Staff Attorney Sought by Council

Unable to agree on the selection of a City Attorney, Grove City Councilors have approved a motion to seek a full-time attorney to work on staff at City Hall, 40 hours a week. Action came at Tuesday night's regular Council meeting following a one hour executive session. The vote was 4-0 with councilor Gary Trippensee absent.

Grove has been without a City Attorney since Aug. 21, when Ron Cates resigned after learning the city was to issue Request for Proposals to law firms. Cates said he did not know that he was being replaced until the council Agenda came out a few days prior to the meeting.

Five law firms responded to the RFP and it is believed Council narrowed down the list to two firms, Logan and Lowry of Grove, and the Hartley Law firm of Vinita. Council voted 3-2 to reject Hartley at the Sept. 18 open council meeting.

Councilor Mike Davenport made the motion Tuesday night to hire a full time attorney on staff. Wednesday, he said there are several advantages.

"It makes more sense, in that any trust authority board member who needs a legal opinion on an issue can ask the attorney directly. We have plenty of work to keep him busy…the city ordinances need updating, and he can help with planning and zoning issues. We will be dealing with one single attorney, not a firm that could send a different lawyer to our council meetings every two weeks. The attorney will be guaranteed a salary and benefits and not have to worry about ups and downs in income. I think we will get some good applicants but in the event this does not work out we can always go back to the proposals already received. Let's give this a chance," he said.

Davenport also noted that he visited in person with Jot Hartley and came away impressed with his background.

Councilman Terry Ryan said he supported Davenport's motion and hoped the city would get a number of good applicants.

There are 457 towns and cities that are members of the Oklahoma Municipal League and it is known that two, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, have full time attorneys on staff, both in the six figure salary bracket. Attorneys for most small cities are employed on the basis of need, paying only for services rendered on an hourly or monthly retainer basis.

Previous Grove city attorneys were hired by the City Manager, following a state statute, Title 11 Section 10-119, which requires cities to have a "department of law headed by a city attorney," and Title 11 Section 10-113 and Grove City Ordinance 2-302 "the city manager shall appoint…all heads of administrative departments…except as otherwise provided by law."

However, City Ordinance 2-501 states that the city attorney shall be "appointed by the city council for a one-year term and removable by the council."

Title 11 Section 14-101 then follows up by stating "the municipal governing body may enact ordinances, rules and regulations not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of Oklahoma…"

One could argue that the "not inconsistent" phrase takes the hiring matter away from City Council and awards it to the City Manager. In fact, three previous city attorneys have stated that the City Attorney position reports directly to the City Manager, not Council.

Currently, only the City Manager and City Treasurer report directly to the Grove City Council, per state statute.

Council Honors Former Mayor, Discusses SMP Plan

Former Mayor Carolyn Nuckolls was honored with an appreciation plaque at Tuesday night's council meeting, presented by Mayor Gary Bishop. Nuckolls was cited for her 18 years of service to the city as Mayor, and service on the City Council, GIDA, and GMSA boards.

Council also approved a resolution requesting GRDA classify all water front adjacent to the city limits as a "responsible growth" area in the final version of the Shoreline Management Plan being developed for GRDA Board and FERC approvals.

Council also approved the low bid of $32,315 to Traffic & Lighting Systems LLC for purchase of a traffic light sensor system at Third & Main, which had been budgeted at $30,000.

Honored as Employee of the Month was Steve Brewer who has worked for the city for 21 years and currently serves as the Utility Line Locator for GMSA.

Hiring of City Attorney on Council Agenda

The matter of hiring a city attorney for the city of Grove will be re-visited Tuesday night at the regular Council meeting. Two weeks ago Council met in executive session to discuss five candidates, with one being nominated in public session, Jot Hartley of Vinita. The vote was 3-2 against hiring him and no other candidates were nominated.
At least two councilmen indicated they wanted to interview Hartley in person before reconsidering the matter.
An executive session items is on the agenda, as well as appointments of two trustees to the Grove Planning and Zoning Board. Council will also discuss a request to GRDA to designate all shoreline within the Grove City Limits as a Responsible Growth Area under the new Shoreline Management Plan under final consideration by GRDA.
Council will meet at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

Council Divided on City Attorney Hiring

Grove is still without the services of a City Attorney, at least for the next two weeks. A motion to hire Jot Hartley of the Hartley Law Firm of Vinita was rejected 3-2 at Tuesday's Council meeting and apparently the matter is dead until the next council meeting Oct. 2.

Council went into Executive Session at 6:31 and returned an hour later, then heard the motion by Terry Ryan to appoint Hartley as city attorney. Ryan and Mayor Gary Bishop both voted in favor of Hartley, while Councilmen Mike Davenport, Larry Parham and Gary Tripenssee voted nay.

