First Amendment opportunity that we have before us today. What's most specific about this opportunity is the share of voice. I'd like to specifically highlight the reason why Oklahoma City is the core foundation of America. in this particular addended item because it's able to be discussed across all citizenry. We have a mayor for the first time in my life who's lived in this city all of my life who every week for five straight years takes his fiduciary responsibilities and responds to the citizenry. We have a city manager who is complicit in understanding that the fabric of the docket is significant so that we can get our budgets in line with the members who have to vote. But more importantly, it's the behind the scenes, it's Zach, it's Miss Deb Martin, who ingratiated me as a little old boy with two teeth, red hair and freckles that had the auspicious nature to be able to get my MBA in engineering and retrofit finance from Strayer University, George Washington, but to come home and to be able to say to you all that look across your core responsibilities to collaborate, to win, and to ensure that this city thrives. So as Oklahoma City goes, so goes the nation. We say thank you. We expressly appreciate this opportunity. And we know that this particular line item is the values of the First Amendment growth of this city. Thank you.

Thank you. That's the only resident who signed up to speak on the MFA agenda. We could take items A through G with one motion. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. We'll adjourn OCMFA and convene as the Oklahoma City Public Property Authority. And we have a resident who's signed to speak on item D, Steve Hunt.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak on this item. City Manager Freeman was kind enough to give me a little insight on this, and it's still very, very confusing. Had a little write-up that has kind of been skewed by what you told me, but I still want to go into it a little bit. First off, CAA Icon is a subsidiary of Creative Arts Agency, majority owned by Artemis, a private equity firm of French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault. whose $40 billion portfolio includes luxury brands like Gucci, Saint Laurent, Christie's Auction House, Alexander McQueen. Oklahoma City taxpayers are not investing in a local firm for the work of the arena owner management. Rather, they are sending checks to a wealth extraction machine controlled by a European luxury private equity firm. So when the original contract was submitted, the floor for the arena was $900 million, and their contract was for $18 million. In the new amended arena, which includes a $1.06 billion floor for the arena, Their fee is now $21.875 million, and the council's being asked to approve a $3.875 million contract extension for them. Now, initially I thought that this was just them keeping a line with the 2% rate, which is what all private equity firms, they take 2% of contracts. Even the Chamber of Commerce takes 2% of the CVB for administration fees, which is something we gotta talk about. because for us to give them $18 million and then just take the money is insane to take more money on top of that. Freeman you said that there is an extended scope of work that justifies this three point eight seven five million increase It's curious to me why it is exactly a two percent fee on the floor also, I went through the original contract in the new one and it does appear true that tasks have been handed over to CAA icon and But here's my biggest concern with this, is that as the arena cost goes up and up and up, and we know that it's going to be minimum 1.5, maybe 2, all the things going on in the world and so on and so on. I'm concerned that CAA Icon is going to continue to escalate their fee. because Mr. French Private Equity bought CAICON shortly before the deal was passed. The things that I know about private equity firms is that they are constantly assessing fees, assessing added percentages and things like that. I don't know the best thing to do about this is because some of your stuff seemed justified but it is pretty strange that it's keeping with a two percent fee so if there's a way to table this and talk more about it that would be greatly appreciated everyone loves the thunder we want to keep everything and you said a four million dollar over budget that's the same that we're giving them so thank you that concludes residents you've signed up to speak we could take items a through f with one motion

Craig, could you just explain what was explained about this issue?

Yes. So this is an addition to the contract. I'm going to ask David to come up and help me with this. This is an addition to the contract. CAI Con is helping to manage the project for us overall, and that's what their base fees were for. Typically, well, let me let David answer this, and then I'll respond if there's any other questions.

Good morning, David Todd, MAPS program manager. So when we negotiated the fee with CAA Icon, we didn't know what the FF&E, the furniture fixtures and equipment budget was at that time. And we weren't really clear about what was the best way to procure all of that. We've done it several different ways throughout MAPS. Most recently, we had the contractor do it at the convention center. So we excluded that from their contract at the time, knowing that we would have to figure it out later. Well, now it's later and it's time to figure it out. And we have, and we think the best route is to have them do all the procurement. And when I say procurement, this is every knife, every fork, every plate, every lift, every mop bucket, every mop, all of the things in the building. And all of those things will be bid So they're not just going out and buying these things. They're putting together packages and sending it out and bidding it, and then making sure that it gets to the new arena at the right time. We can't deliver plates if we don't have the windows in, you know? So it's timing, it's storage, it's all of those things. So we decided that it was better to have CAA do this because their fee was considerably less than having the contractor do it who would add on additional fees. So we always knew this was coming. It's something that has to be done and we feel like this is the best route.

All right, we can take a motion in a second then on the PPA docket. We have that motion in second, please cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Now we'll adjourn OC PPA and reconvene as the council. We're on the consent docket, item nine. The item 9A was already deferred. And then we do have a scheduled presentation for item BL. Is there any other item that a council member wishes to pull out for a separate comment, question, vote? Can I, item W? Okay. All right, if that's all that there is, then that's where we'll start. Item W, Councilman Pennington.

