City Council - Regular Meeting

We have a couple of minutes before we start. And I just want to make sure if you are wanting to speak on this one agenda item, you need to come up and see our city clerk and fill out a request to speak. And then you'll be allowed to speak.

Get my hearing aids set up. Settings.

I looked at all of the cups on the street and I was going to say something to you or Melissa or whatever. I don't know who did it. It's like little fairies or something came out of it. There we go.

OK, I will call to order this special meeting of the city council that's scheduled for August 5 at 630. We do have a quorum. Would you call the roll, please?

Kathy Griffith, here. Ted Porter, here. Melissa Hunt, here. Luby Williams, here. Adam Webb, here. Rob Clark, here. Mark Hamm, here.

And before I read the first item or the only item on our agenda, I did have just a quick statement I wanted to make. And I've written it down as I want to get it right. And that is that the city of Moore take seriously any concerns, as well as this council, take seriously any concerns That's raised about the operations of its departments. And of course that includes the animal welfare and our adoption center We do have a wonderful adoption center. It's a wonderful facility We have a staff that works hard down there to take care of the animals and to do our best to make sure that they all find homes and We care for those animals as best as we can Of course, the idea is that if you get a pet you take care of it yourself but often people don't do that and And then it falls on the city to take over that responsibility. But I don't intend to speak down to anybody, but I do want folks to understand how your city government works and that we up here, other than our city manager, we're all elected. And our powers or authority is limited by our power. city charter. The only person that we have any responsibility for, so to speak, is our city manager. He has seven people that he has to answer to. We hire him, and then it's his responsibility to run, to operate the city, make all the day-to-day operations, all of the hiring and terminations. And all of that stuff that happens falls on his shoulders. Now, he has a staff that helps him do that, so he's not making all of those decisions on his own. However, the city, per our charter, does have the authority to investigate, to look into, to inquire about the operation of any of our city departments. And we've had some ongoing issues at the animal shelter, and that's what's brought this to us today, is we are going to be inquiring, we're going to be asking, to about inquiring into the operation of the animal shelter so I wanted to just say that so that everyone at least in here kind of understands the roles of the people that are involved in this process so we we get calls and generally if it's a issue with the city employee I will forward it to our city manager as what I'm supposed to do. In fact, in our charter, it says that I can't give any directive to any city employee. If I could do that, well, then you would have chaos in your municipal government, because I would tell them one thing, and Melissa might tell them something else. So you have to have that centralized person, and that's our city manager who runs and operates the city. So item two. that we're going to be considering is to discuss and take possible action regarding an independent investigation of the city's animal welfare department, including possible liability issues, possible violations of state and municipal law, allegations of a hostile work environment, and any other matters related to the investigation including the formation of a committee to evaluate and interview law firms and attorneys to conduct the investigation and to make recommendations for retention by the city council. Council, do any of you have any questions about this that you want to ask? And then we'll take some questions from the audience.

I don't.

Mm-mm. Not at this point. I think we can hear them, and then we might have some comments. I'm good.

OK. Well, then we'll just go straight to the two that have signed up. The first would be Heather Boss. If you just, again, state your address and you'll have five minutes.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Heather Boss and I live at 3400 Elmo Way. I stand before you tonight because the people of Moore deserve more than sympathy. They deserve answers. So just months ago, this council heard from me and from other citizens asking for transparency and new leadership at the animal shelter. Well, you listened, or so the people were led to believe. The city hired outside the organization and the shelter began to change. Euthanasia rates dropped dramatically, foster and rescue programs expanded, and the public confidence began to return. Then, in a matter of months, a Moore resident is dead and the new superintendent resigned. Moore has faced lawsuit after lawsuit, and the public demands to know why. The city has faced litigation over the tragic death of Emily Gaines. It's faced litigation involving its water and sewer utility. And just weeks ago, the Moore Police Department announced it had completed an embezzlement investigation involving one of its own officers and has referred the case to the Cleveland County DA. And now here we are discussing allegations involving Animal Welfare Department after a superintendent resigned while the council considers an independent investigation into potential liability possible violations of state and municipal laws and other issues these are not small matters so tonight this community is demanding full accountability and transparency from its city officials at what point does this city council stop saying we will look into it and start demanding accountability when will you demand the truth and seek resolution no matter where it leads good leadership and good governance determines whether reform actually lasting with my involvement in the community I have heard that there are concerns about Authority communication and whether established procedures were followed I've heard reports that information may not have reached the superintendent responsible for leading the shelter and I've heard reports that the chain of command may have broken down these reports are serious and they deserve to be investigated thoroughly If they're false, clear the names of those involved. If they're true, those people must be held accountable. But do not leave the people of Moore wondering. If policies existed, were they followed? If they weren't, then who made that decision? If leadership knew what was happening, was action taken? If leadership didn't know, then why not? If the new superintendent had the authority she was hired to exercise, why did she resign only after a few months? If she did not have that authority, then who was preventing her from exercising it? And if the investigation answers those questions, will this counsel act on the findings, even if those findings are uncomfortable? Because accountability that only exists when it is politically convenient isn't accountability. i've also been made aware that according to information shared publicly attributed to multiple sources concerns were reportedly brought to the city manager brooks mitchell's attention before this tragedy those reports also allege that no disciplinary action followed that and then an employee later was returned to a supervisory role Look, I'm not here to tell you that those records are true. Open records in an independent investigation will absolutely do that. I'm here just to ask whether this council has the courage to find out. Because if the city manager and other officials acted appropriately, then the investigation will confirm that. If he or they did not, then the investigation will also confirm that. The purpose of an independent investigation is not to protect anyone's reputations. It's to protect the truth and to protect the citizens you swore an oath to. So I ask each of you, will this investigation have complete independence? Will investigators be free to follow every fact, email, report, policy, decision, and every level of leadership? Or will there be limits? Because if there are limits, then this isn't accountability, it's only damage control. A more resident lost her life. The animals entrusted to this shelter cannot speak for themselves. And the employees who tried to do the right thing, they deserve to know that they'll be heard. And the taxpayers who funded this shelter and city deserve to know whether their government is willing to investigate itself with the same integrity it expects from everyone else. And I am here on their behalf. Tonight your vote is about more than authorizing an investigation. It is about deciding whether the people of Moore will receive the whole truth or only the parts that are convenient. Leadership isn't measured by how we respond when everything is going well. Leadership is measured by whether we are willing to confront hard truths when everything is not. The people of Moore are not asking for perfection. We are asking for honesty. We're asking for accountability. And after everything that this community has endured, I believe that they have earned nothing less. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Becca Bean, again, just give us your address and you'll have five minutes.

