City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning. We're going to get started this morning with an invocation led by Pastor Brandon Scott of the Vine Community Church, and that will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Eagle Scout and Councilman Matt Hinkle. Please stand as you are able.

Thank you, Pastor Scott, and thank you, Councilman Hinkle. I call this meeting of the City Council to order, and we are on item three, Office of the Mayor, and I will head down to the front to present a resolution. And Jake Brown, why don't you meet me there near the podium. Well, Jake is our employee of the month, and we'd like to learn a little bit more about you, and so I would ask the clerk to read this resolution.

Well, Jake, you certainly exemplify the mission focused attitude that we have here at the city. And thank you for your dedication and for clearly going above and beyond. And now this is a resolution. And so we will need to pass it. So let's see if we can see if we can pull that off. So we would entertain a motion. We have motion in a second. Please cast your votes. I wish to vote aye.

All right, passes unanimously. Well, Jake, we'd love to hear a few words from you, and it can only be a few if that's what you prefer, but the floor is yours.

All right, let's show our appreciation to Jake. All right, now we also have appointments to the Employee Retirement System Board, the Convention and Visitors Commission, and the Residential Building Code Commission. Items B, C, and D we could take with one motion. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. And then we have item 3E, which is a resolution approving travel expenses for me to attend the APTA Transformant Expo in Chicago on October 5th. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously and with the necessary six affirmative votes. There are

Thank you. Next up, Item 6, Journal of Council Proceedings. We have Items A and B. We can take this one motion. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Next up, item 7, request for uncontested continuances. Items 11A and 11B are already listed to be deferred to September 29th. Mr. City Manager, are there any other items?

All right. Next up, item eight, revocable permits and events. Item 8A is annual Oklahoma River firework permit with the River Sport Foundation. And we have Seth Stevenson here to talk about that as well as I guess all the way through item D. So Seth, if you wanna take the podium and maybe just run through all of them and then we'll vote on each of them individually.

All right. Thank you for that rundown and for all you guys are doing. Well, we'll start with item A. This is the firework permit. Take a motion on that. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. And then I don't know, Councilman Pennington, if you wanted to say anything about the remaining permits.

Just that we're excited and looking forward to being there and just appreciate all the effort.

Thank you. All right, next up is item B, which is a limited revocable rowing and paddle practice use permit. We can take a motion on that. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. And then item C is a revocable permit with the River Sport Foundation for the Oklahoma Regatta Festival. Got a motion and a second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously. And then finally item D is a revocable permit with the River Sport Foundation for the Youth Rowing League Championships in November. Got a motion, second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously, thank you. Thank you. Okay, item

Got a motion and a second, cast your votes. Thank you. Passes unanimously. Item F, revocable right-of-way use permit with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to hold the Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk on September 12th. And we have Narissa Berry.

Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate the effort, and this is such an important cause, and so we are all in full support and appreciate everything.

All right, we can take a motion on the permit. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes.

Passes unanimously. Item 8G is a revocable right-of-way use permit with the Down Syndrome Association of Central Oklahoma to hold the Down Syndrome Festival in 5K on September 26th. And we have Josie Cohn and Sarah Sull.

Thank you, Josie. You're welcome. Councilwoman Hammond.

Well, it sounds like a lovely event and congratulations on 32 years and I'm happy to move for approval.

We have a motion and a second. Please cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Good job, Josie. Thank you. All right, next up is item H, a joint revocable permit with the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust and the Life Share Foundation to hold the Little Red Heart Run Walk social. And we have Jocelyn Stanley here.

All right. Thank you. This is Wards 1, 2, and 8, if somebody wants to jump in.

All right, we have a motion and a second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously, thank you.

Okay, now we'll recess the council meeting and convene as the Oklahoma City Municipal Facilities Authority where we have items A through G we could take with one motion. We have a motion and a second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Now we'll adjourn the OCMFA and convene as the Oklahoma City Public Property Authority where we have items A through E we could take with one motion. We have a motion and a second, cast your votes. Passes unanimously. We'll adjourn OCPPA and reconvene as the council where we are on item nine, the consent docket. There are no scheduled presentations. Is there a

Good morning. Good morning. I would like a separate vote on item BW, please. Okay. Thank you.