Just curious about this, this sounds great that we would be trying to get some, it sounds like we're getting some prototypes that people would be able to already have ready for ADUs, et cetera, so I just wanted to hear about it.

Thank You Tio Bowman with the sustainability office this is a grant funded program through the Department of Energy so we have a focus not on not only on providing the prototype plans available for free for residents to use to help promote the accessory dwellings that were recently approved by Council single-family homes and duplexes and the idea is that we have this baked in energy efficiency and resilience practices and design strategies that will help save money over time so

uh the other idea is to encourage infill housing development so we have a lot of opportunity in the core to build new housing and so this will be one barrier out of the way that includes a licensed architect but that's just it's great for infill to know that residents who might want to build an adu or even build a home next to theirs have this opportunity to just go to those prototypes eventually when this is process is over so appreciate it just wanted to highlight it i'm excited about it and thank the planning department for doing it

Thank you, and then we have a presentation for BL. Mr. City Manager?

Yes, Chris York, our budget director. This is actually an amendment to the current year's budget. We will also have the adoption plan for today's, for next year's budget, but this is an amendment to the current year's budget, and I'll let Chris walk us through a summary of the proposed amendments to this year's budget.

yeah thank you city manager as you said this is an amendment it's being introduced today and setting a public hearing for June the 16th we'll bring it back to you there's a few funds being amended today those include the general fund the fire sales tax fund the internal service fund and the medical service program fund and I'll just go through those changes for you very quickly in the firefighting and rescue services facilities and equipment fund or the fire sales tax you will see a like item later today with the Public Safety Sales Tax Resolution for the fireside. It is an increase of about a million dollars and that's it related to facility improvements that they need additional authority for we also have an increase in the general fund of about three million dollars that's going to salary reserve which is a little vague but it's for salaries as we continue to go throughout the year we have a couple more payrolls we think we're going to be a little bit close on the amount of authority originally meant adopted for that and so we're just giving ourselves a little bit of room we are using fund balance to fund that but the expectation is that we may not use all of that uh we also have a couple of increases in our internal service fund uh one for fleet for eight hundred thousand dollars that's a support vehicle repair We also have a minor increase in the risk management fund, again, related to salaries of about $25,000, just to make sure they can make it through the remainder of the fiscal year. The medical service program fund has a pretty good size increase. A portion of that is related to salaries and wages. And there's also a $2.5 million increase that is being used to fund a payment for a reimbursement. So we will fund it through a state and federal program and then receive back funding, but we need the additional authority to pay our piece of it, and then we actually get much more dollars back for participating in the program. Overall, the increase today is $9.4 million across all funds, getting us to $2.1 billion as the amended budget. Again, we'll bring it back to you on the next council for another review. Thanks, Chris.

All right, well that concludes the comments or presentations on the consent docket. So we can now adopt it if the council so desires. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 10 is the concurrence docket. We could take items. A through K with one motion. A motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. That brings us to item 11, items for individual consideration. Item 11A was already deferred. Item 11B was already deferred, which brings us to item 11C, which is an ordinance on final hearing that was recommended for approval rezoning 9525 West Heffner Road from AA to PUD 2130. And Councilman Carter, no one has signed up to speak.

Thank you, Mayor. Excuse me. After speaking with the applicant and representation, we've been asked to defer this for two weeks, please.

Okay. So we'll bring up a motion to defer this for two weeks. That's June 16th. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously, item is deferred for two weeks. Item D is an ordinance on final hearing that was recommended for approval rezoning 800 East Britain Road from R1 to PUD 2133. Councilman Pennington, no one has signed up to speak.

Thank you, Mayor. Glad to see some development here, adding some more housing. Really appreciate David's work on working with the neighbors who were really concerned about development in this area, so glad we were able to work it out. I move approval.

We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11E is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval rezoning 4200 Southwest 29th from I-2 and AE-2 to PUD 2134 and AE-2. Councilwoman Aver is known to sign and speak.

I am going to be making a motion for a deferral on this one. I met with Johnson & Johnson Associates this morning in the elevator, and if she would like to present information today, the business representatives in the I-2 zoning that is being impacted by this application is undergoing a medical procedure today, so we're going to move for two weeks so they can be able to have conversations with the neighbors, but I would like to give you the opportunity to speak if you'd like.

Jessica Louis Johnson associates representing the applicant when he shared and we are in agreement with the deferral So I will hold all my comments until then Thank you All right, so we're gonna bring up a motion for a deferral of two weeks, is that right?

Yes, sir

We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. All right, item 11F is, well, item one is an amendment to the master design statement, but item two is really the meat of the proposal, and that is the ordinance on final hearing recommended for approval rezoning 1325 East Hefner Road from PUD 2057 to PUD 2137. Councilman Pennington, no one is signed to speak.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm always excited to see more housing development coming into our community in Ward 7, so I'm happy to move approval.

All right, so I'm going to take that as a motion, actually, for F1, the amendment to the master design statement. Exactly what I was saying. We have a motion and a second for the amendment. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Now we're on F2, the ordinance on final hearing. And I move approval. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Okay, item G is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval rezoning 1701 Northwest 31st from R1 to SPD 1809. Is anyone carrying Ward 2 today?

