Good morning. We're going to get started with an invocation led by Pastor Jennifer Bergland of Metroplex Church of the Nazarene. And that will be followed by the pledge of allegiance led by McKenzie Gibson from Girl Scout Troop 156. Please stand as you are able. Let us pray. Our most gracious heavenly father, we lift up a city marked not only by resilience, but by the everyday kindness of neighbors who show up when it matters most. A city known not just for what it has achieved, but for how its people care for one another. With kindness that shows up unannounced, with a generous spirit that steps in when there's a need and with a community that still believes in being good neighbors. So we pray for those entrusted with leadership on their behalf. We ask that you give them clarity and discernment as they try to balance all the competing needs before them. Help them to know when to compromise and when to stand firm. Help them to resist the urge to win at the ex at the expense of the greater good. We recognize the weight they carry as they listen to many voices and respond to diverse needs. Grant them wisdom and unity as decisions are made that affect the lives of so many. And finally, as we continue to mark the solemn anniversary of April 19th, 1995, may we pause to remember those whose lives were lost and the families forever changed. May their memory inspire us to build a city shaped by compassion, strengthened by unity, and committed to peace in Jesus name. Amen. Please join me. Please join me. Join me. I pledge aliance to the flag, United States, States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, and indivisible, liberty, and justice for all. Good job. Thank you, Pastor Bergland, and thank you, McKenzie. I call this meeting of the city council to order. And uh we're going to start with item three, office of the mayor, and a couple recognitions for which I will make my way to the front. Lisha, why don't you join me down front? You are our employee of the month and we'd like to learn a little bit more about you and so I would ask the clerk to read this resolution. Whereas Lisha Meyers has served as a city employee for seven years and is a unit operations leader in the police department's records division. And whereas Lisha consistently demonstrates professionalism, dependability, and a strong work ethic in her role. And whereas Lisha is widely respected for her generosity, kindness, and dedication to her colleagues, helping foster a workplace culture rooted in support, camaraderie and respect. And whereas Lisha goes above and beyond exemplifying her commitment to her responsibilities, team, and the community. And whereas Lisha delivers outstanding customer service, handling challenges with professionalism and grace while strengthening relationships and enhancing the reputation of her department and the city. And whereas Lisha's leadership and innovative thinking drive continuous improvement, increased efficiency, and meaningful collaboration across her team. And whereas Lkesha's reliability, selflessness, and forward thinking inspire those around her and contribute to a stronger, more efficient organization. And whereas this council desires to recognize Lakesha Myers for her extraordinary service and contributions to the city of Oklahoma City. Now therefore, be it resolved by the mayor and council of the city of Oklahoma City that they do hereby thank and commend Lkesha Meyers, April 2025 South Oklahoma City Kowanas Club employee of the month. Well, thank you. Well, Lkesha, we're very grateful uh for your service. Thank you. Winning this award is also a recognition and reminder that there's a lot of people in our uh police department that are not police officers, that we have a uh a lot of great staff that uh makes our uh public safety operation run. So, thank you for all that you do. Now, this is a resolution. So, we want to go ahead and see if we can get a motion in a second for this. We have it. Please cast your votes. I wish to vote I. passes unanimously. Now, we'd love to uh hear a few words from you. If you if you would like, Lisha, the floor is yours. Thank you, mayor. I just want to say what an honor it is to receive this award and that it wouldn't have been possible without my police department family who so graciously joined me here today. I have my uh supervisor, Captain Wis, who's been a big support for myself. My great friends, Officer Lambbeath and Marine Cassidy. I could not have done this job without you. My uh friends over at CIU and upstairs. I just want to say what a great honor it is to be here and that I will continue to do my best to serve the great city of Oklahoma City. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Let's hear for Lakesha. Thank you so much. Congratulations. [Applause] Well, now we are going to say goodbye, but not really because he is such a city leader that we work with on any number of fronts. Um, but we have been so grateful to work with you in this capacity for the last few months, Councilman Lee Cooper. And though James Cooper will miss you, he'll probably not miss that. I have to keep saying James Cooper, Lee Cooper, you know, every single meeting. Now I can go back to just Councilman Cooper with him again. But um but we have really enjoyed being with you. And I would like to point out, it's a little historical. I think there's really only been a handful of uh council members in this city that have served twice and uh and you are now completing your second tour of duty here at city hall. And I'll tell you what, I'm sure I speak for everybody up here. take you back someday if uh if you ever want to come for a third run. But uh we would love to uh be reminded of uh all of the ways that you have served this community both on this council and otherwise. And so I would ask the clerk to read this resolution. Whereas Councilman Lee E. Cooper Jr. was born and raised in Oklahoma and has held leadership positions in the ministry, government, and his community for more than three decades. And whereas Councilman Cooper earned his undergraduate degree from Bishop College, Master of Divinity degree from the School of Theology at Virginia Union University, and Doctor of Humane Letters at Virginia University of Lynchber. And whereas Councilman Cooper has served as senior pastor of Prospect Missionary Baptist Church since 1987 and as chaplain of the Oklahoma State Senate, providing spiritual guidance to both residents and state leaders alike. And whereas Councilman Cooper previously served on the Oklahoma City Council in 2018 and was reappointed by the council to represent Ward 7 in November 2024. He has actively engaged with residents, organizing and participating in numerous community meetings to ensure that he effectively represents the interests of Ward 7. And whereas Councilman Cooper has served on the maps 3 citizens advisory board, planning commission, trails advisory committee, urban renewal authority and redevelopment authority, the riverport foundation board, and the zoo trust. And whereas Councilman Cooper has championed major initiatives including the staging of Los Angeles Olympic events in Ward 7 in 2028, the public safety partnership and the prioritization of infrastructure projects for the proposed 2025 general obligation bond program. And whereas Councilman Cooper serves on the board of the Freedom Center, plays a key role in the planning of the maps for Clara Looper Civil Rights Center, and co-chairs the effort to commemorate Oklahoma City's sit-in movement with a major monument in downtown Oklahoma City, all of which help honor and preserve Oklahoma City's significant role in the civil rights movement. And whereas Councilman Cooper has demonstrated leadership in both community and faith-based organizations, serving on the boards of One Church, One Child, Kip Reach College Preparatory School, Southwestern Urban Development Corporation, and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, and as past president of the Progressive Oklahoma Baptist State Convention. And whereas, Councilman Cooper made history as the first black member of both the Capitol Baptist Association Committee and the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the mayor and council of the city of Oklahoma City that they do hereby recognize and commend Lee E. Cooper Jr. for his dedicated service to Ward 7 and all residents of Oklahoma City and extend their best wishes for his future endeavors. Well, thank you. Well, that was uh a great survey of the ways that you have and we'll continue to serve our community and uh think we'll probably have some appointments to some boards coming up uh next week or after uh to get you back uh into that mode of service. And uh and as was referenced in here, I know that we will stand shoulder-to-shoulder sometime uh in the next few months to open uh to cut the ribbon on that uh awesome monument that's going to recognize the sitin movement here in downtown Oklahoma City. So many many things that you're involved in and uh and a nice legacy certainly in this particular role that you leave. As was just referenced uh one of your last votes was to bring the Olympics towards seven. So how cool is that? So, uh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your service and we would love to hear a few words from you, Councilman Lee Cooper. Thank you, uh, Mayor Hope. And certainly it is my privilege to be able to serve with such fine leadership in our city. No one no wonder our city is the greatest city in these United States. It's because we have fantastic leadership. Uh thank you Craig for serving with you as well uh city manager and then all of the council greatest council in the world and so uh it's not that we always see eye to eye but we're committed always to work together and to work through any differences that we may have and that makes us the great council that we are. I thank certainly want to thank all of the staff particularly chief of staff uh Debbie Martin uh and all of the staff that has been wonderful in the city. All of our leadership our city leadership has been great. I am committed to a number of principles. Two of which is this. No greater love than any man has than he would lay down his life for a friend or for others. I've uh heard my parents as they raised me in Oklahoma City, they said to me, "Service is the rent that you pay for the space that you occupy." And so I've lived my life in service. And it has been my privilege to serve Oklahoma City and with you, Mayor Hope, and with this council. Uh just wonderful uh opportunity. Thank you for the privilege of being able to do that. uh this the second time and I hope you don't have to call me a third time but uh this the second time I was grateful to serve and will continue to serve this city in any way in any capacity that I can and so thank you. I want to acknowledge my mother-in-law and my father-in-law who is here with us today. My wife was here earlier. She had to leave uh but want to acknowledge them as well. So thank you so very very much uh Mayor Hope. Absolutely. Let's show our appreciation to Councilman Cooper. And as we take our seats, if anybody wants to say anything uh on the council, now might be a good time. You want me to go ahead and speak, mayor? Yeah, go ahead. So, Councilman Cooper, as someone that's had the opportunity to serve with you twice, I just I've got to say, uh, both times, uh, it's really been a privilege for me. And, um, I've always admired the way that you operate, the way that you work with others, and the way that you work with our constituents and everyone else in trying to get things resolved and make sure they're positively moving forward. And I appreciate that very much. And I can tell you, I've learned a tremendous amount just watching the way you operate and watching the way you communicate. And uh thank you so much for your service and I really do appreciate you. Thank you. I want to echo Todd said it very eloquently. um your civility, your kindness. Um it has taught me a lot and um but the most important thing has been your friendship and every time I see you there's always a big smile on your face and it just brightens up my day. So we are going to miss you. I promise. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else want to jump in? Okay. Yeah. I I'm sorry. Go ahead, James. I was just going to echo these gentlemen. I it's been an honor and a pleasure to get to meet you and just the wisdom that you've imparted on us and just the short period of time you've been here. Um unfortunately it's it's come to an end. I wish you would still be here, but I appreciate all that you've done and the and the grace that you've handled it with. So, thank you so much. Um, once I went into your office to speak with you and I don't remember what it was, but you just it was a topic and you said that you supported me on this topic. In my brain, I immediately just rushed to like, okay, well, now I got to work on this topic a little bit more. And then you just paused and you looked at me and go, no, James, I support you. And suddenly the world stopped. Like I'm I don't know how to describe it. the world just stopped and I paused and I realized I needed to be very present in that moment. Uh Mayor, you posted recently about tomorrows and how too often we get wrapped up in tomorrow and thinking about worry and so I was worried about well can I get everyone else's support? I don't know. But it was just the way you paused in that moment. You're like, "No, James." And you just put me in a very present moment. And suddenly, I just saw all of this city's history rush before my eyes. I saw your service in church. I saw your service for this city in terms of the council. Um, being the first biracial black person to ever serve outside of W 7, I saw this moment. I saw your works that had long preceded me and it just paused me and made me be very present. And I think too often in this life we're not present. Too often in this life we're worried about tomorrow and I will always remember the moment that you slowed me down. That's hard to do to me as most people know. But so you accomplished quite the feat and I I will be till my dying day grateful because you're one of the few people who've been able to ask me to slow down and exist in the present. So thank you for the service you did for me and thank you for the service you've done for so many of our uh our neighbors. I want to echo everything everybody else said and thank you for your grace and can you teach us how to slow James down? No keys. Yeah. I I just I appreciate so much your wisdom that you bring to every situation and the way that you show such care for everybody on every side of every issue whether they agree with you or not. And I really think it's a great example for all of us and how we conduct ourselves. So, thank you. By the way, this is a resolution and Amy reminded me we haven't actually voted on it yet. So, uh, let's get a motion motion and a second on the resolution. