The Norman City Council delayed a hearing on a proposed strip mall due to a technological error and voted to allocate $27,300 of federal seizure and restitution funds for police equipment Tuesday.
Ward 7 Councilmember and Mayor Pro-Tem Stephen Holman took Mayor Breea Clark’s place at Tuesday night’s meeting, as she is quarantined in Costa Rica after testing positive for COVID-19 while in the country.
Sooner Traditions LLC first requested a zoning change on the corner of Lindsey Street and Berry Road in 2015 for a strip mall on a traditional residential space. Residents in the neighborhoods surrounding the zone have opposed the development since its beginning stages.
Sean Reiger, the legal representation for Sooner Traditions LLC, was scheduled to present in front of council at the Nov. 30, 2021 meeting. However, Reiger requested the council to postpone the presentation to Tuesday’s meeting to “continue working” on the project.
Around 20 residents attended the Nov. 30 council meeting to oppose the rezoning and were upset by the postponement of the hearing. Leslie Cornwell, who lives in the neighborhood behind the proposed strip mall, expressed her frustration at Reiger's request.
“This has been going on for six years. It has been postponed and postponed and postponed,” Cornwell said during the November meeting. “We all get so involved and think about it and talk about it and work for it, and then it’s postponed again. I finally thought this was going to be over tonight.”
Reiger’s request to postpone his presentation was approved unanimously by council and was supposed to appear on Tuesday’s city council agenda. According to City Clerk Brenda Hall, however, a technical error occurred and prevented the land use amendment from being placed on the agenda.
The Open Meetings Act states that meeting agendas can only be amended up to 24 hours before the meeting, excluding weekends and holidays. Hall said the error went unnoticed until the evening of Jan. 15, meaning she could not place the land use amendment on the agenda because of the weekend and the city’s observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Hall apologized to both the residents and applicant for any inconvenience the error caused.
Ward 4 Councilmember Lee Hall said she was notified on Jan. 10 that the applicant had requested another postponement to Feb. 22. Councilmember Hall said the last time the applicant’s plans were revised was the day before the November meeting, leading her to believe that Reiger's client actually had no changes to make.
“This tells me no progress has been made in seven weeks, even though the applicant was provided more time than requested. Asking to postpone another five weeks does not demonstrate a commitment to acting in good faith with this council or community,” Councilmember Hall said.
Reiger disagreed with Councilmember Hall’s comment, saying he and his client talked to several council members and were waiting to speak with Clark about architectural changes suggested by Ward 7 Councilmember and Mayor Pro-Tem Stephen Holman and Ward 8 Councilmember Matthew Peacock after she returned from her quarantine.
“We made every effort to do this in good faith,” Reiger said. “It was through the request of other council members to have a different architecture. That was the essence of that request.”
Because the land use amendment will automatically be added to the following week’s agenda, council voted to postpone both amendments to Jan. 25. Reiger said they will ask for a postponement to Feb. 22 at this meeting.
Several council members also objected to the funding for the contract with Axon Technology coming from the federal seizure and restitution fund. This fund is made up of the value of property seized by the state or federal government. While criminal forfeiture does require a conviction to be given, civil asset forfeiture does not.
The five-year contract with Axon Technology, which began in 2018, replaced the Norman Police Department’s tasers and provided a five year warranty, NPD Chief Kevin Foster said. The first payment of $163,338 on this contract came from the city’s federal seizure and restitution fund.
Holman motioned for the council to take money from the general fund to complete this contract. The vote on Holman’s motion failed 4-3, with Peacock, Ward 6 Councilmember Elizabeth Foreman and Ward 5 Councilmember Rarchar Tortorello voting against the measure.
Foreman said she voted against the proposal because she values council’s ability to equip officers with the tasers.
“For almost a decade, I did finance at a police department. … I feel comfortable moving forward with this. A less lethal option is always the best thing, and anything we can do to equip our officers with that option is safer for the public and safer for them,” Foreman said.
Ward 1 Councilmember Brandi Studley said she sees the need for the funding but couldn’t vote for the original measure because she is against the use of seizure funds.
“I don’t believe we should use money we’ve obtained from seizing property from people because we’ve seen in many cases where that property had been seized illegally,” Studley said.
Holman called using the funds “inherently wrong,” but he did not want to vote against fulfilling the contract. While it’s legal to use these funds, Holman said he didn’t believe they were ethical and would not support the use of seizure funds in the future.
Council voted 6-1 to fund the contract using federal seizure and restitution funds. Studley voted against the item.
Council also voted to hold a special election on April 5 regarding an increase in the monthly base fee of city water rates. This would increase the residential metered users base fee from $6 a month to $7.80 and the monthly water rates from $3 to $3.35.
According to the agenda, this rise would cover the capital and operational expenses of improvements to groundwater disinfection systems, water metering, water line replacement and operating costs for treating and pumping water.