Yes, I can. Okay. Yes, this is just an infill development project, and Councilman Cooper is supportive, so I'll move for approval.

Got a motion and a second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously. All right, item H is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval rezoning 12200 Ecker Drive from AA to SPUD. to Councilman Pennington. I think we actually do have someone signed to speak. I'm not sure, well, available if needed. So maybe this is the applicant.

Okay, I'm gonna assume so. If it's not, I'm gonna move approval. So if someone who is opposed, we'd love to hear from you. But this is just a simple lot split and I'm happy to move approval.

We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item I is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval establishing a special permit to operate use unit 8300.33 drinking establishment at 712 North Broadway. And Councilwoman Hammond, we do have someone who signed up to speak on behalf of the applicant.

Yes, if we could hear from them, that'd be great.

All right, Jay Shanker.

Thank You mr. Mayor council members similarly above Councilman Pennington's comment about splitting a lot the two units historically in a century-old warehouse building each independently entrances retail one upstairs one down landlord simply seeks to split those to be able to lease units separately be no change in purpose of the businesses thank you very much I will go ahead and move for approval

All right, we have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Okay, item J is an ordinance on finally hearing. It was recommended for approval establishing a special permit to operate use unit 8300.33 drinking establishment at 3524 New Castle Road. Councilwoman Hammon, no and a signer speak.

I will move for approval.

Motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Okay, 11K1 is the public hearing regarding the assessment role for year 2026, 2027 for the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District. Amy, has anyone signed up to speak?

No, they haven't.

They haven't. This was previously introduced on a previous agenda, and the item is K2, a resolution adopting and confirming an assessment role for the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District. If there are no comments or questions, these obviously, as you know, are fairly standard and routine, and we could take a motion for approval. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. That was K2. Item L is related. It's the ordinance on final hearing adopting and setting the assessment role for year 2026, 2027 for the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District. We have a motion and a second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously. All right, item M1 is the public hearing regarding the dilapidated structures here listed, and we do have someone who has signed up to speak, Rick Buchanan.

Good morning. Good morning. I'd like to speak about 3017 Southwest 19th Street, At some point an investment person bought this property and for the last two years he has been, I'm gonna call an absentee landlord. He's allowed drug dealing going on in the backyard. I've called the city of Oklahoma City to handle the process and it just keeps getting kicked down the road. And it's got to the point now where that property is turned into a homeless encampment. And not only has it affected me mentally, physically, but now monetarily. The home caught fire, burnt down, and my home suffered smoke damage, water damage, heat damage. And I'm just kept being told it's a process for the city. I'd like to see how long the process would take if this was next door to any one of y'all sitting on the city council. Thank you.

So I guess, I mean, what we're doing today is taking action, right? That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Can you elaborate, though, on how long it might take, like, once we approve this for demolition to occur? Because I know sometimes that can take. I just want to set appropriate expectations of how long that can sometimes take.

Certainly, Councilwoman. Chris Smith, Code Enforcement Superintendent. So with today's declaration, we'll file our notice of lien, and the statutory limitation is 30 days from filing. At that point, it would be subject to award. Once it's awarded, permit process, probably another 60 to 90 days.

Okay, thank you.

And I also just wanna, I think it's worth noting, and so we have a couple of these in my neighborhood too. And so I understand and I think one of the things that I hope we can continue to explore is what are the options for these slum lords, essentially, that take these properties, very poorly maintain them, and then our neighbors end up responsible for all of the negative impacts that those dilapidated properties have. And so you'll have these chronic, these people that chronically violate their responsibility in securing the property, and then there's not any additional action that the city can take. And so I hope we can explore what legal options are available. And again, I feel your pain in my own neighborhood. So hopefully we can do more.

All right. Well, that concludes the residents who signed up to speak for M1. So we can advance to the resolution at M2 declaring that the structures are dilapidated. We have a motion and a second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously. In one is the public hearing regarding the unsecured structures here listed. Amy, has anyone signed to speak?

No, they haven't.

They have not, and so we will advance to the resolution at end two, declaring the structures unsecured. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. 11-0 is the public hearing regarding the abandoned building here listed. We are just down to the one at 1B. Amy, has anyone signed or speak?

No, they haven't.

They have not, and so we'll move to the resolution at 02, declaring the buildings abandoned. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. All right. Now we are at item P1, the public hearing regarding our resolution adopting the fiscal year 2027 annual budget. Mr. City Manager, maybe what we'll do is we'll go ahead and hear the folks who signed up to speak in the public hearing and then I think you're going to provide, you and your team are going to provide a little bit of an overview. Sounds good. okay so uh we will handle the public hearing first and so uh nicole mcafee hi my name is cole mcafee my pronouns are they and she i'm a homeowner and resident ward six