Thank you. My name is Becca Bean. I live in Norman at 1116 Cadell Lane. I just want to start by saying thank you. It would have been a lot easier, a lot more comfortable to have this conversation behind closed doors, but you didn't choose to do that. You chose to be here with the cameras, from the news involved, with feedback from the public. And I think it really shows your commitment to transparency and your commitment to the truth and to bringing to light what needs to be brought to light. As Heather beautifully pointed out, at the last meeting we all left with some hope. And that hope was really reinforced when you hired Stephanie Adams-Hawkins as your superintendent of Moore Animal Welfare. And she did a tremendous job over the last four months taking your euthanasia rate, which was previously at anywhere from 33 to 40 plus percent, down to under 10% in just four months. She did that by instilling the programs that we all know work and that she knows how to instill because of her expertise, her experience, and her determination. I don't know if you all know, but her dad was a drill sergeant. She is not an easy egg to crack, and it would have taken a lot for someone like Stephanie to step down from a position that she wanted that she was succeeding in as far as the numbers of lives saved and that she does so well. And what my hope is is that you all will not only vote for this investigation to move forward, I believe that you probably will, but I think really that's where the work begins because What concerns me is one sentence that was taken out of tonight's resolution, and that is it was found in the previous document that was posted publicly for this meeting, and then it was taken out. And that sentence is, if the appointment is approved, the investigation may also extend to any other city department if information discovered during the investigation indicates such review is necessary. Why was that sentence taken out? Who would benefit from that being taken out? And most importantly, how are you going to ensure that moving forward, that accountability is taken all the way, that transparency is followed from the beginning all the way to the end, regardless of how uncomfortable it is, regardless of the implications to staff, to the highest levels of city government. My hope is that you all will make a commitment tonight to not kick the can down the road. It would be very easy to go ahead and say, let's have an independent investigation, but then let that be thwarted at every step of the way by the person or persons or whoever would benefit from this sentence being taken out. I really appreciate, again, the opportunity to be here, to hear from the public. We had tons of Facebook comments. It's easy to see that the people of Moore really care about what's going on, and it's easy to see that you do too. So I thank you and commend you for having an open meeting and an open mind to get the work done that needs to be done. Thank you all. All right.

Thanks. Thanks very much. And I can just speak that this, you know, we called this special meeting. I called this special meeting to address this issue because it had reached a point where this council, who the ultimate responsibility rests with us, each one of us. And so we will get answers. We want those answers. And we will, whoever it is that we choose to hire to conduct this investigation, they're going to present to us what they find, the facts. Right now there's just a lot of information out there.

A lot of hearsay.