Okay, if there's nothing else, we have a resident who signed up to speak on items BJ and BK, Billy Lewis.

Okay, next up is the separate vote on item BW, requested by Councilman Cooper, so we can take a motion on that. Oh, may I say something? Sure.

Thank you, Your Honor. I'm gonna keep citing research from a Politico article, for those of you at home following, just do an internet search for Politico magazine. and the title of the article is Two Professors Found What Creates a Mass Shooter. Will Politicians Pay Attention? They do research with the two professors. One is Gillian Anderson. She is an associate professor of criminology at Hemline University. And James Densley, who is a professor of criminal justice at Metro State University. And they explored every mass shooting that has happened in this country. And there are a couple thing

I have a question. Yeah. Do we as a city solicit our police officers to the school districts or do they come to us asking for our help?

I know that more schools are very appreciative of you.

If I lose my voice by the time this meeting's over, that's fine, because I wanna linger on this. I'll note, counselor, and city manager, that while our schools are coming to us asking for law enforcement in these situations, our schools have also not just come to this body, but to the state legislature and to our federal government asking for funding for mental health counselors, and those asks go unheard. And we know from this same research that i'm quoting again 500 000 psychologists are the answer if we were to employ them in schools around the country at a modest salary of 75 i'm sorry 70

Thank you. Okay, we have a motion, or actually a potential motion on this particular item. Motion in the second. Cast your votes. Passes seven to two. And now we have the remainder of the consent docket we could take a motion on. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Now we're on item 10, the concurrence docket. We have items A through AC. We could take with one motion. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes.

Can I ask, on item AC, the gold dome, is this the only place on this agenda where we're going to have this item?

Yeah, so this is an agreement that was with the Economic Development Trust. And as you've, I'm sure, grown wary of me saying, the concurrence docket actually has no legal weight. So we are sort of acknowledging it, but we aren't actually a party to that agreement. But yes, that is the only place, right, that this is on the agenda.

And will there ever be a moment where we, it comes to us as an approval of what that is?

And again, sorry, I've been sick over the weekend, but... where in the news right now they're talking about the gold dome right is there an additional conversation coming to us for an additional allocation of funding for them that this is it this is it okay then i just would like to take may i say a couple words i've had people reach out to me and i just want to say this in public i've had people reach out to me who are concerned about there's kind of two concerns at once one is there's people concerned about the um venue operator for when we came and did this photo originally, they are very c

I appreciate you saying that Kenny because that. Those protections I think are important and I don't know that some of the people who voiced their concerns to me in the public are aware of those protections, so hearing those on the public record are important. And I thank you and Joanna for crafting those protections as well when we first have this item come to council, which leads me to the second concern that I hear. I don't share this concern. There are people, but I want to voice it, there are people, I don't know if they've reached out to you all, but there are people who have absolutely

I agree with obviously your views on at least making this attempt to save the Gold Dome. And I would also add, as we've said before, it was not as if this developer won some highly competitive process. This opportunity has been out there for years, very publicly. This is basically the only person who has stepped forward with any kind of credible proposal. lot of times it feels like I hear people comparing this proposal to some sort of abstract better option that has never actually presented itself in real life so I I like you wish wish him the best and I hope this this works out but at least i

All right, we actually, we have the vote open. There it is, now it's closed. Passes unanimously, thank you. Now we're on item 11, items for individual consideration. Items 11A and 11B were previously deferred, which brings us to item 11C, which is an ordinance on final hearing amending the no parking anytime restriction on the south side of Northwest 13th near Dewey. Councilwoman Hammond.

We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11D is an ordinance on final hearing establishing no parking anytime restrictions on the south side of Southwest 10th from Walker to Harvey and near other adjacent areas. Councilwoman Hammond.