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Again, Councilman Lee Cooper, we are so grateful for your service. Thank you. It's been an honor. Um, all right. Well, proceeding through office of the mayor, we have some appointments. Uh, we have appointments now. The item CD and E, appointments to the airport trust, the riverfront redevelopment authority, and the water utilities trust. We could take with one motion. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. All right. Uh now we're on item four, items from council. We have a couple items from the judiciary committee. Uh item A is a resolution appointing Edward Hasbrook as municipal judge. Uh Councilman Mark Stoneer who serves as chair of judiciary. You're recognized. Uh thank you, your honor. Um Ed Hasbro, um I just have to say a couple of things about him. He has this great demeanor, uh, great judicial temperament. He loves his job. Uh, in our annual judicial survey, he always ranks out very high. So, it's with great honor that I ask the council to, uh, pass this resolution for his employment from July 1, 2025 through July 1, 2027. I'll make a motion at this time, please. All right. Got a motion and a second coming. cast your votes for item A passes unanimously. And then item 4B is a resolution adopting employment policies and procedures applicable to appointed members of the municipal criminal court. Um also coming from the judiciary committee, Councilman Stone Cipher. Thank you. Um Paula Kelly uh was kind enough to write some materials for me to make sure I get this right and don't make a mistake. There are four positions in the city organization appointed by the city council. That being the city manager, the city auditor, the municipal counselor, and the municipal judges. The city council has adopted employment policies that apply to all city employees, and that was done last u August of 2024. Uh the auditor and the municipal counselor have adopted those same policies with some modifications. The judiciary committee has taken the lead of the auditor and the municipal counselor and is recommending that the council today adopt the city's employment policies for application to the municipal judges with some modification. But before um I make that motion, there are a lot of people that worked really hard on this. I want to thank uh retired judge Valerie Couch, Diana Barry, John Morris wi Williams, uh Lean Thompson, um Debbie Martin, um the all the members of the judiciary committee, but most importantly, I want to thank um Deputy Municipal Counselor Paula Kelly. One night, she worked on this till 2 in the morning. I also want to thank Laura McDivet. Uh, a lot of people put a lot of time in on this and I think it's a really good thing for the court. So, I would make a motion to pass this resolution at this time. All right, we'll take that motion and second and cast your votes. Oh, when you get a chance. Here we go. Passes unanimously. All right. Thank you, Councilman Sen Cipher, for the work of the Judiciary Committee. Item five, city manager reports. Mr. City Manager, thank you, Mayor. Uh, we just have two items on today. Uh, claims and payroll is on. You can find that at okc.gov. We also have the status update on our city's ARPA program. You recall we got about just a little over $122 million in ARPA funds. Um, all of those had to be committed by December of 2024 and we were able to accomplish that. We had three categories. Uh, one of the categories was revenue replacement where it was offsetting revenue losses that we experienced through the pandemic. Um, and there's a lot of capital projects tied to that. So, overall, we've spent we spent about 30% of the funding. We have to have all of the funds spent by December of 2026. And we are confident we're on a good path to be able to do that. Some projects are coming in over budget and we're working to try to address those. Some projects come in a little bit under budget. We did approve a resolution. The council approved a resolution to allow us to be able to move between projects within a category. Gave us some flexibility so that when we do have changes in projects, we can address that. So, we'll continue on and keep you updated as we move forward with this project. It's a rather lengthy report that goes through every project. If you have any questions, we can follow up with staff and with getting back to you with you later if you need it. So, that's all that I have. All right. Thank you. Item six, Journal of Council Proceedings. We could take items A and B with one motion. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item seven, request for uncontested continuences. Um I would note that already on the agenda we have item 9BJ is going to be struck. Item 11 C will be deferred to May 20th and item 11 G1 through3 is withdrawn. Anything else, Mr. City Manager? Yes. Starting on page Starting on page 13 under unsecured structures on item 11, J1. Item B, these items are all stricken from the agenda. Item B, 2500 Cummings Drive. The owner has occupied the pri uh the house. And then item M 105 Southwest 39th Street. Uh the owner has secured. Continuing on page 14, item 11 K1, item B, 2500 Cummings Cummings Drive. Uh the owner has occupied the house. That's all the items that I have. Okay. Item eight, revocable permits and events. There are none today. And so we will recess the council meeting and convene as the Oklahoma City Municipal Facilities Authority where we have items A through G. We could take with one motion. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. will adjourn OCMFA convene as the Oklahoma City Public Property Authority where we have items uh A through C. We do have I believe a brief presentation on item A. Uh Sue Hollandbeck is coming to uh speak on this project. I think we've got it actually showing up on the PPA and we have it on the UN indiv items for indiv individual consideration as well. I was going to have her go ahead and present on the PPA but I'm not seeing her come in. These are mostly administrative changes, but there were enough that I really wanted us to give a high level. So, if we could approve that here and then go ahead and do that catcher on the uh second. Yes. Yes. All right. Well, yeah. Yeah. If I guess if you vote yes now, you still have a chance to vote no later. So, I don't I apologize for that. No worries. All right. We'll uh we'll take A through C then with one motion. Oh, there she is. Sorry. Great. Sorry. I apologize. Sue Holland, special Is this on? Sue Hollandbeck, special projects manager. uh for the resolution for the policy change in the booking policy for the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau or for the um convention center. So there are just some basic changes on this. The original policy was done in 2018 before the building was even built and we're just modernizing what that policy means. So the basic ones are changing the booking guidelines for the number of months out. So, we started at 60 months. That's five years. It be it's just not it's it doesn't work that way anymore. So, we're booking things that are closer in time. So, we changed that from uh 60 months out to 48 months out. Changed the the peak number of room nights a little bit lower to make sure that they are more they're more accommodating with the Omni and the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Those are the major changes. We changed um what the definitions mean so everybody's on the same page. So between the CVB, the hotel and the convention center, everyone was using the same words, but they were defined differently. So we just defined everything to make sure everybody was on the same page with that. And then what the group statuses mean as well. So those are the basic changes for the booking policy. It modernizes everything and uh make sure that everybody's on the same page that we can book the building as efficiently as possible and we can book the hotel rooms as efficiently as possible. So, we're just taking it um at what we've learned over the last five or six years and we're making it a better policy for everyone involved. Are there any questions? Thanks, S. Welcome. Yes. Hold on. I have a question. Uh and in terms of booking, uh it it it is difficult always uh particularly for events that you may not uh foresee. Uh for example, you know, playoff pitches and times like that. How do you handle all of those kinds of bookings that you may not, you know, be able to anticipate the short-term bookings? Yes. So, we do have a window for short-term bookings and that's 0 to 18 months out. And so, that's whatever kind of fits in within those time periods of that that comes in. um the the center and the CVB and the Omni have worked really really well together to make sure that if anything comes in at the last minute that it's absolutely needed within the city. Everybody works together to try to make sure that that that comes in. Luckily, something like the finals or NBA playoffs don't necessarily use the convention center to that capacity. So, we haven't had to worry about that. But we definitely look to the future to see what's what's going on um and what could come in to see if we needed to use that space. So we do everything that we can to accommodate those situations. But we've even had our own situation when we did our budget workshop. We had to change last minute on our date. They already had something booked in place. So we had to choose, you know, so the things that are booked out advance have more assurance that they'll get the site. If there's nothing booked there already, they do everything they can to try to get anyone into the space where they can. Right. We're very lucky. I we we've done a really good job or the center has done and the CBB has done a great job in booking the center and making sure that the building is being used as it was built to be used. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Now we're back on the PPA agenda which we can adopt with one motion A through C. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. All right. Now we'll adjourn OCPA and reconvene as the council where we are on item nine, the consent docket. We have a scheduled presentation for BB and BC. Item BJ was struck. Is there anything else that a council member wishes to pull out for comment, question, separate vote? Okay, hearing none. Uh we do have some residents who signed up to speak on item A. So we'll start there. This is uh an amendment and renewal of contracts with various record services. Uh Nick Morgan, if you wouldn't mind stating your name, address and you have and limit your comments to three minutes or less. Thank you. Yes. Nick Morgan with Morgan Toner Recovery. Mayor Holt, city manager Freeman, city councilors. Um, we were awarded the city towing contract in May of 2023 and we fulfilled that and done a very good job and we faced a couple of challenges the last couple of months and we have took care of all those challenges and we have surpassed all that and we are doing better now. And we would like to like y'all to kindly please um change the vote to yes vote for us to renew in this next section, please. Thank you. Oh, okay. We also have U Bert Woodring. Uh my name is Bert Woodring and uh I came down here this morning. I didn't think I would have to speak at all. Uh they had already had everything lined out on the uh agenda as to what was going to happen. But uh anyway, uh I'm here to speak. But, uh, I I would imagine the council's going to go ahead and approve three contracts and not approve the fourth one. So, uh, basically, uh, I'm just, uh, here I sold my record service last year and, uh, I've been in the record business for 50 years and so I've been kind of watching this about the city contracts and everything. And the police department done a great job of, uh, deciding what to do here. And, uh, I stand by their decision 100%. And, uh, uh, that's about all I got to say about it at this point. Uh, I'm sure this will go out for bid eventually and you're going to have a bunch of vendors that will more than happily want this contract. So, that's all I have to say. Captain Wis, could you could you just give kind of a summary of the process and what we go through and the reasoning for the recommendation against Morgan? Um so um myself, Lieutenant Shen, and our information desk kind of manage the record services. Um so we try to keep track and reach out to our officers in the field, our investigators, um to try to see how the record companies are doing on a regular basis. Um over the last year, over 2024, we had some issues with Morgan towing, what I would describe as administrative issues. Um, and I can go into detail if need be, but um, uh, on January or New Year's Eve, we ended up having to suspend service with Morgan Towing, um, to resolve some issues. During that time, the other three record companies came in