The Watonga City Council met in special session Tuesday evening.
It kicked off with the Watonga Economic Development Authority meeting. When questioned by council member Tina Willis, city attorney Jared Harrison explained there was an executive session planned for the council and those making the agenda felt it was more appropriate to hold the WEDA and Public Works Authority meetings first so that if citizens did not want to sit through a protracted wait for the executive session to end, they had already heard the rest of the matters on the agenda.
The single action on the WEDA agenda was to remove Deborah McGee, the former city clerk who has retired, from the bank accounts. The same action was on the agendas for PWA and the city itself.
Additional actions in the WPA meeting was to approve a payment to the second payment to BRB Contractors, the company building the sewage treatment plant. That payment was for $457,234.66 and was approved for payment by Garver, the city’s engineering firm. Council also approved making the payment.
The city council meeting itself – there are typically three meetings at each ‘city council’ meeting – contained the monthly update from R.S. Meacham, the city’s accounting firm. With three months of the fiscal year elapsed, the numbers seem fair. The city has $5.3 million cash, up some $263,000 from the same time in year prior in unrestricted funds. On the restricted side, there is $16,166,049. Most of that money is from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board loan for the water projects and is only available for use on those projects. That fund is down by $334,000 from the year prior, which is attributable, accountant Dacia Phillips said, to capital outlay and payments to the OWRB.
With 25% of the year gone, the revenues are budgeted at 25% of the annual total, which for the most part held true across the categories. Electrical income is slightly over that mark, at 31% of budget. That is because the hotter months occur earlier in the budget year.
Sales taxes are up $19,000 in September as compared to the year prior.
The council had a little trouble when it came time to approve members of the board of adjustments. The board deals with variances to planning and zoning. That body, comprised of five members, recently lost three members when an attempt was made to call a meeting. Those three members stated they were no longer willing to serve. It was the intention of the city to name three new members so that a variance could be heard soon.
Willis questioned how the new members had been selected and objected when told they had been suggested by employees. She suggested the appointments wait until more citizens were given the chance to volunteer.
However, Harrison pointed out, that meant the citizen who needed the variance would have to wait, too.
He had applied for permission to place a mobile home on a lot he had purchased and had made a deposit on the house. He was in danger of losing the deposit if the variance wasn’t heard soon, his daughter explained.
In the round, the council agreed to a temporary appointment of three board members for a single meeting. Then the open seats would be available to citywide volunteers.
Willis called this “Good cooperation, with us working together to help a citizen, but to get the best volunteer board too.”
The city is also in need of volunteer members of the police review board. Harrison emphasized how important it was to fill the seats and get the board in action so as to help the city avoid possible lawsuits. Residents are encouraged to forward names to their city council representatives who will send them on to the city attorney.
When it came to the long awaited executive session, the results were anti climatic. Wills said she saw no reason for yet another session to discuss the employment of City Manager Karrie Beth Little, as there had already been two.
Ryan Bruner said the first meeting outcome was to name Little the interim manager until a replacement could be found. The second was to wait to begin the search until a new council could be seated in April.
Willis exclaimed she had never voted to wait, but Bruner reminded her it was in the minutes of the council meeting.
Willis protested that she had misunderstood the vote and she wasn’t willing to wait until April to begin searching for a new city manager. “How it got to this is beyond me,” she said.
“A 3-0 vote, that’s how it was read,” Bruner shot back.
Willis reiterated she was not willing to wait. “I haven’t changed my vote and I’m not going to change my vote,” she said, although the minutes show she voted to allow the new council members to select the city manager after April 15.
She also asked Harrison what would happen to the city council if she resigned her seat. “Because I think that’s where we’re headed.”
Harrison explained it was possible to continue with two members, but the council would be limited in what it could do during that period.
The empty council seats are up for election in April, as is the seat of Mayor Kayla Ragsdale, who is filling an unexpired term.