I'm here today to ask you again to take action against this municipal budget. As you've heard from concerns over the last several meetings from constituents who have been able to make the time to be here, this budget is not reflective of the needs of Oklahoma City residents and has several decisions that negatively impact folks across the board from lack of access to transit, to work, to ending access to critical youth programming and spaces and further investment in Oklahoma City's disproportionately deadly police force at the expense of the safety and well-being of Oklahoma City's most vulnerable residents. Oklahoma City residents deserve a meaningful say in our budget, as do you as our elected council members. It's insulting to all of us that what we see year after year is a rubber stamp of a budget that doesn't meet the needs of your constituents. City Manager, as someone who makes four times the median household income in Oklahoma City, I'm not sure you're in touch with the concerns many of us are facing right now. If you were, maybe you'd understand the continued frustration with how far this budget is from what we need to meet this moment. Every year I struggle to draft these comments because I hear that Oklahoma City is big lead, but why does that lead continue to come at the expense of our most historically marginalized and excluded residents? In my ward, we need sidewalks. We need drainage solutions for the increasingly common deluges of rain that cause regular flash flooding. We need better shade so kids can enjoy the outdoors through increasingly hot summers. We need more common green spaces free from the dangers of cars. We need affordable housing as increasingly community members I know and serve in my work are priced out of their apartments, duplexes, and homes. We need a budget process that is open to community and council member feedback. I continue to ask you, City Manager Freeman, Mayor Holt, council members, give us participatory budgeting, meet the needs of this moment, and take the first step by rejecting today's budget. Thank you.

Thank you. Andy Moore.

Good morning.

I'm Andy Moore. I live in Ward 6. I lead a nonpartisan nonprofit organization called Let's Fix This, which promotes civic engagement throughout the state. Mr. Mayor, and may it please the council, I rise today to make two points. First, a recognition of the immense amount of work required to research, negotiate, and assemble the municipal budget each year. The city of Oklahoma City and my fellow residents are fortunate to have such a dedicated, educated, and committed team of public servants who work at the city, many of them are my friends. They've spent countless hours on the budget each year. In fact, I had conversations with city staff as recently as yesterday about the budget you'll be voting on today. I know that budget planning involves compiling data from multiple sources, including but not limited to the resident survey, action center requests and complaints, 911 call data, and the many, many, many questions, comments, and feedback given directly to city staff and to each of you. So first, thank you. That brings me to my second point, which is that there's still room for improvement. and I urge the council to consider and eventually to adopt involving or to use a participatory budgeting system moving forward. Participatory budgeting is not a new idea. It's used in more than 7,000 cities worldwide, but it does remain an innovative one. Participatory budgeting provides yet another data point for the development of the city's budget, but it's more than just data. It's a human touch, a recognition that we as residents have deeper insights than merely a list of priorities. Participatory budgeting asks not simply do the people that are here today in this chamber want pizza for lunch, but what kind of pizza and how do we want to pay for that pizza? Participatory budgeting is a conversation. It's a dialogue between you as our elected officials and we, the people who elected you. It's a recognition that all political power is inherent and resides with the people and that when we work together, we can create a budget that is both physically and morally responsible and more closely represents the will and the needs of the people. Thank you.

Thank you. Bridget Burns.

Good morning. My name is Bridget Burns. I live in Norman, but I commute to Oklahoma City and have been for two years. I would also like to ask for a participatory budget process. I have sat through a lot of council meetings in Norman, a few here, and I feel like I hear the same things every year. I hear folks who are being impacted by the lack of affordable housing. We heard from multiple people today that in order to raise a concern, you have to go through a lot of steps. So there are quite a few people here today who have gone through those steps and really worked to be here to tell these words to you, right? But what if we had a process where that was built in? What if we didn't have to build the stage every time we have to come here, right? And I see how hard you all work and seeing at the beginning the communication with realtors, the voices of people who are holding events that were initially maybe doubted here, but have now built up a really strong community presence and connection. And that's what we want. We want more spaces to connect. We want more spaces to do art. We want more spaces for multiple generations to be spending time together. And the city budget is really how we do that we can really look together at the way this funding is allocated and spent and We you know, I don't just work here and other folks don't just live here. We have lives here We have family here loved ones here We want to see kids grow up in a safe place. We want to see people participate in city council in the future. And if the kids in OKC public schools are going to be on city council here in the future, a participatory budget would also be incredibly helpful for that. If we are going to be functioning as a democracy, we need to have an informed base. And you have an informed base, like really trying to come in here. So I just really invite you to open that door, be open to that process, be open to trying new things. And together, I really do think that we could figure out a better way to allocate these funds where there is less harm done, more people are thriving, more people are connecting, more people are growing, and we can make the city what we want it to be. Thank you.

Thank you. Ryan Mewks.

Good morning, Council. Good morning, Mayor. As I've been listening today, I just really have one question for you all. As y'all are about to pass this budget and we think about the way the city is going right now and looking at the youth and the things that are happening in our city with the youth, I just think about how we've been passing budgets like this for most of my lifetime here in Oklahoma City, and I just don't really see how it's helping the youth in our community, because they are our future. So as we all know y'all are going to pass this budget, I would just ask y'all next year or sometime in the near future that we start thinking about how this budget is really not helping the youth and what we can do to really put something forward that's going to help the youth that are the future of Oklahoma City. So thank y'all. Have a blessed day.

Thank you. Aurelius Francisco.

