LAWTON – An ordinance that would have allowed Lawton’s city manager or his designee, instead of the Parks and Recreation Commission, to set operating hours for recreation facilities is headed back to the city attorney for revision.
The Lawton City Council voted unanimously April 12 to delay action on the ordinance for 30 days, giving the city attorney time to review the measure.
The Parks and Recreation Commission’s duties include setting operating hours for recreation centers, pools and other recreation facilities. But City Manager Michael Cleghorn and Parks and Recreation Director Christie James thought that task should be handled by the city manager, not the commission, James said.
There are several situations in which a rec center might have to close early due to severe weather or other circumstances, James said. Under current regulations, officials would have to meet with the Parks and Recreation Commission to discuss the situation and then ask the Lawton City Council to approve the closure.
“It just seems like more to go through than, probably, it should be,” she said. “The same thing with the pools, different parks. That should probably be more of an administrative thing.”
Councilman Sean Fortenbaugh said he understood that some circumstances require a quick decision, and he trusted Cleghorn or James to make the right decision in those situations. But he said he disliked the idea of transferring the authority to set recreational facilities’ hours to city administrators on a permanent basis.
“We’re short-circuiting the system, and we cannot get in the habit of doing that,” Fortenbaugh said. “So, I’ll make a substitute motion to deny this and keep the existing ordinance.”
Councilman Randy Warren said he could see Fortenbaugh’s point, but he suggested that the council should ask the city attorney to take a second look at the ordinance.
“Possibly, this might be one of those situations where we need to send it back to legal and maybe split the baby to allow temporary changes to be made at the administrative level,” Warren said. “We can figure out what temporary is, but any permanent change in operations times would have to come through the commission and through the council.”
Councilman Allan Hampton said he agreed that any permanent changes to recreational facilities’ operating hours should require council approval.
“When the citizens are actively using different facilities and engaging in those facilities, I think that they need to have a voice in that, and it needs to come to the council,” he said. “Because the council is the voice of the citizens, along with the commission.”
City Manager Cleghorn said the proposed ordinance was not intended to circumvent the council’s authority. He noted that the ordinance was designed to address temporary changes to recreational facilities’ operating hours.
“For example, if we have a playground set that’s been broken, well, we have to shut that portion of the park down,” Cleghorn said. “In the case of a small park, we might have to shut the whole park down. If a water main ruptures in a building, we’ll close the building.
“Those are all administrative, but they’re not permanent, not long-term changes.”
Acting City Attorney Tim Wilson said as the city’s top executive, Cleghorn can delegate the authority to temporarily change a building’s operating hours to the building manager or another official.
“I think the way we’re talking, Michael [Cleghorn] would keep that authority and they would act on his authority,” Wilson said.
In the end, the council decided to amend Fortenbaugh's motion. The revised motion, which passed 8-0, sent the proposed ordinance back to the city attorney for review.