and um, covered that zone. Um, just recently, Morgan Towing did resolve those issues and just um, began presiding service again on Friday, last Friday. Um so um in that like I say there was issues such as um uh vehicles with investigative holds being released. There was two incident in instances of that within a five-month period. Um then there was an instance where they put an investigative hold on a vehicle that it wasn't requested on. um it was because they lost the impound sheet u which they could have just called us and gotten a copy of that which is ultimately what did happen but it was once we found out what was going on because the citizen called us thinking their vehicle had a hold. Um there was instance we found out that they weren't having a staff 24 hours 7 days a week. We had to meet with them and tell them by contract they have to provide that uh 247 service. Um we did have one in most instances they've been responsive as far as um their response times in the field. Um that has been good. Um we did have one one instance where an investigator on a Saturday was trying to have a vehicle towed back to the yard had called them. It took over an hour for them to respond. um there was some confusion in their um employees as to what they were doing and I think one employee didn't or the driver didn't even leave for 25 minutes to arrive at the location. So these are things that in my mind just shouldn't have happened and um so moving forward um there there's more instances here. There was an ATV that was taken by one of the drivers and sold to an individual. The owner ended up reporting that. We weren't told about it until the captain in the field found out about it, called us and told us about that incident. Um, things like that. Um, there was other contractual um issues. Um, I mentioned the license or I didn't mention the license. The license thing is what occurred on New Year's Eve. Um, their state license wasn't renewed. um in that um they have since sent me a letter that I received yesterday that says that DPS has taken responsibility for that mistake or that error. Um but we also had an issue where they had to move locations and the location they initially moved to wasn't properly zoned. They tried to go through the resoning process. That was denied. And then ultimately they've they have now moved to a new location, but it took them several months to get things in uh in place to get all the permits and things they needed, that kind of thing. Um uh in that time, Nick Morgan has taken over management of the business locally. Um he's been energetic about it. Um, I wish him all the best, but we haven't changed our position on not renewing the contract. So, basically, we have these contracts that are available that when we need to have vehicles towed, we call these record companies to tow the vehicle. So, they're doing it on our they're doing it on our behalf, but the actual owner of the of the vehicle pays the fees associated with it, but we're reviewing to ensure that we're getting a proper level of service. And it's staff's recommendation after reviewing the incidents that we've had and issues we've had that the other three be recommended for renewal, but Morgan not be recommended for renewal. Correct. And this will come up again in a year. Yes. Okay. And is there a negativity to deferring this item for two weeks? I think if we were would you rather strike it if we're going to do that and then bring back the item if we wanted to consider that? Is it does it create a problem for us like a break in service if we take this up at the next meeting? Um I mean we we can manage things. They'll be providing service through April 30th. Um after that time if they're not renewed then we will we'll have to take steps to make sure that zone is covered. So this contract doesn't have like a a 30-day extension or anything along those lines if we haven't made a decision. No, but we were we retroactive renewals all the time, so I don't think May 6th would be a problem. I then I I second your deal. So, you want to pull it out separately. I hate to say this, but we could theoretically have it's a next week is a council meeting. It's a budget meeting with no votes, but if there was like an urgency, you know, we it's not unheard of that we have something like that on the agenda. if there was if staff felt like that was needed. So just just you know you don't have to decide that right at this moment but can we get this discussed in a week though maybe not two weeks. Okay. We'll just if we sorry if we strike it though we won't have a set date that it brings back. Our intent will be to bring it back. If we can get it worked out for the 29th we'll have it ready for the 29th. If we can't we'll bring it back on the 6th. Okay. So yeah you're voting to strike. So you're not really committing when it comes back. Right. Okay. Uh, Councilman Stone, would could you explain what what we're trying to achieve? What what what you're what you're wanting to do? I just want to dig into it a little a little more personally just to just to see what the issues were, if they've been resolved, uh, or if they haven't. Thanks. Okay. So, it sounds like there is a desire to bring up a motion to strike item 9A. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes on a motion to strike. Passes unanimously. Okay. Well, moving forward then we are to the presentations at BB and BC. Uh there separate. So the presentation for BB. Yes, Emma Witzki is here with us. Um she's with the office of equity and is going to give a presentation just real quickly on a recommendation that we're making a resolution that we've got on with council to um start a process to review plats. and I'll just let her walk through this real quickly. Thank you. Okay, so Emma Winsky, I am the compliance officer for the Human Rights Commission. Thank you, Zach. And so this is discussing a resolution of support to amend plats within Oklahoma City to remove discriminatory language. So great. So a little bit of background. um sort of in the early to mid 20th century, racially restrictive covenants were rampant uh across the US which basically were used to ban certain groups, black, Jewish, Asian um other folks from purchasing or occupying property um in certain neighborhoods. And so these covenants were legally enforceable up until 1948. Um, and so even though they're not legally enforceable in the Fair Housing Act in 1968, they still exist in many of the documents um, within Oklahoma City. So in 2024, Governor Stit uh, signed a state Senate bill into law which allowed municipalities to go ahead and remove this language. Um, and so in March 2025, the Human Rights Commission passed their own resolution of support. um housing is one of the three sort of uh categories of jurisdiction. And so um in an effort to um sort of be an advocate for the community and act on this law, we are sort of urging uh council and then city staff and planning commission to go through this process. And so a little bit of information about what that process looks like. So the council resolution is before you today and then we would be going through a process to identify the affected plat. the the situation is we don't actually know how many of these plats in Oklahoma City contain this language and so uh we would have to go through a process to identify um those plat number because we don't know exactly how many it could be 10 it could be 100 it could be a thousand it could be more um we would uh think through an implementation plan to make sure that um we're using staff resources volunteer time as efficiently as possible um and then for each plat we're going to go through steps four through seven so we would send notification to property owners. This is 30 days of notice um before a planning commission meeting. Planning commission would make a recommendation about amending the plat. You all would approve it and then we would file the amended plat with the county. So that is basically the process. What this resolution today would do is support city staff and the human rights commission and hopefully some community volunteers too in helping to um identify the affected plots and then reconvene so that we can um create an implementation plan. And and basically what we're asking for today is just a general direction from from the council. You're not approving every single individual one broadly. We'll still bring the plats back to the council for approval, but it's just given us that direction to move forward with the project. Cool. Any questions? Uh, thank you for bringing this item forward. U, when I learned it wasn't a possibility, it was something I was happy to discuss with staff. I'm glad that the Human Rights Commission is, you know, I'm just glad that this is a conversation. This language, by the way, is what I was referring to earlier during my comments with Councilman Cooper. It's this language that kept someone with my skin color, with our skin color, black and brown people, Jewish folk, you name it, from living in these neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that I have the honor of representing today. And a majority of Ward 2 has moved way past this nonsense. They are beyond this nonsense. They are done with it. and they have come to me and asked us to not sweep it under the rug but to name it, address it and move forward. Um, and it's that sort of Martin Luther King content of character philosophy that elected me and allows people in word two to live next door to each other regardless of their ethnicity, their religion, their sexuality, gender identity, you name it. And so this is a very important moment for us to acknowledge a shameful moment in not just our city's history but in the country. This is not unique to Oklahoma City. Um and I want to name that as well. Um so I'm really glad that staff is is bringing this forward. I'm glad that this is on the mind of our commission and I really want to thank you for your your presentation there. And I I also really want to thank W 2 for who they are, who the majority of us are. So, thank you, Emma. Thank you, Emma. All right. Next is a presentation on BC. This is a joint resolution with the Oklahoma City Economic Development Trust uh certifying uh Project Galaxy, a proposed feature film as an eligible project for the film incentive program. And Jill Simpson's here with us from the Oklahoma City Film Office. Good morning, council members. I'm really excited to bring you an application for a film that I think you're going to be happy about. Um, it is Codename Project Galaxy, and it's an independent feature film based on a New York Times best-selling novel. Uh, I can't tell you the name because that would give away what we've already codenamed, but it's basically following the lives of two children orphaned in the Oklahoma City bombing, and it covers their life at intervals 10 years later, 20 years later, 30 years later. Um, it the filming dates are August 11th to September 19th. It's being produced by a faith-based best-selling novelist named Karen Kingsberry, and I believe her last book was turned into a film as well. They're working with uh Carrie Watkins at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and they have her blessing for uh doing the project here. They're planning to use 90% of our Oklahoma Citybased crew. their anticipated Oklahoma City expenditures total 9 million. Um, this is the first project that I brought to you that I'm recommending that we offer them the full 10% rebate and that is based on the fact they're that they're meeting I believe seven of the upticks in our program. Um, again their anticipated spend is 9 million which is well above the 5 million minimum requirement. Um, more than 75% of the filming days will be in Oklahoma City. In fact, the plan is for 90% of those days to be here. 90% of their vendors will be uh contracted with local local companies. 90% of the crew will be Oklahoma City metro area uh MSA labor. main production office is planned to be in Oklahoma City Limits at Filmmakers Ranch and they're planning to use both One Set Studio and Filmmakers Ranch. They're pre-qualified for the state of Oklahoma film rebate and their uh recommended amount is 88080,000. The reason we've deducted 20,000 from what would have been a nine uh 10% rebate is that we cap above the line cast writer prod uh producer director at um 25% of the total spend. So we deducted 20,000 for that reason. So, they're planning to hire uh over a hundred locals and over a course of six weeks of production that that equals about 3,000 mandays of work. Again, 90% of Oklahoma City labor and qualifying labor income of $3,450,000. The shooting schedule will be 30 to 35 days. I don't know exactly if they're a five day or a six day shooting week, which is why there's a a range there, and we don't know yet if we're going to be able to secure them for post-prouction, although we will certainly try. Um, these are just the percentages again, and it's a really impressive plan that they have to spend as much money as possible here in Oklahoma City. After running the project through our economic impact modeler, their $9 million spend equates to $21.5 million into the local economy. Jobs supported direct and indirect are 539. Labor income 7.7 million for the total uh expenditure of $9 million. Their taxable expenditures are 1.7 million and below the line salary and PDM a little over a million dollars and above the line salary and PDM capped at 25% 2.45 million. And that's it. Any questions? This is a great one. I'm really excited about it. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. All right. All right. Well, that concludes the uh comments we have on the consent docket. So, we could take it up for adoption now minus the two items already struck. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Now, we're at item 10, the concurrence docket. We have items A through P. We can take with one motion. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Now we're at item 11. Items for individual consideration. Item 11A is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval resoning 10931 Northwest 10th from I2 to I3. Councilman Carter. No one has signed up to speak. I'll move for approval. A motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11B is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval reszoning 4100 Northwest 23rd from R1 to C1. Um, Councilman Carter, you got this one for W three. Has anyone signed up? They have not. Okay. Then we move for approval. Have a motion in a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item C was previously deferred which brings us to item D. This is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval resigning 721 Northeast 50th from PUD 1670, PUD 344 and HNO to PUD2055 and HNO. Uh, Councilman Lee Cooper, a few people have signed up to speak, but we'll start with however you want to handle it. We'll uh we'll have uh Mark Hill come and uh make a statement um and just kind of go through familiarize everyone with um this particular uh case. And so if you would just share uh with with everyone then we'll have others to speak uh in reference to this. But I have been just let me say this uh initially I've been following this uh particular uh uh property since uh the last uh time I served on city council. at that time uh the CLLO on this property and it was uh then um um supposed to be several things but I'm really excited that it is what it is now and so uh Mark if you'd share. Absolutely. Thank you. Mark Sitz Johnson and Associates addresses one Sheran Avenue. Uh I I will ask for a bit of patience. We have a 60-second video that we'd like to play just highlighting the property. [Music] Yay! [Music] in that house. It is beautiful which will eventually have resident college students that are working on their [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] So, I'm privileged to be here today with Liz Ikeman, Kelly Barnes, and Lance Swearing Jenin with Kurpatre Fund Foundation and Red Ridge. We've brought forth a peed to preserve that property. I I think you can argue that it's one of the most peaceful, serene, beautiful properties in all of Oklahoma City and it sits about 700 feet away from a property we brought before you in January for multif family development. And like Mr. Cooper uh he went out to that property and I think at council he referred to it as a sacred piece of ground that he couldn't see development occurring on. You can argue that this property is more so sacred than that one in that this has never been touched. We have a few spotted homes on here that will be preserved and renovated. But the goal of this property is ecological restoration. It's the sole purpose of the Red Ridge Foundation and they will spend what is likely the next 10 plus years trying to remove invasive species and reclaim the habitat that was there. It's home to a significant amount of wildlife and most recently they've spotted bald eagles on the property. It's truly a special place and if you are interested in going out and seeing the property, we're happy to host you. The only question before this body today is whether or not this is an appropriate land use on this property. This PUB only speaks to that. Our goal is to restore the property. There's nothing else in the PUD. The ultimate goal is restoration and the ability to host school groups and educational uh groups out on the property in the various structures that will be restored through the PUD process. And you don't have to trust me, the city staff has recommended approval because it conforms with not just plan OKC but sustain OKC as well. Staff recommended approval. Your planning commission recommended unanimous approval. And I know there are people signed up and I think if you listen to what they say, no one is opposed to the land use. The land use is the only question before you today is the PUD. There's nothing in the PUD that we believe would cause this application to be deferred or denied. So, we're happy to answer any questions, but we would ask for your approval today. Thank you. You know, maybe I maybe maybe I will ask a couple questions to to frame it. Just so these are questions I know the answers to. Is the existing putt in place require you to provide the land for the trail system that we have designed? No, it does not. Does the PUD that you're putting before us today for our consideration prohibit you from providing the land the for the trail that we have designed? No, it does not. All right, that's all I got. Councilman Cooper, are there other questions from council? I just yeah I I'm curious to hear given that the goal is preservation and as far as I know like removing invasive species is not something that you would need reszoning to do. um what is what is lost if anything um by just deferring this item until we can match it up with the pro the process that we've initiated to look at um options for the trail. Sure. You're correct in that preservation doesn't necessarily require reszoning. There are pieces in the existing PUD that required signal improvements for the what was the anticipated traffic. There were widening requirements. There were significant infrastructure requirements that were included in that PUD. And so, it's not that we don't think we can work around it. There are other things like having a barn that has metal on it that we couldn't do for maintenance and storage. So, this PUD we believe is needed now. The the discussion about aligning it with a trail two separate issues. We don't believe that this PUD should be held hostage over a trail discussion that will come in the future. that will come whether or not this PUD is here. Other other questions from council. Thank you, Mark. Councilman, do you want me to start calling up the citizens? Yes, we'll hear from citizens. Okay. Um, I will state your name and then I'll also state the person who is going to speak after you. So maybe that second person can make their way to the front row. Uh, just to keep things moving. Uh, I remind you to state your name, address, keep your remarks to three minutes or less. You'll get a verbal warning from Amy. When you only have 30 seconds left. All right. First up is CK Panter followed by Kevin Farmer. Good morning, Mayor, Council. appreciate your time this morning. Um, I have concerns about the nature preserve that aren't just related to the trail. This PUD contains language that allows them to build 30 artist residents on the property, which seems counterintuitive to a conservation preservation area. I don't dispute the fact that everyone I think is is on board with this being a good thing for the city of Oklahoma City. It's a good thing that can coexist with the trail system. But I also agree with council person Hammond that there is no reason why this can't be deferred until we get the options. uh because the Kirkpatrick Foundation has been very recalcitrant to work with the city to make the completion of this trail system uh a priority to them. They don't want it on their property. Uh they raise issues about the fact that uh animals won't be able to get to the the water source. Well, we know that's not true. If you look at the Colorado the Oklahoma River down here, there's a trail system that runs through there. The geese move back and forth. All of the wildlife moves back and forth. So, that to me doesn't hold water. For these reasons, I would ask the council respectfully to defer this, gather more information. Let's work out a resolution that works for everyone because I think if we find a path forward, that is the right answer. But again, you know, I I just don't understand why their claim is, well, we want to preserve things. And I understand the existing buildings have historical value. That's great, but it's these throwing in we're going to build 30 artist residents. Um, you know, I'm not entirely I I've looked at the county assessor's maps. They don't line up with the project map. So, you know, I understand the county assessor may have an error in their system, but they may not. 30 seconds, please. I will uh I would just ask that you defer it so that we can work out some of the question marks that are associated with this PUD. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin Farmer, followed by Bill Elias. Good morning. My name's uh Kevin Farmer. I live at 316 Donner Trail in Edmund. I am the president of the Oklahoma Bicycle Society, a group of over 350 cyclists, most of whom live in the metropolitan area. Um I have received a lot of concern from our members this last month as the issue of this trail not being completed has come to fruition. Uh most of us everyone's highly supportive. Most of us were at the ribbon cutting ceremony last week celebrating a part of the trail that's been completed which was a bit ironic because it's part that's been completed. It looks very nice but we have to look east and go okay but we can't finish it. It's not done yet. And I want to bring to your attention something that was uh leading article in the New York Times uh last week April 13th. How an Arkansas city became an epicenter of the biking world. Bored by the interest and family of the Walmart Foundation, Bentonville has become an unexpected hub for cycling. And in Bentonville, Arkansas, which most people have never heard of other than Oh, yeah. I think Walmart is there. Bentonville now is attracting visitors from not just across the country but around the world there because of a large interconnected trail system that goes right around Bentonville. And the word is interconnected. You have to be able to access the trails all the way through there. Um people in the city they now have arteries that snake throughout the city connecting hundred of trails. Originally, it was Bentonville had a hard time attracting corporate employees and tourists to a relatively rural remote region. 20 years ago, we were not a leisure destination. We were a business destination. Cycling and the sport has changed weekends for us. The biking opportunities draw thousands of tourists, some who have never considered visiting the state of Arkansas before. And so this interconnected trail system has done wonders for the city of Bentonville. And so what we're saying is we would like to see the same thing. We're almost there. The Kilpatrick Foundation has said they want to be very cooperative. But our issue is in this new PUD, why remove this particular language? In addition, the developer will work with the city of Oklahoma City on the coordination of the trail construction planned along the northern boundy of the PUD. That's all it says. They will work in coordination with the city. Why remove this? We ask that this either be deferred or if it needs to be approved, amend it and add this language back to the PUD. Thank you. Bill Elias, followed by Russell Pace. Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. Bill Elias, 2308 Powder Horn in Edmund. I appeared before the council the last time this matter came up on the agenda. I said it then, I say it now. These are two assets that the city needs that I I would like to see happen. uh the conservancy and the completion of the Deep Fork Trail, you know, a trail that was approved by the voters was funded and we're now literally down to the the final segment. Uh I and uh I think it is noteworthy that the Kirkpatre Foundation when they acquired this property, they acquired with knowledge of the fact that this trail was planned to go through the flood plane of the Deep Fork River as it traverses the property. Uh I think what has drawn attention to this issue is that they removed that statement of intent to construct the trail in this area. The intent to work with the city from the language of their proposed PUB. I think that is uh that that is what uh raised alarm. And then I think there has been some u comment from the foundation that they didn't want the trail crossing the property. Uh but I've also heard representatives of the foundation uh say that they're not opposed to the trail. They would just like to see alternative some alternative locations. I think the city uh would benefit from that as well. My understanding is that the city does not yet have uh some proposed alternative uh routes for the trail. Uh their consultant, they're working out a contract with the consultant to get that information uh to the to the council. Um and so I, you know, I would echo the comment made earlier. Uh, is it essential to approve this PUD today or can it be deferred until such time as the city council gets additional information and perhaps can interact with the owners of the property to see if an agreement can be worked out and avoid eminent domain proceedings. I understand legally, yes, the city can always go in and condemn the easement through the flood plane if that's what it came to, but I think everybody would rather work it out. 30 seconds. And if if a vote needs to be taken, I would urge the council to if you want to approve the PUD, uh include an affirmative statement, an amendment to the PUD to include an affirmative statement recognizing that the uh Deep Fork Trail will be completed as it traverses the north section of the property. Thank you. Thank you, Russell Pace, followed by Hal Mcnite. Hi, I'm Russell Pace. I live at 5703 Highley Drive, which is now in Ward 7. Um, it's real simple today to solve this problem. The foundation can say we would love to have the trail there. That would take care of that. The other thing that I would encourage the council to do is to file imminent domain action. make an offer of about $2 a square foot for the one acre that we need and proceed with the imminent domain proceedings. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Hal Mcnite. Followed by Latrena Sers. Good morning. Good morning, mayor. Good morning, city council. My name is Hal Mcnite. My address is 7200 ML King. I am here on behalf of all trail users, both present and future. We are asking council to delay this vote on this new PUD. And I'll provide several reasons why. I've had a lifetime of experience building our city's multi-use trails and working and creating wetlands across most of Oklahoma. Um even winning the National Wetland Award. Back last December, I offered Lance Swearington, the Red Ridge deputy director, my help in building a wetland in the middle of their land. An electric water well would provide fresh running water that would never freeze to the benefit of the wildlife. I never heard back. Lance recently said Redridge, excuse me, was rejecting the 12- foot wide permanent easement that the city has asked for for a number of months, which would complete the Deep Fork Trail because it would interfere with their wildlife and block their path to the river. First, our multi-use trails have many benefits. One of them is observing wildlife. Even the Burke Cooper trails around Lake Hefner have all kinds of wildlife and lots of deer. Um, second, our multi-use trails need to be built in a safe way. This trail is already funded. That is planned. Second, I recently took four DEQ water samples from the Deep Fork River just upstream from the Red Rididge for testing. Not surprising, the DEQ found E. coli and interroi both deadly bacteria. Um, it's amazing that if they want to create a preserve that they haven't looked closely at the water situation since they want to benefit wildlife. I think that probably needs to be done in their PUD before it's finalized. Uh, the city has hired half to do a new study uh to see if there are alternate routes. That's still an unknown. Again, this plan that's that we're looking at that does go through the Red Ridge property was done back in the 80s with the master plan. 30 seconds remaining. Um there just doesn't seem that there should be a rush in voting on this new PUB. For one, thousands of trail users want the completion of the Deep Fork Trail. It's easy to say, "Don't worry, this trail will get completed." But at what cost and at what time frame? Simply, we're asking council to defer this PUD vote until this important study can be complete. That just seems common sense. Thank you. Thank you, Hal. Uh, Latrena Sellers, followed by Roy Pevllor, PVCOR, not sure. Hello. I think it need to be deferred because part of the land that they are requiring cut bust up into our backyard. They did not talk to any of the neighbors asking did we want to keep our land? Did we want to offer it to them? they want to purchase it and they just want to take it and claim it, which is unfair to me. Thank you. Thank you, Roy Pecor. And just obviously feel free to correct correctly state your name, followed by Ben Car. Uh, everybody knows me as Roy on a bike, so that's fine. Uh, I ride everywhere. Uh people said you can't commute in Oklahoma City without a car. You can't get by. And I said, "Okay, watch me." And I've been riding a bike for two and a half years. I donated a car and a truck to Salvation Army. And here I am wanting a beltway. You guys have beltways for your cars. You have several. Why can't we have a beltway that will get me to from one side of the city to the other without having to worry about rush hour or some guy who's drunk in the middle of the night or any of these situations that could get me killed when I want to avoid side by side with trucks, cars, whatever. You know, it's uh it's unbelievable to me. Um Thursday nights you can go to Mesta Park and you can see how many bikes there are in Oklahoma City. There are a lot of bikes, a lot of bike riders and a lot of people who would love to ride from one point of the city and go spend money in another point of the city. But you know what they do? They have to get in their car and make an ordeal out of, you know, they can't be with the people they're going with. They they're just one or two people in a car and then everybody goes, you know, it's it it doesn't make sense the way that that things are going like that. Uh it's simple though. You presented the Deep Fork plan. We voted for it and it passed. We got maps. We got safer streets. We got all of this through people voting for it and you you're kind of ignoring that. It's on the Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation website. You go to the map and it's already on there where it's routed. So, there's already been surveys paid for that that we paid for and he doesn't care. I mean, this is this is ridiculous. Um, anyway, it 30 seconds remaining. The Red Ridge is great. That would be great. But, you know, they were talking about building and re restoration and this of buildings and all this. How does that sound like a nature preserve to anybody? And it sounds like an exclusive club is what it sounds like. Sounds like an exclusive club. Is Is the public going to be allowed to come down and and observe and enjoy the nature park? Is it a nature park or is it an exclusive club? You know, these are these are things. Thank you. Ben Ilarazza followed by Zenifund Warrior. Get going. Uh, good morning. Um, I would like to ask for this uh reasonzoning initiative to to be delayed until uh we have the redesigns or the potential redesign options for the trail back this fall. Um, I understand that there's uh questions, well, doubts I guess uh about the how binding the language for the trail as well as sidewalks uh on this property um is. I would posit that I I don't think that they would be trying to remove that language from the the new zoning document if it if it wasn't binding. Um, and I think that that's maybe something that needs to be tested. Um, if in court then so be it. Um, but I don't think that uh the taxpayer of this city um gains anything by allowing them to strip uh that language out of this out of these documents. Um, I think that we should keep our options open uh for the further uh development of this trail uh for the potential redesigns that we don't know yet uh what they'll be um and what they'll entail. Um, and I would also just like to say that, um, there's been a lot of talk about compromise on this project. Um, and I I think that that's healthy and that that might be something that needs to happen. Um, but I haven't, at least not yet, I haven't seen any concessions being made by the Kirkpatrick Foundation. Um, I'm seeing a lot of extra delay and um a lot of extra expense being heaped onto the the back of the taxpayer. Um, and I I don't think that that's right. I think that we should delay this resoning initiative. Um and we should we should uh we should take it up again when we have the new trail options and reassess uh our options then. Thank you. Zenifan Warrior followed by Aaron Macauen. Yes. Uh good good morning. Uh I'm uh proud to uh to be here today. Uh this this is the the big league city that we have here. Uh and uh I do recall uh back in 2008 there was a team that came to town, the NBA that really uh opened up the eyes, I think, to uh all of the world of uh things we have to offer here in Oklahoma City. There was a book uh that was uh published uh Boomtown that talked about the uh city area that they have uh for the particular region. Uh the um property is uh boarded on the east side by Kelly Avenue. Uh going to the east uh to the next mile over Martin Luther King. Uh I live about halfway in between those two streets uh those two section lines of Kelly and uh Martin Luther King have that. My uh address of record is 5712 North Liy Avenue. And if I can if I uh could go outside to my uh front yard of my um neighbor, next door neighbor and facing the north and I could I could tee up a golf ball and and use a uh a a uh a driver and I can almost reach the Deep Fork River from where they I probably I I can I it's I think about it's about 300 yards away from where I'm located with that. uh at that particular uh region you do have the uh first part of the deep trail has already been constructed in that particular area. Uh it's been some major planning that's being done over several decades uh back in the 80s that have that that I know of as things being developed this this trail system throughout this particular area. I would like to uh give some commence to the uh the planning department who has been going through some extensive uh reach changing of the uh land use development and comprehensive plan through particular area been talking about Luda and talking about the the urban area where not you have an urban medium urban low and urban high area they have that particular area for as we like to commend for that and there's been you know much work and planning has been done with public works as they have uh constructed these various streets and trails throughout the particular area. Uh the parks and recreation departments done a fantastic job of maintaining this uh trails this uh over 100 miles of trail system throughout the area. So I would like to commend them for various improvements have been done of our particular parks as we go through particular area. So things been going going really well this section of area. 30 seconds remaining. And uh the other thing uh you know you can look at is you talk about the innovation district and talk about the uh uh convergence area and that's along Lincoln Boulevard south of 13th street down to uh down to fourth street. Those were talked about about converging about merging the east side from the west side of particular area section over as as a particular area the uh region of the area that we are looking at. Uh I can look at that development that's been done of the the first part of the uh of the trail system and talking about animal migration. There is that I have seen from my front yard. Mr. We're at time. Is there a conclus? Yeah. Let me ask some for last word for that. But there there's there's uh there's been talk about a Bobcat family that's in the Red Ridge area and that particular family I know uh that particular has been over in my particular region that I live about a half mile of web tick area. So there has been some uh movement with that areas of that development even with those trail systems being developed with there. I've seen turkeys have just start area. One last thing I'd like to talk about. Hey know we we're we are way over time. We're going to have to stop there Mr. Warrior. Thank you so much, Aaron McGallan, followed by Steve Mason. Hello, my name is Aaron McGawan. I live at 3329 Green Tyrus in Dell City. I'm back again to talk about this because it's very important to me. Um, this Friday I had the opportunity to finally bike in from uh Dell City to OKC using the trails and it was amazing. I didn't have to worry about any cars hitting me. I didn't have to worry about drunk drivers like somebody said before. I was safe and on those trails and it was really wonderful. I got to enjoy going to the OKC memorial, walking around, not having to worry about parking and then I rode back after getting some Thai food. Um, I love these trails and I think it's very frustrating to see how dramatic the language that's being used by uh about how they're being held hostage by the language. I disagree. I think it's pretty normal language to ask that they complete a trail that OKC voted on. I think also if you want to use dramatic language, we could say that people are being held hostage in certain areas where they're required to get a car to get around. And if you don't have a car, you don't have sidewalks. It's unfair in Dell City. I see many people navigate on mobility scooters on the middle of the road because there are no sidewalks and it's incredibly dangerous. So with that being said, if you ignore this trail and you allow people to use dramatic language to overstate the harm, you are harming the environment that we are also a part of. It's a little bit confusing language when they say that they're preserving the environment that someone said earlier has ecoli in the water and they're going to be using artist residencies and uh private spaces. Everyone I've talked to about this who has an opinion on this trail has described them as private little clubs for little fancy events that we're not going to get to be involved in. We should at least get access to the trail to ride past it so we can at least look at it. That would be uh pretty standard I feel. Um I would like to also urge you to defer and delay this vote until we have more information on it. Um yeah, thank you so much. Thank you Steve Mason. [Applause] Good morning. I'm Steve Mason. I live at 824 Northwest 8th. And I'm okay. I just had a knee replacement, so don't worry. We're great. Um, thanks for allowing me to speak today. I've known how since the 70s when I bought my first bicycle from him at Wheelo dealer on the 50th. I love bicycles. I bought a pujo. My wife and I, Lisa, we currently own two bikes. bought our ebikes last November and we love the trails and we appreciate the efforts the city has spent in 30 years building a great set of trails. They're awesome. Um, thank you very much. My background's environment. Actually, I have two environmental degrees. One from Vanderbilt 82, one from Stanford 83. I spent my whole career practicing protecting the environment. I knew bees mattered before you read about it on the cover of Time magazine. So very familiar with this um and how your E.coli comment I'd love to talk you about it offline. They're everywhere but I can explain to you eoli because I've served on the DEQ board for 25 years. So I'd love to talk about it. In my education, there was a lot talked about the tragedy of the commons, a silent spring, a land ethic, and part of it is how do we balance us and nature and way too often nature loses. And we need homes. We need things. I'm part of the urban sprawl. I'm part of development. But we got to respect nature and we have to protect it. And we have to preserve it. And we have precious few areas in Oklahoma City where we really protect it. We have Stenchum. We have Martin, Bluff Creek. James probably knows some other spots, but we need more spots that we double and triple down on nature. It is so important. When Liz Ikeman called me two years ago, I also have the pleasure of chairing the oversight on the jail if you want to talk about that. And she called me two years ago when the commissioners of land office put this up. It was available. Liz called me and said, "Are you going to take it for the jail?" And I said, "Liz, no. The highest and best use of this land is as a nature reserve within the beltway. We don't have enough. We got to protect this land. We got to protect nature." So, I would request you support the applicant in their application. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the citizens who have signed up to speak. Um, mayor. Yes. Well, unless Councilman Cooper would like to because it's your ward. Yes. Well, uh, Councilman, you wanted to say something? Sure. Okay, sure. Speak. Thanks. Um okay. So, keep my comments to three minutes. Um, keep my comments to three minutes. Um, for two years I saved money to go to Amsterdam this last week. Um, because my best friend that I've known since 1999 2000 from working at Blockbuster, Austin Tacket, is now the basis for a band called Chat Pile, a band I've referenced here previously. um who the Guardian called their song Why About Homelessness the protest song of 2023. The Guardian. I went there last week to support the four members of the band. Two of them live in W 2. Two of them live in W 6. While I was there, I attended a city council meeting. I want you to think about that. On my vacation, I spent three and a half hours at a city council meeting. Uh, former commissioner Carrie Bloomer, upon seeing this on my Instagram story, said, "Of course you did, James." It was a city council committee meeting on housing and public housing. I didn't understand any of it cuz it was in Dutch. But the agenda, which was also in Dutch, all I did, I translated it. I went on Google Translate and I was able to follow. And then afterwards, I met with the city council member for about a half hour to go over what I had learned. And it turns out I followed it very closely. I understood what was happening. For three and a half hours, their council spoke with one another about housing and public housing, going into the details about mold in some of the public housing. when respectfully council member Carter and I thought a lot about this over the last week after that meeting three and a half hours started at 9:00 and they went to 12:30 and not once did one of them turn to the other and say you talk too long because they were engaged in the issues and they had respectful conversations with each other just as you all said earlier they disagreed or do they always agreed on everything? So, I just want to say that it was nice to see that engagement and they weren't rushing to the next meeting. They slowed down and engaged. And that's what I always try to do up here. That's the first thing I want to say. The second thing I want to say is I want to lower the temperature a little bit in terms of the us versus them because when I look at people who are here advocating today for the trails, I know your names and I know your faces because of the work I've been doing on Kappa for the since 2015 and my work on council since 2019. When I see some of the people who are here with Kirk Patrick, when I see Jane, when I see Nancy, uh, when I see Liz, I see W two residents, I see former people from Boys and Girls Club, I see Kelly out there. I'm not doing this us versus them nonsense. We're not I'm not I'm just not doing that. I'm not doing it. Um, so I want to bring that temperature down just a little bit. The next thing I want to say is I rented a bike while I was in Amsterdam and I rode to the park where they to Steve Mason's Point. another friend. Um, like Hal, like Russell, um, they have Vand Vandal Park, similar to our Scissor Tail Park, this giant park in the middle of their downtown. And they have preserved pastoral land in the middle of their city. Preserved it. It's It's incredible. I I got off my bike and just stopped and just sat and I texted my mom. I I had to send her a photo to the point about the beltway that we could be creating here that we will create. Um I rode alongside and I and this is especially for city manager Freeman because I know sales tax right revenue so that we can fund police and fire and parks etc. When I biked along a dedicated constructed bike path with protection alongside it on the other side of me, well on one side of me the protection and then there were people driving cars. Just to be very clear, this is not a car versus bike versus people walking. People were driving cars beside me. It was just that I had protection from them on the other side of me in terms of sales tax. Guess what was right beside me for miles and miles and miles along the canals, along the streets, commercial development. Oh my goodness. There were restaurants, bars, coffee shops, retail, high-end retail, luxury retail out of my teacher salary. Remember, I had to save up for two years to go on this trip. Won't be going on another trip for a while, let me assure you. Um, but there was retail and we biked to it and we shopped there and we spent money. And above the retail was housing. Oh, the very housing that some of my W 2 residents tell me cannot happen in our ward. They're against density. They say they're against people living in apartments. They say I don't understand it because that's the origin of word two is commercial and uh apartments and bungalow homes where people live. I I I just can never understand it. Um I'm so proud of this city for its investments in better streets and maps for for investing in sidewalks and bike lanes and reliable public transportation improvements. Amsterdam is 750 years old and it's celebrating its anniversary this year. Um, and they were rebuilding their city just as much as we we are rebuilding ours. I learned a lot during that trip. I also learned they are investing in housing. They've been built 7,000 housing units a year in recent years. And they've made sure that in the parts of town similar to the plaza and the po where we've redeveloped the infrastructure, they made sure to build housing there so that the youth, it was dedicated in this way so that the youth who are growing up in those areas will have homes later in life and that architecturally it resembles those homes that were already there. And I've been saying it from this horseshoe ever since I've been up here. and to go to another city, a worldclass city, just like we're a big leak city, to see them do what we can do and what we are already setting in motion. Affirming. It was affirming. So, um, just I just can't stress enough to bike from shopping to parks to housing was just an incredible experience. And I want word to to be able to bike from Zack Taylor Park after lying on a blanket and reading a book. I want them to be able to go to a movie in Tenteltown in W 7 to spend money and to hang out with their friends or to go work at Tentletown, to go work at the science museum, to go work at the zoo. I don't think that Kirk Patrick is against that. I have to believe in my heart that that's true. And I promised them in a private meeting that I would say that because I I believe you. Okay. But this vision that we are talking about of better connecting our people so they don't have to have a car uh to get around the city is one that is critical because I just spent $2,000 not on a trip to Amsterdam but on fixing my car and that's also going to mean I will be on a tighter budget than I ever realized. So, I'm I promised also the people that I would move for this to be deferred until the um um engineering report comes back and I'm still going to do that. That is the motion I would like to make is to defer this. The rest of council might not agree with me. I understand already and Mark, you can speak to why you do not agree with that deferral. It's just that I've already made this commitment that we would try and align um the research that half is going to do so that we can learn what the best options are to complete this trail. I already in public made that commitment and I am a person of my word and I'm going to stick by that today. The rest of you might disagree with me and vote against it. That is fine. Um, I will also say that if that deferral doesn't happen, then I I don't feel comfortable with a yes vote and I also don't feel comfortable with a no vote. And so I will not be here for that for that because I think there has to be patience. I think we have to be prudent because this city must be better connected, its neighborhoods, its people to education, employment, and recreation. Sorry, that was longer than 3 minutes. Let me hear uh let me hear Mark real real fast and then uh I I heard your motion, but there was no second uh to your motion. I'm happy to second it when that time comes. Okay. Well, we'll hear from Mark and then we'll handle the motion. Sure. So, we're opposed to a deferral for a number of reasons, but mainly I believe your city attorney said it at planning commission. They may have reiterated it at council. I know the mayor stated it. Uh these are two completely separate issues. You do not have the legal ability to take a trail easement through this process. So while a study is going to occur, that study is going to occur independent of this PUD, we have committed at this podium that we will continue to engage with the parks department and the city on the placement of the trail. So for the folks that have said we have not been at the table, we've been talking with the parks department this entire year about this application and how we would get there. So they can believe whatever they would like to, but understand this isn't a random developer, a random land owner. This is one of the strongest civic partners that Oklahoma City has. You mentioned the science museum, you mentioned the zoo, Oklahoma Contemporary. Most of the quality of life and enhancements that we have in the city are in part due to this foundation. So the idea that they are not willing to work with the city, I think, is a bit of a misnomer. We've stood here and we've committed to that, but no, we're not willing to take a deferral on an application that has nothing to do with you securing an easement for your trail. There is an entirely separate process that you will go through that you went through for all of the other trails and all of the other utility infrastructure projects that you've had. So, we would ask for your approval today. We do believe it is our application. We have the right to have it be heard. Can I just say for the record for this council and for everyone watching, I hear what you're saying, Mark, but I also want to be very clear. I from my mouth have never said the words that you just say that some of the maybe some protesters have said. I am very aware that Kirkpatrick has been at the table. I've sat at a physical table with them. This one, you know, that's what I'm saying. I'm not this is not I hope people hear me on from Kirk Patch. I understand and respect the longevity of your collaboration with not just the city of OKC but other nonprofits, neighborhoods, you name it. So I get it. I hear it. I respect it and we understand and appreciate that. Just want to make that clear for the record. I know that there is a process, we've discussed it, called condemnation that we can do that just seems so painful and so that that actually makes me worried about that relationship with Kirkpatrick. I don't want that sort of negativity and and approach. I I wish there was I wish right now we were resolving this because I don't want to go down that path is kind of my thing. Um, so I do hear you and I do I I I I I hope people are hearing me on both sides of this conversation right now. I just think that a deferral until we have the research in front of us would make me feel more comfortable with what the right way forward is as opposed to a you know back and forth. So understood. We we we have uh Kenny uh if if you would uh from legal just uh talk about the process of uh zoning and uh this put uh and relationship to the trail. If you just have a word from legal uh in reference to that and then uh Councilman Stone Cipher has something to say and then we will uh proceed. Yes, they really are two different issues. uh there's a different process for obtaining an easement. You negotiate an easement with them and they agree on a price for the easement if they don't want to donate it to the city or we go to court and we condemn an easement through imminent domain. So just be if you approve this resoning it is not going to stop a trail going through there. We can still condemn a trail even if we can't buy one from them. Okay. Council. Yeah. I guess the important thing to me is um what has the Kurpatre family fund said about this and what weighs heavily on my mind is the fact that uh all the things that that fund has done for the zoo, for Oklahoma Contemporary, uh for the science museum. But what came to me um was in my box this morning uh was a letter from the foundation uh and from uh Red Ridge uh Natural Preserve and what it says in the second paragraph uh and I want to emphasize this. We assure you that we will work with Melinda McMillan Miller and the parks department for the trails successful completion. The first time I saw this was this morning. um that that weighs in on this in my mind, but more importantly, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, sir. Uh in in my conversations, it has uh been uh clear that um uh originally uh of course I said I've been dealing with this property for a long time, and this is in fact the best use that has come through for this property uh the whole time. So um to to to say that and then uh in conversation