City Manager Bruce Johnson had devised a formula and point scoring system to judge the city attorney candidates, included in the Request for Proposals to candidates. One source said that Hartley clearly was the winner using the point system, taking emotion completely out of the equation.

Hartley has more than 25 years of Municipal Law experience and currently serves as city attorney for Vinita, Ketchum, Bernice and West Siloam Springs. He received his law degree from OU in 1977. His proposal includes billing at special municipal rates at $130 an hour for Jot Hartley, and $125 an hour for associates. His firm drafted City ordinances for Ketchum and Bernice. The firm has previously reviewed Grove's Municipal ordinances relating to land use and zoning and if selected, would "conduct an immediate and total review of your ordinances," their proposal states.

Logan and Lowry, represented by David E. Jones, is believed to be high on the list of candidates, but does not list any municipal law experience on its resume. Jones received his law degree in 1990 from the University of Kansas. His proposal includes a monthly retainer charge of $1,750 for review of agendas, attendance at regular and special meetings of the City and GMSA. Other work would be billed at an hourly rate of $195 an hour for partners and $150 and hour for associates. His list of clients includes Precision Communications, headed by Troy Kyman, who is chairman of GrovePAC, the political action committee that backed councilmen Parham, Davenport, and Trippensee in April's election.

The formula devised by Johnson is as follows:

--35 points for experience and knowledge of Oklahoma state statutes and Grove Code of Ordinances
--10 points for monthly retainer and hourly rate
--25 points for professional qualifications and communication skills including total years of experience, honors or awards.
--35 points on past performance record.
(total 105 points available)

The previous city attorney, Ron Cates, billed at an hourly rate of $125 plus travel time and mileage from Owasso. Last year's legal services for the city totaled $57,042 including the trust authorities and defending the city against lawsuits.

(Editors Note: Since Tuesday night's vote at least two councilmen have expressed a desire to personally interview the top two candidates before voting again on the matter. What then, was the rush to bring this agenda item up before taking the opportunity to personally interview the candidates? One would think a personal interview would be mandatory before the decision to hire is made).

Council Makes Trustee Appointments

Grove City Councilmen have made three appointments to the Grove Industrial Development Authority board, one to GMSA, and deferred appointments to the Planning & Zoning Board because there were no applicants. Action came at Tuesday night's regular Council meeting.

Appointed to GIDA were Bob Henkle, Ed Hamilton, and Tom Ryan, although Ryan's appointment drew opposition from Larry Parham and Mike Davenport. Appointed to GMSA was Berwin Kock, who had previously applied to the airport trust authority board position which was filled by Tom Melton.

The city will re-advertise the two open positions on the Planning & Zoning board with a cutoff date of Sept. 27. Chairman Bettie Kardos-Bishop has retired and Norma Halterman resigned in August. If member Bill Miller does not return from an extended trip there will not be a quorum for the October meeting.

In other council action:

--a request for the Harvest Moon Cruise Night promotion was made and approved, for Oct. 12-13.
--Larry Parham was appointed as the council liaison to the Grove Airport Authority and he resigned as the liaison to the Grove Chamber of Commerce.
--authorization was given to sign a letter of intent for FAA grant funds and approval given for a fee of $67,000 for engineering work to Garver Engineers for completion of the Property Map and updating the airport layout drawing; completion of the Action Plan as required by the FAA, and engineering work on runway 18/36 for new seal coat and repairs and repairs to the aircraft parking apron. The money will be reimbursed by the FAA.

Cornerstone Church Rescinds Sales Offer

The board of Elders and Trustees of Cornerstone Church in Grove has voted to rescind any and all offers to consider entertaining and/or selling the facilities and property.

In a letter to Connie Brewer, chairperson of the Blue Ribbon Committee, Pastor Bill Lay said "it was never our intent to put our facilities 'on the market'--we have been approached about selling but never gave it any consideration."

"The only reason we considered it this time was because we saw the value this would bring to the Grove community. It seemed to represent a 'win-win' situation for us and the community. New city offices, theater, and aquatic park, in one location…would have been wonderful for Grove."

"It was a valiant effort for a noble cause which should have gone beyond partisan politics," Lay said. "I want to thank you and the Blue Ribbon Committee for all the work which you put forth in attempting to provide the Grove community with an outstanding opportunity," he said in his letter.

The Blue Ribbon Committee presented its final recommendations to City Council in July, which were met with deafening silence. Councilman Larry Parham said the numbers presented in the study were incorrect and the true cost of a new community center was beyond the city's capability at this time. He also said a new swimming pool could be built for around $1.3 million and he hoped that would be accomplished within a year.

The Committee had proposed purchasing Cornerstone Church, adding seats to the auditorium, remodeling the building for banquets, meetings, and other events; adding a 50,000 square foot building for large events like the Boat Show; selling the current Civic Center; and building a new pool near the Church location.