Grove City Manager Appears in Court

Grove City Manager Bill Galletly voluntarily surrendered himself to law enforcement officers at the County Courthouse in Jay Friday morning when he learned of a pending arrest warrant on two counts of Splitting of Contracts, a misdemeanor.
He appeared before Special District Judge Alicia Littlefield who set a court date of Sept. 12 at 9:30 a.m. and was released on an Own Recognizance Bond, approved by Judge Robert Haney. Galletly was then fingerprinted and booked at the Sheriff's office.
The action surprised Sheriff Blackfox who said earlier he knew nothing about the arrest and had not seen any paperwork on it. The Probable Cause Affidavit was signed at 9 a.m. Friday by Judge Haney, just 30 minutes before Galletly appeared. Sources said Galletly learned of the pending arrest late Thursday afternoon.
At least a dozen Grove residents were in the courtroom, including Mayor Carolyn Nuckolls, two city councilmen, and Larry Hestand, owner of KGVE Radio.
The Information document filed in the case alleges that Galletly did "willfully and knowingly commit the crimes of Splitting of Contracts."
Count One alleges that the defendant split the public construction contract commonly referred to as the "White Building Project" into multiple partial contracts for the purpose of avoiding the requirements of the Oklahoma Competitive Bidding Act of 1974.
Count Two alleges that the defendant split the Public Construction Contract commonly referred to as the "Grove City Hall Remodel Project" into multiple partial contracts for the purpose of avoiding the same requirements.
Both crimes are punishable by a fine of $1000 and one year in the county jail.
The probable causes affidavit states that Randy Mathia of the Delaware County District Attorney's office interviewed Robert L. Jackson, a former GMSA employee regarding the White Building Project.
The Oklahoma Competitive Bidding Act requires all public construction projects in excess of $25,000 to be formally bid and Section 131 of that act prohibits splitting contracts into smaller amounts so as to avoid the requirements of the Act.
The alleged offenses took place between Nov. 29, 2004 and July 12, 2005, in the case of the White Building Project, and between Feb. 23 and June 20, 2005, for the city hall project, according to the Information filed. Total purchase orders for the White Building Project were $114,493.74, and $41,526.25 for the city hall project, according to the Affidavit.
"This is nothing more than another attempt to get rid of Bill Galletly, by the side that opposed his hiring from Day One," said one observer. According to reports, the original complaint was filed by Earl Barnes of Grove, on the White Building investigation. The White Building is the site of Rocket Gaming east of Grove.