Dueling Attorneys, Not Banjos, as Council Meets

One agenda item. Two typewritten lines. Ninety minutes of discussion. And when it was over, citizens were ready to call for "Dr. Phil" and his Relationship Rescue Seminar.
The Council meeting Tuesday included dueling attorneys and much discussion on elimination of risk to Grove's citizens in case of a lawsuit against the Grove Municipal Airport Authority.

The one agenda item was "regarding a request from the Mayor and City Council to the Trust Authorities of the City to transfer all titles of real properties to the City of Grove."

First up was a challenge from Councilman Larry Parham to Ron Cates, city attorney:
"Who hired you?" he said, maintaining the city attorney works for the council.
Cates replied that according to state statute in a Council/Manager form of government, the city attorney works for the City Manager. He suggested that both the council and manager get together on the issue but that the "prerogative lies with the City Manager."

Councilman Gary Bishop then brought up the question as to"conflict of interest with the same people serving on the council and trusts," as he has before. Cates replied that there is none, per the state attorney general, and in fact the general rule in most small cities is that trusts are mostly composed of elected officials. "Grove has more non-elected trust members than most other cities," he said. He also advised that in 1979 the issue was considered by the State Attorney General and ruled a no conflict issue.

The dueling attorneys portion of the meeting occurred when Donna Smith, attorney for the Grove Municipal Airport Authority put on a whiteboard presentation citing an attorney general opinion that "all the trust has is bare, legal title, the city has the beneficial interest in the property."
"In 46 years the airport trust has never had a lawsuit against it, while the city has been sued several times in the past three years," she said. Cates referrred to this as "smoke and mirrors" logic and reminded her that it was the citizens of Grove that really own the property.

The problems at the Monkey Island Development Authority and Tulsa International Airport were brought up by several attendees, noting that it was the trusts that caused the problems, not the municipal body.

Gary Tripensee, chairman of the trust authority, said "this is nothing more than an effort to break the trust" while Cates replied "this could be done with one vote, but there is no intention of doing that."
Earl Shero said "the trust will be eliminated if you pass this, you might as well go ahead and eliminate the trust."

Councilman Terry Ryan brought the matter to a vote by saying "we have three other opinions saying reduce the risk, and can anyone here say that risk is a good thing?"
"If you have the opportunity to reduce risk, you do it; no risk is better than some risk."
He noted that it was he who had requested the resolution, not the city manager, because he was concerned with risk.

Councilman David Helms then made the motion to request the transfer of property and it was approved on a 3-2 vote, with Councilman Bishop and Parham opposing.

(Please see Editorial elsewhere in this edition)

In other action, Cindy Threakill spoke on the need for improvements in the parking lot of her business, Buddy's Small Engine Repair, damage caused by faulty drainage during rain. She mentioned that the city manager and work crews had been to the scene several times in an effort to fix the problem but "we are just p**ing in the wind if we don't go back upstream and fix the entire problem."
Galletly said there was not a single fix for the problem, it is "area in nature" and agreed to report back at the Council's second meeting in January. The Threakill's would like their lot to be built up and repaved to avoid water collection which is ruining their parking lot.

Councilman Bishop reported that he is continuing to seek a solution to the city's cemetery shortage and would meet this week with a cemetery design firm, along with the city manager and Mayor.

Councilman Ryan read a statement supporting the proposed Wolf Creek Project and asked that it be put on the table for a future agenda item. He said the proposed project would be "an exciting addition to Grove."

Galletly reported that the problem at 13th and Main with the traffic lights being off was caused by ODOT crews who drilled into a large water line which then ran into the new electrical conduit; another contractor drilled into the electric wires for the new lights putting everything back. He said he hoped for a resolution to the problems soon, but that "it was not the city's fault and we are not able to get it fixed on our own."