Last Updated on July 7, 2020, 3:58 PM | Published: July 7, 2020
The City Council for the City of Oklahoma City plowed through over five hours of meeting details and discussion in a virtual meeting Tuesday.
The Council took action on the legal defense of a OKCPD officer involved in al lawsuit from on-duty actions, allocated CARES Act funds from the federal government, revisited their agreement with Costco to bring administrative offices to OKC, heard reports from the Planning Department, set a special meeting to discuss the city’s COVID-19 response, and appointed new municipals judges.
Legal Defense Funding
The Council considered whether to agree to pay for the defense of an officer, Kyle Holcomb, in a suit brought on behalf of a minor child. The suit seeks damages alleging that Holcomb used unnecessary force, shooting and injuring the child.
After brief discussion of the item regarding civil defense, the item was moved to Executive Session so that the case could be discussed openly among the City Councilors and Staff.
When Executive Session ended, the Council reconvened and voted to pay for Holcomb’s defense by a vote of 5-1. Wards 2, 6, and 7 Councilors James Cooper, JoBeth Hamon, and Nikki Nice did not return for the regular session and were marked absent from the vote.
CARES Act
The Council voted in favor of three Operation Agreements for CARES Act allocations.
The first Agreement was with the Oklahoma City-County Health Department for testing and tracing. The amount to be allocated in this arrangement is not to exceed $14,016,000.
An Agreement was also entered with The ALliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City. The Alliance will oversee $1,075,000 in allocations for their Business Support Program. $75k of that will be for administration.
The final Agreement was with the Communities Foundation of Oklahoma for a Resident Support Program. The total allocation for this is $13,125,000. $12.5 million of that will go to relive residents experiencing a rent or mortgage crisis. The program will take online applications beginning next week.
The CARES Act funds must be spent by December 30, 2020.
Costco Revisited
The Council was required to revisit a recent vote to allocate $3,000,000 in quality-jobs-incentive money to Costco.
In Costco’s report to the Council, the wage numbers used were based on Seattle-area salaries, not Oklahoma averages. The silver lining is that with that kind of savings, Costco plans to deliver some 500 extra jobs to Oklahoma City over the next seven years.
New Plans
The Planning Department presented two new amendments to the citywide comprehensive plan, PlanOKC.
The amendments are the new guidelines for historic preservation, PreserveOKC and sustainability, AdaptOKC. These new plans have been adopted by the Planning Commission. They are not regulatory documents, but are rather guidelines.
Special Meeting
The Council voted unanimously to hold a Special Meeting of the City Council on July 16 at 8:30 a.m. at the Civic Center. The meeting will be a briefing and discussion of COVID-19 issues with the Oklahoma City-County Health Department.
Judges
Judges Jason Glidewell and David O. Kiffin were officially appointed as municipal judges through July 1, 2022. Kiffin was also designated as Vice-Presiding Judge.
Additional judges appointed as Special Judges were Jeffery Black, Carson Carter, Marilyn Coulson, Klint Cowan, Robert Gifford, LArry Hazelwood, Gary Henry, Traci Rhone, Shawnae Robey, Sarah Stewart-Maldonado, Walter Suttle, Meltem Karla Tankut, Eleanor Thompson, Margaret Travis, Phillip Winters, and Paula Wood. Those tenures expire on June 30, 2022.
Columnist covering local government in Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County from May 2019 through June 2023.