Good morning, Council. Aurelius Francisco, Ward 7, one of the organizers with the People's Budget Coalition here once again, also the executive director of Foundation for Liberating Minds, a nonprofit here in Oklahoma City, doing work all across the state to create a better future, a better state, and a better world for all of our young people. I am here once again to call for a very simple practice change here at the city as our budget process is opaque as well as inaccessible to most residents. And so a participatory budget would allow for that input and that collaboration. You all are representative of your constituents. A participatory budget would allow for constituents to be active participants in the needs and the resources that are allocated across Oklahoma City. When I look at this budget this year, I am happy to once again see funding for mobile integrated health, but also within the fire department, you have more funding, I believe 2.6 million for fire investigations, for investigations into arson than you do for mobile integrated health, right? The reality is that there's a lot more people in our city experiencing mental health crisis who need that mental health support than there are people lighting buildings on fire. Right. And so this shows a lack of priority, a lack of a lack of humanity and empathy in our budget process here in the city. We need more and more housing, more and more support for folks who are experiencing violence. And there really is an opportunity in the city to be innovative. We talk about being a big city and one city, one team. And there's a multipurpose stadium that just got groundbreaking yesterday. Right. Great things happening with maps. The budget is another opportunity to be innovative and to try something new in other cities. Newark, St. Louis, which has its own problems right now, but they have offices of violence prevention, right? What would it look like to really invest in having an entire office that is focused on preventing violence, on youth recreation centers, on community violence intervention and restorative justice. The budget is a real, real opportunity to protect the future, to create real community safety that isn't just fire and police, and to ensure that your constituents and your residents feel heard. And lastly, I would just ask, As we have this conversation around the budget, if each of you as council members, right, and as the mayor could say that you spent enough time with this budget to adequately vote yes on the budget, if you felt like your questions were answered, if you felt like the needs that your constituents came up here and the concerns that we have had around public transportation, around cuts to the parks, if you feel like those concerns are actually being met within this budget, and if the answer is no, then I would ask you to vote no on this budget. Thank you.

Thank you. And then Councilman Cooper could not be here today, but submitted a statement to be read by the Clerk. And so, Clerk, would you please read this statement from Ward 2 Councilman James Cooper.

Okay, apologies I'm not there. I planned this trip last year. I appreciate the city clerk sharing these remarks regarding this year's budget. Along Ward 2's south boundary, we're rebuilding a safer uptown 23rd Street and Walker Avenue for pedestrians and drivers, thanks to a placemaking project voters approved with 2017's Better Streets, Safer City. a similar better streets streetscape starts soon northwest 23rd to northwest 36th on portland avenue where three years ago two different drivers hit and killed a homeless woman in a wheelchair better streets also replaces may avenue bridge after its collapse this replacement connects sidewalks we're building along northwest expressway connecting surrounding neighborhoods to our bus rapid transit system and newly renovated Belle Isle Library, no matter how they move. From Northwest 39th Street to Paseo to Britain, Better Streets revitalizes Ward 2's historic main streets. Our budget funds such capital improvement projects. These districts generate sales tax, which funds our annual operating budget. Since I started as a COPPA trustee in 2015, I've dedicated myself to this vision, a better connected city. That's why cuts to weekend bus service hours in the operating budget hurt, especially since residents depend on buses to connect to jobs. Additionally, this budget should quadruple funding for our homeless street outreach teams and alternative response to 911 mental health calls. These new programs succeed with limited budgets. Imagine what prioritizing their success would do. When Newark implemented its violence interruption program connecting people to stabilizing support services and training residents involved formally in gang violence to de-escalate violent situations, Newark saw a 30-year low in violent crime and a 50% homicide reduction in South Ward where most violence existed. We must implement OKC's first violence interruption program so we can achieve a hint of those statistics. I'm determined to see this vision become a reality. With budgets, I don't always get what I want, what our people need, but I'm persistent and one street skate and neighborhood sidewalk at a time, one battle after another, OKC becomes a better connected, safer city. Our one transit election gives voters a once in a lifetime opportunity to restore public transit. This budget cuts to create a revenue source for street improvements increase bus frequency, implement BRT to Tinker and West OKC, build light rail to our airport, and construct commuter rail connecting Edmond, Norman, and OKC. I remain persistent because I've seen our successes and know what we're capable of when we prioritize our people and neighborhoods.

Thank you. Mr. City Manager, I believe you wanted to provide a little bit of an overview before we consider the resolution. Yes.

Chris York, our budget director, will provide a quick overview here that we have in the budget. I do want to stress that we go into situations like this, and we've talked about it before. We do have revenue growth, but it's not sufficient to keep the pace with expenditure growth, and so we had to close that gap. It's always difficult when we have to cut the budget, especially when we've had to do that numerous years. It's small amounts that we're doing each year, but it does impact people's lives and it does impact services we can provide. It means a lot to us that we want to be able to serve our residents to the best of our ability. It's something that's very important to us, to all of our employees, all of those who work in the budget process. I don't want to lose sight though of the great things that are still happening within the budget that we've got to make sure we're providing core services and looking at alternative services as have been mentioned. of different ways that we can serve to better serve all of our communities. So we're committed to that going forward. I appreciate Chris and his team and all the employees in the city that have worked on this budget. And Chris, give us a quick overview before we move forward.

