LAWTON — Hilliary Media Group LLC has agreed to voluntarily dismiss an open records lawsuit filed April 21, 2021, against Lawton City Councilman Jay Burk and the City of Lawton.
After more than a year’s-long effort to uncover records relating to communication between Councilman Burk and other city officials, including members of the committee charged with overseeing the city’s hotel/motel tax rate increase proposal and implementation, we have been unable to find any such communication.
The result of this lengthy process has been that, insofar as Southwest Ledger has been able to determine, Councilman Burk made no meaningful effort to engage in any substantive, official communication with other city officials or committee members regarding the proposed increase or expenditure of hotel/motel sales tax revenue.
Counsel for the City has confirmed that the search of the public records regarding these matters was “thorough” and we have no reason to believe otherwise. The only possible conclusion we can rightly reach is that Councilman Burk simply did not engage his colleagues or the public in any meaningful way ahead of the proposed increase to the city’s hotel/motel tax rate.