uh around around this I'm also committed to the biking community who um uh is has taken opportunities to bike uh around the city and I've have a number of bikers in my uh congregation. So, uh, in my discussions with them, talking to them, talking with, uh, with others, um, that that, uh, really after I spoke with, uh, Kenny and legal, uh, to make sure that that there there's a process. This the trail is going to happen. The trail is going to happen. It will happen. Uh, and there's there's nothing that will uh, prevent it from happening. It is what citizens have voted for and yes it is it is going to happen. It it should happen. Uh today um uh after talking with Kenny and and there there's nothing that says that if we were to delay the day or if we were to deny that that the that the trail is not the trail is going to go through. And so, um, after after hearing, uh, everyone, uh, in in this, um, I I'm going to, uh, recommend that we would approve, uh, this application and then go through the process of making sure that we provide the trail and the trail may end up going exactly where it has been planned. That can also happen. It's not like that is not going to happen. the trail is going to go through um and the preserve is the highest use that I've seen um over the years. And um the hope of course uh is uh the peacocks in the area. Nobody has has mentioned the peacocks. Uh I'm in love with the peacocks. The peacocks uh on the north side of 44, there's absolutely no reason uh for them not to come uh south. um talking to um uh uh people uh at the zoo. I'm on the zoo trust uh talking to them about this uh particular preserve. Uh and they're excited about that opportunity. So, I'm moving for this application uh to to move forward. Uh and that's my uh motion today. Okay. Well, we first have a motion that has been proposed to defer the item. So, let's dispose of that before we get to a motion to approve potentially. Um, I did want to ask Yeah. Well, Amy wanted to know especially uh what is your proposed date of deferral, Councilman? Uh, well, so we as council, I believe two weeks ago approved the half and associates RF uh request for proposal for them to go out and do that work. Is that correct? And so that wouldn't come back until it says it 90 days. city manager it we will no it's so we've approved the work for them to do the work the expectation is about the about the end of the summer that we should have that but so can I I mean my I again I want to align it with when that report would come back can we do something that long or do I need to do it like in a 30-day because I remember mayor you mentioning things coming back sometimes repeatedly but I I'm open to well I mean you know I guess at some point and it's a little subjective I mean the applicant could have a legal action, you know, if the the delay is too significant. Um, that is I don't there's no hard and fast rule on what that amount of time is. So, you know, you take your chances longer it gets. I'm sorry, Mayor. Yeah. If you if your motion was to pass and it was a certain length of time, 90 to 120 days. I mean, certainly the applicant could go to court and say that's an unreasonable delay, you know, but that would be then be litigated. There's no good answer. I guess I think you probably go with your theory and see what happens. Kenny, what would you recommend our legal here? I do hear what you're saying, Mayor. I will reiterate that we are opposed to a delay of any length. I understand. Uh if you if you deferred it to the end of the summer, potentially they could go to court and get a judge to order us to send it back and make a decision. So, I mean, the decision on the reasonzoning is not going to affect whether or not a trail is going to go through here because we can condemn a trail. Even if they don't give us a trail or we can't buy a trail from them and they object to it, we can still condemn a trail. Sure. And that's also through a court process. Am I correct? Yes. I I just want to be very clear like either way a court process is going to happen, right? And I just don't feel comfortable with either. I don't like that that that's I would just reiterate from the staff standpoint that we're committed to the trail going through to having the trail extended and completed as it's planned. Um in the in the um length that it's planned, the exact location of that trail, there are several options and that's why we ask the engineers to take a look at that. We're going to continue to work with the Kpactory Family Foundation, work with them to see if there's solutions that are there, see what options that are there, but I'm confident there is a way to complete that trail regardless if it's in the currently planned location or somewhere near that location. Well, I'll say 30 days. And let me just say this, too. The I do hear what you're saying, city manager. I do hear what you all are saying about it will happen someplace. I'm just saying some of the some places I am hearing are really alongside I44 in a way that the current part I mean like alongside I44 in a way that the current trail that's phase that's done over there by kind of Grand Boulevard when you leave like midfirst and then you go along the creek it too already is really close in proximity to I44 and a the noise that comes from that for the pedestrian, the person on the bike is a bit unsettling. Two, we're kind of known for people driving kind of wackily in this uh city, unfortunately. And I have to tell you, there was some fear I had of someone just boot scooting right off of I44 onto the trail. And so repeating already I've asked director uh our parks director to what can we do to create some sort of barrier noise barrier and protective barrier along the existing part. And I suspect if we end up doing for this stretch that we're talking about closer to I44 that too is going to require some sort of protective barrier and and but I don't know that cuz I'm not an engineer and that's why I'm wanting that engineering report before I can make a decision. Do do you see what I'm saying? Like I need that research from someone who's way more qualified than me. And so that's I just wanted to say that yes, I understand that a trail will happen and that what is at stake here is the where I am saying that I have concerns about some of the locations people in parks and from Kirkpatrick are recommending right now that so it's it's it's that's the the discomfort I I have and that's why I would like an engineers's sound report in front of me to help guide So again, 30 days is what I'm up to here. So Amy suggests May 20th is the council meeting date in that general range. Okay. Thanks, Mayor. Okay. So the motion is for a deferral to May 20th. And let's bring that up virtually. Oh, and before we vote, I would also say, you know, I generally vote for deferrals fairly freely, but I do always assume some sort of practical purpose for the deferral. In this case, I will not be voting for it just because I cannot link these two things in the way that they have been linked today rhetorically because there is no legal connection between this pud and the trail. And so then since this is based on the idea that they are connected, I just can't go there with you. But I I think we all stand united up here that we're very supportive and proud of our trail system and this specific trail uh that we all want to see finished. All right, we have a motion and a second for the deferral. Cast your votes. fails two to six. All right. Now, we're back on the item. Councilman Lee Cooper, do you want to move it forward? I I would move for adoption uh of the put. We have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. I want to thank you all. Councilman Cooper, I appreciate your time. I brought you a tough one on your first week and a tough one on your last one, but we sincerely appreciate your efforts. Thank Thank you so very, very Thanks. All right. Thank you. All right. Item E is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval reszoning 723 Southwest 149th Street from double A to PUD 2056. Um, Councilman Kinkle, no one has signed up to speak. Giving up for a quick conference. David, do you want to come and talk about this? Not really. I just wanted you to stand up again. No, come tell us about it. This is kind of neat. Fun stuff in the south part of Oklahoma City. David Box 525 Northwest 11th. I'm glad we can move on from the controversial topic of a nature preserve to something more fun like a pumpkin patch. Uh that is what we're doing here. I actually followed market planning commission on the same case. And so if you are familiar with the or family farm uh this is an expansion Dr. Or has acquired these two parcels. So uh we will be adding an additional pumpkin patch I believe a corn maze uh and some overflow parking to the south. There's been no protest. I think everybody in this area is uh generally supportive of all the things that Dr. Or has done. Very neat part of South Oklahoma City. And I'll move for approval. Have a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Thank you. Passes unanimously. Item F is an ordinance on final hearing. It was recommended for approval. Reszoning 1201 Southeast 25th from PUD 855 to SPD 1712. Councilman Stone, no one has signed up to speak. Thank you, Mayor. This is just a uh a small addition to an existing area over off around 25th and high. And uh with that, I'll go ahead and move for its approval. Got a motion, a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. All right. Item G was previously struck, which brings us to item H. Um, this is the second of two meetings for this ordinance consideration. This relates to a uh curfew on food trucks in Bricktown. As you may recall, no one is signed to speak. If there's no comments or questions, the council could consider them. Consider the ordinance proposal. Uh I I um uh kind of struggle with this just a little bit. Um, I had a few flashbacks uh for back in the day uh when uh in my previous life when I would be out late and would need something to eat, you know, after uh a night of, you know, kind of partying a little bit. Uh but it it makes sense to me. And so, uh, after hearing, uh, from, uh, the police department, uh, I'll move for adoption of this ordinance. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item I is a public hearing regarding the dilapidated structures here listed. Amy, has anyone signed up to speak? No, they haven't. Um they have not and so we'll proceed to the resolution found at I2 declaring that the structures are dilapidated. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item J is J1 is a public hearing regarding unsecured structures here listed except for those previously struck. Amy, has anyone signed to speak? No, they haven't. They have not. And so we'll proceed to the resolution at J2 declaring the structures are unsecured. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item 11 K is a public hearing regarding the abandoned buildings here listed. Uh except for that previously struck. Amy, has anyone signed up to speak? No, they haven't. They have not. We'll proceed to the resolution found at K2 declaring its buildings are abandoned. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Okay. Item 11L is a this is actually something we considered in our posture as the PPA earlier. This is the joint resolution uh uh providing an updated convention center booking policy. So no presentation we can you've already heard it move for adoption. All right let's bring that up virtually. All right we got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Okay, we're going to skip item M for a moment uh until we can get a fuller complement of council members. Let's look now at item N1. This is a resolution authorizing the municipal council to confess judgment without emitting liability in the case of Haskins VC of OKC. Executive session is not requested. All right. Got a motion in the second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Item 01 is a resolution authorizing the municipal council to confess judgment without amending liability in the case of Jacob v city of OKC. Executive session is not requested. Move for adoption. Got a motion and a second. Cast your votes. passes unanimously. Item P1 are claims recommended for denial. Uh items A through C can be taken with one motion. Executive session is not requested. Got a motion in a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Item Q1 are claims recommended for approval. We could take items A through C with one motion. Executive session is not requested. Got a motion, a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. Now we are going to back up to item M and we have a presentation on this. Yes, Dennis why is here with public financial management and uh our our financial advisors and is going to present uh this project on the commercial paper for Aquit. Great. Thank you for having me. I'm Dennis why with PFM. We're the financial advisor to the city of Oklahoma City and Aquit. Uh today we are asking for your approval of an item that will assist Aqua with funding their capital plan which I think we've talked in the past is is substantial and uh should uh bring a lot of new resources to the to Oklahoma City. We are looking to raise the the size of the commercial paper program from $350 million to $500 million. Uh the credit support for this program will will remain with SNBC. Uh Aquid has completed all of the legal documents, received their ratings, and we're finishing up the offer memo, which will uh be circulated later this week should this item be approved. It is double docketed between city council and the Aqua trustees who meet this afternoon. Uh assuming we're able to get approval, we will close the credit facility on or about April 30th and be able to move forward with the uh borrowing program. Thank you for having me. One question. Can you just mention again what those