Yeah, thank you, city manager. Just a few slides for you to wrap up the presentations. Starting with where we started. So back on April 28th, council received the proposed budget. We started having our budget presentations from several departments and opened up our comment period. And through that period, we were able to present to you. Oops, sorry, let me get that. Thank you. Our original batch of comments, which you may recall, was about 88 pieces of feedback from our residents that include both live vision.okc.gov emails and so on. And so since that time, we've plussed up to 180 comments. Those should be in your inbox as of today or yesterday, actually. And so if I had to describe the additional comments that came in, the majority of those were related to calls for additional resources from animal welfare. Again, they seem to have a little bit of a blend of internal comments. So we have many employees that are also residents of the city. We also had some additional calls for investment in public transportation and some additional calls for participatory budgeting as we heard this morning. Circling back to the slide that we presented you on April the 28th, just going over the highlights there, the general fund is increasing by 3.54%. That's driven largely by personnel cost increases. We had some significant drivers from health insurance, cost of living adjustments, retirement increases as well that are pushing that number up. And as the city manager referenced, we just don't have the revenue to support some of those increases. So we did have to ask departments to take 2.4% cuts in most cases for general fund-supported apartments, 1.4% for our public safety departments. Our other operating funds are increasing at 4.42%, and the big mover there is our hotel-motel tax, which, as you recall, increased its rate from 5.5% to 9.25%. And we're just revising our estimate to keep up with that. That was an increase of about $15.4 million there. So that's the largest piece of that. In our non-operating funds, our capital-related funds, we have a relatively small increase of 0.91%, driven primarily by MAPS 4. If we look at headcount changes, it's hard to see the numbers in the aggregate, but as we look at it here, we're only decreasing headcount by one. I do wanna mention here, though, that this does include the, or does not include the 20 frozen police officers that we had to freeze in the prior year, so effectively, it's 20 less than that, or 5069. If we break that down by department, We can see some of those changes here, so rather incremental changes across many of the different departments. I'll just call out a few of them. The city manager's office adds three. Two of those are related to maps and arena work. One is an innovation employee that's coming from finance, which I'll talk about in a second there. Finance is down one. That is that our performance measurement program shifting over to innovation. I think that makes good sense to be located there. In fire, we have a decrease of six. Those are the fire corporals. We're from the fifth position on our ladders, so there should not be any effect to apparatus available, but there will be six less firefighter positions. No firefighters, of course, will be impacted in terms of layoffs. Incremental changes down in a couple of other departments there. Municipal Counselor is adding a little bit of headcount. We're adding two. Those are gonna be funded by the geo bond issuance that we're rolling out as well as the public safety sales tax for the police side. We have five headcount being decreased in parks and that's related to a restructure. And then we have two being added to planning. Those are GOLT funded positions that will assist with affordable housing. Police is decreasing a net of one position in headcount, and then public transportation and parking is reducing too, but it's really just them shifting those two positions over to the COPPA trust. We have a couple of ads for Public Works as they start to get ready to ramp up for those geo bond projects that are gonna come online, and then utilities is adding eight, but those are funded by rate payers, so I remind folks that's a different funding source there. Again, net of down one, and it does again not include the 20 frozen police officer positions. And that is all I have for you this morning, but happy to answer any questions if you have them.

All right, any questions or comments? Are we ready to take up the resolution?

I do have a few comments, and I mean, at this point, probably not a surprise to anybody that I'm not supportive of this budget, particularly the bus cuts feel particularly difficult to stomach, and in general, as I've said multiple years, that The departments that already struggle the most to do a lot with what they're given, taking the disproportionate cut is very difficult for me to support, given that the majority of calls, conversations that I have in the community with Ward 6 district associations, neighborhood associations, are around the things that don't have the largest budgets. They are support for neighborhood services, programming support, commercial district support, investment in youth programming within our parks, homelessness all you know animal welfare these are the things that I get the most calls about and that often feel like that we just sort of hold them steady at the same amount without thinking again creatively about how we can be investing in and improving those services for our residents and so I'm just not able to support this budget again given that Again, I've said it before, I'm not the first person to say it by any means, but budgets are moral documents and they show us what we value. And the cuts that we are asking people to take who are already hit the hardest by our economic outlook, making it harder for them to get to work, to have a clean and safe neighborhood, is just too much for me to stomach. So I will be voting no.

All right? Well, if there's no other comments, we can take a motion.

Mayor, could I make one comment quickly? I just want to say thank you to our residents, our neighbors who have come and who consistently come to share their view and I think a view that's shared by a lot of people in our community. Obviously, I don't agree with every single cut we've made. I'm on year two of a budget and we're back to cuts again, which is not fun. But I'll just say, and I appreciate the comments from Councilman Cooper, what I'll say is good government is always based in good compromise. And I feel like while we are making cuts that I don't like, I think we're making the best compromise knowing the other investments outside of this budget that this city is going to make to address some of these concerns. So I'll point to the $50 million in the GALT bond that is going to help us support affordable housing in this city. I'll point to the One Transit initiative that we hope to support sometime in the next year or two that could put millions of dollars into our bus routes, into our transit system and trains, into our roads, into our sidewalks. This city budget is hard because of our limitations around the sales tax. And I think we've been very creative at finding other revenue streams to support our priorities. And so, again, knowing that this is not ideal, I appreciate the good compromise for our good government. So I'm gonna vote yes.