We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. All right, item E is an ordinance on final hearing relating to the zoning and planning code. This was presented at a previous meeting. To remind you, this relates to solar panels in certain zoning districts, and there was a presentation. If there are no comments or questions, we could consider final passage of this ordinance change. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11F1 is a public hearing regarding the dilapidated structures here listed. Amy, has anyone signed up to speak?

They have not, and so we'll proceed to the resolution at F2 declaring that the structures are dilapidated. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11G1 is a public hearing regarding the unsecured structures here listed, except for one that was previously struck. Amy, has anyone signed or speak under this public hearing?

Since they have not, we will advance to the resolution found at G2 declaring the structures are unsecured. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item H1 is a public hearing regarding the abandoned building here listed. Amy, has anyone signed to speak?

So we'll advance to the resolution at H2 declaring the building abandoned. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item I is a resolution describing, creating, activating, and initiating an increment district previously designated as increment district number P as increment district number 20. And we have a presentation.

We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passed unanimously. Item 11J is a joint resolution with the Oklahoma City Economic Development Trust certifying that Project Buenos Aires, a proposed feature film project, is an eligible project under the Strategic Investment Program's Film Incentive Program, approving an allocation not to exceed approximately $89,000. And we have a presentation.

Thank you, Jill. All right, we can take up the item then, 11J. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. 11K1 is a resolution authorizing the municipal councilor to confess judgment without admitting liability in the case of Holloway v. Lewis and City of OKC. Executive session is not requested. We have a motion and a second.

Passes unanimously. Item 11L is a claim recommended for denial. Executive session is not requested. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. 11M are claims recommended for approval. Executive session is not requested. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. That concludes votes for the day. We're now on item 12, comments from council. Ward one. Ward two. Yeah, this is more, I think, for city manager.

I referenced earlier that some folk had reached out to me regarding grant opportunities, regarding counselors, funding counselors in Oklahoma City Public Schools, or just I'm gonna say Oklahoma City Public Schools, I mean schools within Oklahoma City limits. Specifically, the people who sat down with Councilor Hammond and me were, you might recall they did a presentation to this council, the Healthy Minds Folk, funded by the Inasmuch Foundation. I like to cite my sources. So I know I think we had sent an email to maybe your office about six months ago. There were some specific grant opportunit

Thank you. Word three? Word four? Word five?

I'm gonna step real carefully into this and go back two weeks to where we had the conversation about the flock cameras. We had 30 residents come and speak to us, give or take. Five or six of those weren't even from Oklahoma City. And at the end of the day, some of us got death threats to us and our families, which is very unacceptable, very unacceptable. The news stations reported that We completely ignored the citizenry. Well, 30 people out of 700,000 isn't completely. Ward 5 has two city-owned flock cameras in it. The city has 90 flock cameras in totality. And the HOAs of Ward 5 have 40 priv

I wasn't going to say anything, but I think I will now because I just kind of want to say welcome to my world. In 2020, I got death threats from police officers, people with identifying themselves as family members of police officers, fraternal orders of the police from not just Oklahoma City, but from across the country. And I regularly get just for speaking on issues that I'm passionate about. It's hard for me to feel anything but welcome to my world. Like I have specifically, the fraternal or the police has posted my photo and egged people on to come harass me, post my address online. So ye

Thank you. That concludes comments from council. Now we're on item 13, citizens to be heard. Catherine Mosey. If everyone who speaks would state your name and address and keep your remarks to three minutes or less, the clerk will warn you when you have 30 seconds left.

Ms. Mouzet, we're at three minutes now. Is there an opportunity maybe for staff to talk to you out in the hallway to get more of this background?

So I know that we have met before and discussed this issue. I think it'd be great for us to continue to follow up with Debbie Miller and the Public Works Department. I know that there are a lot of projects in the Galt Bond, but there's none more important than the one that's right in your neighborhood. So I definitely understand that. And so look forward to us visiting again with Public Works to see what we can do.

And we'll follow up. You left your contact information with the clerk on the form?

Thank you so much. LaShondon Kirkendall?

Thank you. That concludes Citizens to be Heard, which brings us to item 14, adjournment. And we are adjourned.