The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s board of directors voted unanimously to terminate the $200 million line of credit from Wells Fargo, approved a $1 billion bond issue and certified the routes of three ACCESS Oklahoma projects at a special meeting on Thursday.
The Council of Bond Oversight originally approved the Wells Fargo credit on May 17 but with attached conditions forbidding any amount of the $200 million to go towards the Tri-City Connector, East-West Connector and the South Extension Turnpike due to recent litigation.
Pike Off OTA, a grassroots organization opposing turnpike and ACCESS, filed a lawsuit prior to the May 17 meeting, claiming the OTA violates the Oklahoma Turnpike Enabling Act’s list of approved turnpike locations.
Another lawsuit filed on May 18 with over 150 plaintiffs accuses the OTA of violating the Open Meetings Act.
Thursday’s special meeting was called on Tuesday, with agenda items focusing on a new bond issue. These bonds can go towards all parts of the ACCESS Oklahoma campaign, not just the three routes listed in the Pike Off OTA lawsuit, including some that may not require land acquisition.
Oklahoma Transportation Secretary Tim Gatz said in a press conference that bonds will move quicker than a line of credit would and provide clarity to the claims from the Pike Off OTA lawsuit.
The board of directors also approved an application to the Oklahoma Supreme Court to validate these bonds, which Gatz said would bring certification to the authority’s ability to build the controversial routes.
“The utilization and authorization of the bonds carries us into that validation process that we think is very important, because everyone wants certainty,” Gatz said. “Again, we’re not sidestepping or going around anything. We’re actually moving quicker towards the resolution.”
Gatz added that the application to the Council of Bond Oversight could go forward onto its July meeting agenda, but no timeline was given on the Oklahoma Supreme Court action.
The board approved the proposed route alignments involved in the Pike Off OTA lawsuit. These alignments are “nearly identical” to the routes presented to the community at previous town hall events, according to OTA Deputy Director Joe Echelle.
These routes, though approved by the board, could still change following further environmental and engineering studies. However, Gatz said he believes the routes are “pretty close” to their final positions. The earliest estimate on when people could be contacted about their homes is next spring.
The number of homes that would be purchased by OTA to support the construction of ACCESS turnpikes is still unknown to the authority according to Gatz, who said the OTA doesn’t currently have the “level of refinement” to estimate that number.
Several protestors carried signs into the meeting and expressed their frustrations with the board’s decisions. Following the adjournment of the meeting, protestors yelled phrases like “trade your homes for ours” at board members.
Also, as the meeting ended, several audience members began shouting phrases like “hang your heads in shame.” I got this video: pic.twitter.com/oA56562GBH
— Peggy (@pegdodd) June 9, 2022
Amy Cerato, civil engineer and member of Pike Off OTA, said the two lawsuits caused the OTA to begin hurrying the early stages of turnpike projects, calling the meeting a “horse and pony show.”
“They packed (the agenda) full of interesting and difficult to understand language regarding bonds and how they were going to move forward, and, quite frankly, they’re moving faster than they’ve ever moved before because they’re panicked,” said Cerato.
Pike Off OTA served the authority the first round of discovery requests on May 31. The authority has 33 days from that date to respond to those requests.