And I want to thank you for the hard work as well. I know Norman has taken an 8% across the board cut, which would be really hard for us to handle. So the fiduciary responsibility of our city is incredibly important. And a participatory, whatever, budget, if we only had 88 people responding until we put another call out, and then I don't remember what you said, 156 or somewhere in that, neighborhood we got to figure out a better way to get people to Participate there. I said it. Um, anyway, thank you Chris.

I appreciate your work All right any other comments Okay, well we could take a motion then on the resolution Item p2 We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes seven to one. Thank you for everybody for all the work. It's a multi-month process. I guess the next one kind of starts tomorrow, and we're very grateful for all the work that goes into it. Having said that, we're not quite done really with budget stuff. These next few votes are also relative to our budgeting process. And so P1 is a public hearing regarding amending the June 17, 2025 resolution approving certain fire expenditures. Amy, has anyone signed up to speak?

No, they haven't.

They have not. So we have the resolution then at P2 to be introduced and set. Q. Oh, I don't know why I keep saying P. Q, sorry. That was Q1, the hearing, and Q2, the resolution. So Q2 is a resolution to be introduced and set for final hearing on June 16th, amending the June 17th, 2025 resolution approving certain fire expenditures.

This adjustment to the resolution aligns with the budget amendment that was introduced, so both of those will be heard then on the next meeting.

Okay. So we can take up that resolution in Q2. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Next up is similar. R1 is a public hearing regarding fire sales tax appropriations. Amy, has anyone signed up to speak?

No, they haven't.

They have not. And so R2 is a resolution to be introduced and set for final hearing on June 16th regarding appropriations for the fire department. Anything else to say on that?

I think that's fine. The resolutions both for police and fire sales tax funds align with what was introduced and presented in the budget.

All right, well we have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. And then S1 is the public hearing regarding police sales tax appropriations. Amy, has anyone signed up to speak?

No, they haven't.

All right. So we'll advance to the resolution at S2, which we introduced today and set for final hearing on June 16th regarding appropriations for the police department. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes.

Passes seven to one.

All right, next up is item T. This is a joint resolution with the Oklahoma City Economic Development Trust certifying that Project Necklace, a proposed feature film project, is an eligible project under our strategic investment program's film incentive program. This would be an allocation of $28,963. And we have Jill Simpson.

Good morning, Mayor and City Council members. I'm bringing you an application for a project we've codenamed Project Necklace. And it is an independent film on a pretty small scale. It tells the story of a flamboyant former late night host's luxurious life. when it's shattered by a murder outside its house, exposing a conspiracy tied to a rumored $20 million necklace. This project is written by and directed by, not starring, but directed by late, late show host and podcaster Craig Kilbourne. And filming takes place, it actually, they started filming yesterday, June 1st through June 26th. The company is produced by Gorgeous Films, LLC. They're using a local line producer. 100% of it is filmed in Oklahoma City limits, utilizing Oklahoma City facilities. 97% of the workforce is Oklahoma City based, and anticipated Oklahoma City expenditures of $579,251, which is 77% of the budget. At their budget tier, they are qualifiers at 5% because they are spending over $500,000, and in this case, $579,251. Some of the other criteria, they're hiring more than 50% local crew, in this case, 97%. More than 50% of filming days in Oklahoma City, in this case, 100%. They are there are more than 50% of contracts with Oklahoma City vendors with an eye towards diversity in this case 96% and they're filming at one set studios here in downtown and filmmakers ranch and They're using two different post-production facilities in Oklahoma City a new one called us post house and also apex post they're pre-qualified for the state film incentive and And it is an uptick that they're using our sound stages one set in Filmmakers Ranch. Recommended allocation at 5% is $28,963. And here's a little bit of the breakdown. Local hires, 34 crew members, and when you take that across 20 days of production, that comes out to 680 man days of work, 97% Oklahoma City residents, 268,709 in labor income, and the use of three different, two different facilities. the Snapshot is 100% of filming days here 97% local crew 96% local vendors and the economic impact for this project the total impact is packed as 1.34 million jobs supported direct and indirect or 49 and Labor income, $505,156. And for their qualified expenditures of $579,251, the highlights are total taxable expenditures, $83,594. Below the line salary and per diem for crew is $238,709. And above the line salary at $30,000 did not have to be capped. Does anybody have any questions? Okay, thank you.

We could take up the resolution found at 11T. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously, and Vice Mayor Hinkle presiding.

Which brings us to U1, resolution authorizing the firm of Collins, Zorn, and Wagner to represent municipal employee Brandon Cobb in the case of Zachary Waller versus the city. A motion or two executive session? I don't think they need one. We don't need an executive session on this one, it says. All right, the motion passes six to nothing. Next on the agenda is items V, W, and X, which all three are requesting executive session. So if we could get three separate motions, please. And that passes six to nothing for item W. And that passes six to nothing. And the last one is item X. And that also passes six to nothing, bringing us to item Y, which is claims recommended for denial. Passing six to nothing. And item Z, which is claims recommended for approval. And that also passes six to nothing. We are to comments from council. Board one.

