WATONGA – The Watonga City Council met last Tuesday, July 20, to discuss a wide range of issues as the city prepares to hire a new manager and move its offices to Main Street.
During the meeting the council discussed police vehicle use policies; changes to the employee handbook; working with the chamber of commerce; and more. The city also hired a new municipal judge, William S. Blocker, as recommended by City Attorney Jared Harrison.
Harrison said he believes he and Blocker will have a productive working relationship.
“He’s somebody I know I can work with and, hopefully, kind of restructure the municipal court system,” Harrison said. “Make sure it’s running the way it needs to be, and the way we want it to be. … I can’t recommend him enough.”
Blocker, who attended the meeting, said the city court system was “kind of a mess” in the past and that he sees “some room for improvement.”
“The more efficient the court system is, hopefully it can bring in funds, but you don’t want your court system just to be a fundraiser,” Blocker said. “Hopefully, you can keep some of the folks that are repeat (offenders) – you can structure some plans that would help, maybe, find a way for them to not be the same goers every month.
“I do a lot of criminal defense work. You see the same faces over and over again, so hopefully, with some creative planning, you can maybe head some of that off,” he said.
Municipal courts handle violations of city ordinances; for instance, traffic tickets issued by Watonga police officers would be handled through the municipal court.
Law Enforcement Questions
During the meeting, the city council approved an amended agreement with the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office to provide dispatch services for the city; the sheriff’s office will also provide access to the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, or OLETS, which allows officers to run background checks, run tags and access other databases.
The new agreement ups the city’s cost to about $5,000 per month. Sheriff Travis Daugherty said his office feels this is a fairer arrangement for the service his staffers provide. The new total would pay for the salary and benefits of about 1.5 county dispatchers.
Daugherty said the county currently has nine dispatchers/jailers on staff, plus two part-timers.
“I feel like, as far as the county’s sake, we provide the majority of the dispatchers that dispatch for everybody, but you guys (in Watonga) have the most calls, as far as the umbrella of Blaine County,” Daugherty said.
The council agreed to up its contribution for dispatchers. Later in the meeting, councilmembers returned to their discussion from last month about Watonga police officers’ use of work vehicles while off-duty. The council is interested in amending the city’s current policy to rein in where officers can drive their squad cars, but interim Watonga Police Chief Aaron Vales urged the council to wait.
Vales wants the policy to allow officers to take their vehicles anywhere in Blaine County, he said. One of his officers lives near Greenfield, he said, meaning his response time would be astronomical if he were called into quick action and had to drive back to the police station to transfer from his private vehicle to his police vehicle.
Mayor Bill Seitter was concerned that living so far away makes response time essentially irrelevant, as it would take that officer at least 15 minutes to drive to Watonga. The council ultimately decided to hold off on any action for now. The city is expecting a report as soon as next month from Oklahoma Municipal Management Services, which will make recommendations on policy and procedure changes that could improve the WPD.
The report might help councilmembers decide how to proceed on this question, they agreed.
During the meeting, the council also:
• Approved a healthy financial report from RS Meacham
• Adopted an updated version of the City of Watonga Employee Handbook, which includes more specific language about employee behavior
• Approved a lease agreement with the Watonga Chamber of Commerce for office space in the new City Hall building at 410 W. Main St. The chamber will have its own entrance and will provide marketing services to the city in exchange for the space
• And agreed to reexamine the rules about fireworks use in city limits at a future meeting
The council then reconvened in a meeting of the Watonga Public Works Authority which, most notably, greenlit upgrades to the Watonga electrical substation and discussed its financial obligations under the lease agreement between the city and Mercy Hospital.
The council ended its evening with an executive session to discuss candidates for Watonga’s city manager position. Interim City Manager Larry Mitchell will be leaving the role once the council selects a replacement; he has served as interim manager for well over a year.