And there's no way that we can answer every little thing. So we're going to... move forward and we're going to have a committee and then we're going to put those people to come together and we're gonna hire firm hopefully by this week and then we have to work out the negotiations with whoever it is that we hire and then we're gonna be moving forward and I all I can do is I've lived here all my 59 years and I love more Oklahoma and I am committed to ensuring that we have the confidence of the people that have elected us to represent them and to run our city government. Whoever it is that we hire, they're going to have complete cooperation from our city, to go anywhere that they need to go to talk to whoever it is that they need to talk to. And we will accommodate them and let them have access to any of our records that they need to review because we want the truth, period. And when we have that data, then this council can take action. But right now, we can't. And so we've got to find out what is going on, what went wrong. And if any of these things that were mentioned in the item that I read were violated, then we'll have to act on that stuff. And I promise you we will. We will do that. And if not, I know I'll be hearing from all of you. And that's wonderful. I want the accountability. And I would ask our city manager at this time, I think it'd be important that if you get any additional complaints about the shelter and its operation or things that are happening down there, if you would just forward those to all of us. and then you know if it's daily operations you know signing purchase orders and they you know something's broke or they need to buy yeah that's take care of that but if it's a complaint or something forward that to us and then we can figure out where it needs to go from there sure be glad to it would it would be helpful and um I've also visited with our city manager, and once we elect or hire a firm to conduct this investigation, there will be – I'm not here 40 hours a week. I have a full-time job, and so I can't – Monitor everything that happens here, but we are going to be working closely with Deidre. She's our assistant city manager She's going to be our contact person and she'll be working with this firm whoever whoever it is that we hire Scheduling interviews and doing all of that kind of stuff So we're doing everything that we know to do to ensure that it's going to be transparent now there are some things we probably can't tell you if it involves personnel matters and stuff like that not because we don't want to but because of state law and But whatever we can release, we will. But before any of that happens, we've got to hire somebody, and they're going to have to have time to conduct their investigation. And then once it's conducted and we get the report, just this council, the seven of us, will be the ones that get it, nobody else. And we will read it and meet and make some decisions on what it is that we need to do.

OK, in regards to the timeline, I would like to see us, if at all possible, hold those meetings potentially next week, because I would love to see whoever we're going to hire on the next agenda, if that's at all possible, because otherwise we're kicking it down the road and it's going to be September. And the next thing you know, it's going to be, you know, October timeframe. And I just if it's if that committee can get together and can and we can get those interviews set up, I would love to see that happen next week.

Mayor and council, based on the purchasing policies and the amounts, you know, that we have to do things with, my interpretation would be once you decide the firm that you want to hire, you can just go ahead and do that. It doesn't have to come back? Yeah.

OK. OK. Thank you.

I think you can just do it.

OK. Perfect.

All right. So we're committed to doing that as quickly as we can, but we want to get the best firm that specializes in this type of investigative stuff. So with that, and council, is there any other comments or questions that you may have?

Well, I know I appreciate everybody here. I'm concerned just like you are. I've been on the council almost two years, and it seems like we've been dealing with some of this stuff. I thought it was taken care of. It's not. And this is just my opinion. And with everybody contacting me, And I'm tired of it too. We got a $7.8 million animal welfare shelter that the citizens graciously gave us. And I'm one of those guys, I believe in communication transparency. And I don't have that right now is why I can't give a lot of answers. one of the things with this with what you know in my opinion when we do this investigation this will leave all departments and the city manager will be out of this investigation they they're going to report this firm is going to report to the committee that we have everybody anybody thing that they asked for they will be given there's not going to be no you can't have that this this is a investigation internal it's not being released it's not out to the media but I want to assure everybody The people that sitting on here that are elected are going to go follow through this and we're going to do it right. And if it takes a little longer than we want, it may. But I agree with Melissa. We need to get this going quickly and going because it's just it's hanging around. And regardless what we find, you know, bad or wrong, whatever we can release, we're going to address it. We're not going to get something and then just, you know, go on down the road. There's some things we can release, some things we can't. But I can assure you from my perspective, and I believe my fellow council people are going to do their best, and we want to know the same things that you do. We're limited, but we're going to find out now. We've come to this process, which is uncomfortable for everybody. I don't like having to handle this. But I was elected to handle this by the citizens of this community, especially those in my ward. And I'm going to do it. And if the truth makes someone mad, I'm sorry. I can't help you with that. But we're going to find out what the truth is. And so everybody knows. And we're not going to deal with this going on down the road.

And I would also invite some of the medias here, but you guys are welcome to schedule a time. Or you can just stop by, but it'd be better to schedule. And they'll give you a tour of the animal shelter and walk you through it. It's a beautiful place, and we'd love for you to see it. Anyone else have a question or comment? If not, we're just going to need a motion.

Make a motion to form a committee to choose a firm to do a private investigation. And with that, I'd like to suggest putting Mayor Mark Ham and Councilman Sid Porter and Councilman Louie Williams to be part of that committee. Second the motion.

We've had a motion and a second. Would you call the vote, please?

Kathy Griffith. Yes. Sid Porter. Yes. Melissa Hunt. Yes. Louie Williams. Yes. Adam Webb. Yes. Rob Clark. Yes. Mark Hamm.

Yes. Item passes. And those that were appointed to the committee, I'll be reaching out to you in an email probably later this evening. And item three is adjournment.

So moved. Second.

Would you call the vote?

Sid Porter. Yes. Melissa Hunt. Yes. Louie Williams. Yes. Adam Webb. Yes. Rob Clark. Yes. Kathy Griffith. Yes. Mark Camp.

Yes. We're adjourned. Thanks, everybody, for being here. And we'll stick around if you have.