Thank you, sir. I don't really have a whole lot. I just wanted to say happy birthday to Councilman Stone-Seifer and Councilman Stone this week. Appreciate their service here.

Do we not have an age limit for councilmen? Ward 4?

Ward 6? Hey, we're low mileage. Ward 7? Yeah, it's just a quick comment. Tomorrow evening at 5 o'clock, we are having another meeting of the Ward 7 After School Coalition. And so, the whole focus is on how we can bring together organizations that are working on serving our students in Northeast Oklahoma City after school. and how we can share our resources, how we can work better together to better serve our students and our community. And so, we're meeting at 5 o'clock tomorrow at the Alpha Community Center at Garden Oaks. And so, we're excited again to keep that group organized. So, thank you. Board 8.

I wanted to thank the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Association of Realtors for being here today. It's my understanding that June is a national home ownership month, and if you are considering a move in the near future, there are certain services and businesses that are providing affordability calculators, which will help you in that process, so take advantage of that. I also want to welcome all our fans that are coming to Oklahoma City for the Women's College World Series. And I want to thank Craig Freeman for us again receiving the highest bond rating with Moody's and S&P for the 18th year in a row. And finally, the new US News and World Report that ranked us second in large cities, not just in Oklahoma, not just in the Southwest, but in the United States as being the second best city. I'm very proud of that. Thank you, Craig.

all right citizens to be heard um state your name you have three minutes and first on the list is ronnie kirk my name is ronnie kirk my address is 23 28 north mesura the month of june

is very special to me. June the 17th, 1970, General Patton, he liberated France from the Germans on the same day. And that day here in Oklahoma City, I applied and got city permits to hold Juneteenth, and I've been holding them ever since. You know, the Indians, they freed their slaves two years after they had been freed. But Oklahoma went on for another six years before they, in 1994, before they let the people know that they were free. When I gave that block party on 23rd and Missouri to Lottie, about 35 to 4,000 people came out. Wasn't no internet that time, but so many people came out. Our senators had to tell the people they were free. The cat was out of the bag there. The Oklahoma, I mean the National Juneteenth Committee is having a national meeting here on the 13th and 14th of June. They plan on marching down 23rd. The next day they plan on going to the library here downtown and speak. Oklahoma comes so far, you can't change the past. You can only make the past better. They asked me to be the grand marshal of the parade. which is an honor to me. I wanna say thank you all this morning, and Juneteenth is really special to me for many years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kirk. Yes, sir. Next up is Steve Hunt. Name and address, and you have 30 minutes, or three minutes. 30 minutes.

I can do that.

I bet you can.

This guy there were 30 minutes All right, Steve hunt 6300 Westwood Drive So obviously I was a little disappointed that we didn't have a better discussion on a French private equity firm Artemis getting three point eight seven five million dollars Which is interestingly seven hundred and seventy five thousand more than Swadley stole had he traded in his smoker for a suit he'd be out having a good time like Mr. Artemis, who's actually married to Selma Hayek, so he's living pretty good right now. So all the talks about the budget and things like that, I just go back to how much is being wasted on fees to equity firms. A couple months ago, I talked about a water contract that I guess was $22 million and bundled in as like a $400,000 management fee by the equity firm that owns it. This is even trickling this 2% business is even trickling to the Chamber of Commerce Last council meeting I came up here to talk about the 110 thousand dollar. I guess they called it a pass-through to the CBB The CBB now gets 18 million dollars from Oklahoma City taxpayers and is embedded in the Chamber of Commerce And it's interesting that the Chamber of Commerce ran the hotel motel tax campaign out of the CBB It's like okay. Let's have this vote where the people, you know a few people show up and and then vote for us to get a raise. As I was looking at the budget of the CVB, which is now $18 million for Chamber of Commerce to type vibrant over and over and describing things. I noticed something that was just incredible two things Okay, so in the budget of the CVB is 3.4 million dollars of salaries and I looked at their 990 filings and their highest and paid employee and the CVB is $240,000 for the guy that manages it and So I'm concerned that it literally says this in their budget three point four million dollars of the CVB goes to salaries So is that for the entire Chamber of Commerce? Also the craziest thing and this is this blew my mind when I saw it so I'm gonna have to find it again on the receipt of eighteen million dollars They tack on a three hundred and eighty eight thousand dollar administration fee. That's two percent. I chamber is billing taxpayers a two percent administrative fee for receiving 18 million dollars like like they have to like come over here and 30 seconds remaining money back and then we're we're paying them 388 000 for that have you has anyone seen this anyone it's crazy This is the kind of stuff that, and you know, folks talk about a participatory, like there are a lot of stuff that we need to look at. And this 2% nonsense, especially with the chamber. I mean, if you ever look at VisitOKC, go to search, type the word vibrant, it'll blow your mind. They say it 388 times. All they do is describe things as vibrant, which is an old chamber word. And all right, thanks.

We're gonna recess for executive session and we'll adjourn when we get back. Motion to adjourn.

So moved.