CHICKASHA – During Chris Mosley’s third and final two-year term as mayor, the nine-member City Council was largely unified; a split vote was a rarity.
But the April 2 municipal election altered that cozy dynamic.
With three new council members, 5-4 votes, and 8-0 votes with one abstention, are not typical but aren’t unusual, either.
The council narrowly approved an ordinance Sept. 3 that adopted the “Gateway to Chickasha Economic Development Project Plan” that features a pair of tax increment finance districts. The ordinance eked by on a 5-4 vote.
Two weeks later, on Sept. 16, the council again split 5-4 – with the same opponents – this time on a proposal to alter the Chickasha Municipal Airport Authority’s trust indenture dated Aug. 16, 1993.
A resolution proposed to amend the legal “purposes” of the trust to include, “To promote economic development, the development of the aeronautical industry within and without the territorial limits of the … municipality, and to provide additional employment which will benefit and strengthen the economy of the Beneficiary [the City of Chickasha] and the State of Oklahoma.”
Instead of the council having ample time to consider the proposal, “This one hits us at 5 something on a Friday, and 72 hours later we’re making a big decision about something that’s been in place, that has not needed any change for 30-plus years,” new Councilman Charlie Burruss said. “I’m very curious. Why would we change a primary purpose of anything that’s so important to our community?”
The City of Chickasha has made “a lot of changes at the airport,” which is four miles northwest of town, City Manager Keith Johnson said.
“We now have a permanent airport manager, which we haven’t had for some time. We’re building new T-hangars and box hangars, which should produce more revenue. We’re looking at plans for a new terminal building, to make it more attractive.
“We need to come up with long-term plans for the facilities, such as the hangars,” Johnson continued. “They’ve been there since World War II. They’re no longer functional and are an increasing liability to the city. They’re beyond their useful life.”
Those are the reasons for the amendment, he said. “No development has occurred in that industrial park. The intent is to help us with economic development opportunities, make the industrial park a more attractive location for potential light industrial.” The trust document as adopted 31 years ago “limits our ability to transact economic development business,” Johnson said.
The document is “really focused on benefiting government,” he said. Paragraph A under Article III, which spells out the purposes of the trust, “focuses on the U.S. government, the State of Oklahoma government, and the City of Chickasha,” he noted. The amendment “would allow us more latitude to market that industrial park to potential developers and generate economic activity on that ground.”
“If a developer comes to us” about setting up shop in the industrial park, “we cannot do business with them,” Community Development Director Rachel Bernish said. Under the existing trust indenture, “We would not be allowed to move forward unless we’re doing business with a government entity.”
The amendment would afford the CMAA “more options in the future, make it more flexible,” she said.
“We’re trying to create tools for our economic development toolbox,” said Mayor Zach Grayson. “That property has sat out there for 20 years and hasn’t done anything.”
The amendment “is a fairly minor change to the document,” and any improvements to the property would still have to come before the City Council for approval, Johnson said. “We have not been able to attract business to that industrial park. This would give us a tool to do that.”
Burruss asked his colleagues to “lay this aside” for a special City Council work session.
Veteran Councilman Brian Gerdes concurred. “We need a work session” on this topic, he said. “It’s been the same for 30 years.” In addition, “I’m concerned about tearing down those hangars from World War II,” he said. “They’re part of our history.”
Responding to a question from Councilwoman Kea Ginn, Johnson said the city has “mineral rights in that area.” Oil and gas proceeds “stay with the Chickasha Municipal Airport Authority; the amendment would not change that.”
Approval of the change would accord the council options, Johnson said. “We could sell the land outright. We could build a spec building to attract someone. Or we could entice a developer” to the industrial park.
After 46 minutes of discussion about the amendment, Councilwoman Georgianne Hebblethwaite ‘called the question,’ a parliamentary maneuver that ends debate and requires a decision to be made by a vote. “We’re circling,” she said. “We’re covering the same thing over and over.”
Ginn, Hebblethwaite, Grayson, Erica Alexander and Oscar Nelson voted in favor of the amendment. Voting no were Gerdes, Burruss, Kelly Boyd, and John P. Smith, another new member of the council.
Subsequently, Homer Hulme, who served as Mayor of Chickasha in the early 1980, criticized the council’s decision.
“That airport has expensive capital needs,” such as maintenance of its hangars, its concrete runway and two shorter turf runways, its terminal, lights and automated weather observing system, he told Southwest Ledger. “And that terminal is not overrun with activity,” he added.