ratings are? The ratings in the commercial paper are A1 P1, which is the highest rating you can have. Ratings of our water trust. Yeah. Ratings of your water trust are AAA. Thank you. I just like hearing that again. and and why that's important because I don't know that everybody always appreciates it. I mean, obviously it's sort of a report card for the financial management in this case of the water trust and obviously we get similar great ratings for the city at large, but it also means that you're you're basically paying less to the banks. I mean, your money our tax dollars and or our rate fees are going farther. They're more of that money is getting used on the projects and less on interest rates, right? Any other questions? Thank you very much. Okay, so we have the resolution uh approving the incurrence of indebtedness by the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust as described here. Um it is actually just one vote, but six votes are required to incur indebtedness. Seven votes are required to wave competitive bidding. So all of that will be encompassed in this one vote. We have a motion in a second. Cast your votes. Passes unanimously. And with the necessary six and seven votes, that concludes votes for the day. Uh vice, we are now all the way at item 12, but I will turn it over here to Vice Mayor James Cooper presiding. Thanks, Mayor. Okie dokie. So, we are on we did the items the claims recommended for approval. So, now we're on comments from council. Is that right? Thank you. Uh, city clerk, I think I had an email I sent with some photos. Well, first W one, just letting her know. Thank you. Um, you know, all too often we don't get to to give praise to a lot of our officers. They get recognized for things that they're doing wrong, not always what they're doing right. Um, and something just as simple as helping out our citizens day today. And last Wednesday, I got to witness two of our officers out of the Hefner Division, uh, Officer Michael Ber and Officer Marco Herrera, um, stop traffic to help a car that had stalled in the middle of Northwest Expressway, uh, protect that person. and they both got out of their vehicles and actually pushed that car um about two city blocks to get it off of the the mayor major thoroughare putting themselves in danger but uh protecting that person and I just wanted to give them a a shout out and tell them thank you very much for what they get to do and how they do it and a lot of times they don't get that recognition so other than that I'm good thank you thank you councilman I'll go and go to work four just wanted to mention uh more time that Councilman Cooper, I've just I've enjoyed working with you so much and today you had another fun day. I know, I get that. I'm a little envious of you too at the same time, but thank you again so much for your service to our city. Appreciate you. Thank you, Councilman Stone. W five, no comments. W six, no comments. Ward 7. Councilman Cooper. Uh first of all, uh just uh want to say thank you for uh Oklahoma City bombing memorial and the recognition uh that happened uh over uh the weekend. Just uh again another uh opportunity for Oklahoma to shine and for that Oklahoma spirit to shine. And so I am grateful for that. I'm also grateful for and thankful for all of those uh that worked uh on the standard iron uh uh uh uh proposal uh application. Um and I just want to uh shout out to to all of those that work so hard uh in the process and we still have a lot of work to do but uh in the process of of of that. Uh so uh I want to say thank you uh for them and then thank you uh to all of the city council for um making this uh as pleasurable uh an experience to be able to serve uh as possible. Thank you for all of your uh encouragement, cordiality uh and challenge. Uh so thank you so very very uh much for that. look forward to seeing you guys uh when I'm here in a couple of months uh back uh on the other side. So, I'm looking forward to that. Um um and [Music] um that was one other thing. Oh, go Thunder. Am I on Word A? We'd love for you to go ahead and give your remarks. Yeah. Um I want to thank the mayor and the council um for their support. Last September, we uh had the ribbon cutting for the soccer fields at Cameron, which expanded those fields. Um May 2nd through the 4th, we are having the big NOKC tournament there. Uh it's going to be a record tournament with 250 teams and 40 different clubs. And I will continue to mention this because I think with the World Cups uh soccer coming to the Americas for 2020 um or 2026, I'm sorry, 2026, I think we keep need to keep our eye on soccer and we need to keep thinking about additional fields because this sport is about to explode. The second thing I want to mention briefly is um our good friends Brian Dhy and Bob Blackburn just wrote a new book. It's called Parks of Oklahoma City, a history. Um, those two gentlemen are really good friends of mine. One I consider one of the greatest landscape architects in Oklahoma City. Uh, in Brian and then in Bob I consider him a noted historian. This book is really exciting. Um, I hope everybody will take the time to to to look at it. You can buy it at uh, Norex's True Value Paper and more, Full Circle Bookstore, Second Store Books, and other places. And more importantly on May May the 10th from 9:30 to 10 o'clock a.m. uh Brian and Bob will be at Scissor Tale Park uh showing off their new book and signing those books for people that want to purchase them. So congratulations to uh uh Brian and Bob. What a really neat book. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Um would would it be possible city clerk to pull up the photos I shared? Yay. So, I want to thank the parks department for taking this photo of um parks commissioner for W 2, Carol Sullivan, and I uh for the groundbreting for the first three phases of the deep fort trail. Um I really appreciate u commissioner um Sullivan who also serves as the neighborhood president for Venice neighborhood. So, this is someone who I uh just really respect her commitment to public service. Uh if you wouldn't mind going to the next photo, please. Cool. This is the city council in Amsterdam. Um and I got to, like I said, uh walk in and just sit there. There were some students there on a field trip who were also learning about how their local government worked. I really would like to thank uh Amsterdam's Councilman Taj. He met with me afterwards for about a half hour to talk about how the city of Amsterdam is investing in um ways to address their um their housing needs. And what how are they doing it? Building housing. Like they're just like we got to increase our supply. That's what's going to help bring down cost. And so the two ways are on my mind right now. from Austin, Texas to Amsterdam, the solution to our housing crisis is to build more affordable housing. Worldwide idea. Um, so yes, I just really want to thank them for uh hosting me in in in that meeting. Uh next photo. Like I said, they are rebuilding their city right now. Um, they are resurfacing roads. They are rebuilding their sidewalks, their bike infrastructure. And so anyone who's been following me on Instagram uh for the last couple years, you've seen me take similar photos of the PO streetscape, the Britain district streetscape. I I really love watching infrastructure, the work around the rebuilding of that infrastructure. Uh not just ribbon cutting, the product, but seeing the process I think is very important. People need to see the work that goes into the rebuilding. Uh, so it was really cool to see city workers out there doing this sort of resurfacing work. Um, next photo, please. Uh, this is my best friend Austin I referenced earlier. There were thousands of people there for Chap Pile. Thousands. And they knew the lyrics of words written by Oklahoma City residents about homelessness, about you name it. And I just I'm so proud of them representing OKC. Um, just just incredible. Uh, next photo. And this one's just a slightly heavier topic. This is the first uh monument ever uh built um that commemorates the um lives taken from us during the Holocaust who uh of lesbian gay bisexual transgender folk. Um this is a pink triangle um reference. And what was that triangle? So, um, sorry, this is a little difficult to talk about. Um, if you wouldn't mind going to the next photo. Uh, this is this the monument again. Uh, one more photo, please. Thank you. So, this is what the Nazis had to say heading into Germany's 1928 elections. quote, "Anyone who even thinks of homosexual love is our enemy." So this was like the Litmouth's test to be a candidate for the Nazi party. We reject anything which emasculates our people and makes it a play thing for our enemies. For we know that life is a fight, and it's madness to think that men will ever embrace fraternally. Then the Gestapo created a special division focusing on gay men and they borrowed from Oklahoma a law sentencing anyone found guilty of homosexual acts to 10 years in prison. As the sociologist Barry Adam writes, Nazi doctrine constructed homosexuality as an urban corruption, a disease to healthy village life that was easily spread through seduction and propaganda. According to the National Holocaust Museum, the Nazis established quote police powers to jail indefinitely without trial without trial anyone they deem dangerous to Germany's moral fabric. And then they arrested around 90,000 men for homosexuality between 1937 and 1939. and they imprisoned 15,000 in concentration camps under a law called paragraph 175. Homosexuality remained illegal in the Netherlands until 1969. And this monument did not become a reality until the 1980s, and it's the same decade that the West Germany uh president actually acknowledged what happened to gay people. It had never been they didn't never acknowledged it. [Music] Um, if you were a gay man arrested during this time and you went to the concentration camps, they put a pink triangle on your clothing to identify you as gay. And that subjected you to even more abuse from the other prisoners, not just from those in power. So, when they created this monument, this triangular shape uh was a way to reference that pink triangle. This is right around the corner from Anne Frank's house. Literally right around the corner from Anne Frank's house. Um, and so if you wouldn't mind just going through a couple more photos here. So they still put photos today of lives lost um commemorating it. Uh, if you want go next one too. And yeah, I can just kind of see that this was to commemorate what happened. And I just wanted to conclude with this photo. Just like the city of Amsterdam is rebuilding, so too are we. Um, I thought a lot about it during the anniversary of the the 30th anniversary of the bombing this weekend. Um, much of WI and much of downtown, our urban corps had not received investments in the ' 50s, in the 60s, in the 70s, in the 80s, and the 1990s until MAPS, until the bonds that have uh that voters have approved in recent years. And so it's really um I don't know fortifying to actually see uh maps for make its way into um the neighborhoods that define W 2. And so I I just I'm very grateful to the voters for um again um investing in our quality of life and our improvements and moving past old prejudices to do so. And um just wanted to say thank you for that. That's that's it. That's all I got. I believe the next item is citizens to be heard. And we do have some folk who've signed up. Okay. Uh, first we have Javier uh, Colton Colton Coco. Is that Do I get it right? I think so. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um, if you wouldn't mind stating your first and last name and your address and limit your comments to three minutes, please. Thank you. Uh, good morning. My name is Javier Caleno. I'm a public information officer with the US Small Business Administration, Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. The state of Oklahoma has requested disaster assistance from the federal government. So therefore, the Small Business Administration is offering lowinterest federal disaster loans to businesses of all sizes, most private nonprofit organizations, homeowners, and renters. if uh if someone that you know was affected uh and you know due to the severe storms, straight line winds, tornadoes, and flooding that happened back in November 2nd and November 3rd of 2024 and their property was in the county of Oklahoma or one of the contiguous counties of Canadian I'm sorry trying to uh Cleveland Lincoln Logan Pawatada my or kingfisher they can apply for disaster assistance. Uh we are offering two different types of uh loans for businesses and nonprofit organizations. One is for physical damages to their property. So it could be uh machinery, equipment, real estate or anything similar to that. We also have the economic injury disaster loan uh for those businesses and nonprofit organizations who suffer economically. So therefore they can apply for that and they can use it for like for example to pay for water, electricity, payroll or any other liability they may have. We Okay. some of the benefits. Oh, sorry. For homeowners, we have up to $500,000 to repair or replace their primary residence. For homeowners and renters, up to $100,000 to repair or replace any personal property they lost. So, it could be furniture, it could be a personal vehicle, and other similar things. Uh some of the benefits of taking the SBA loan is there's no application fee. There's no repayment penalty. They're not if they been approved, they're not obligated to take the loan. Uh for the first 12 months, they don't need to make any payments and for the first 12 months is 0% interest rate. We do okay again. So we do have deadlines. So therefore, we want to make sure that if they were anybody who suffered damages 30 seconds for any phys for sorry for any physical damages, they have until May 27 and for the economic injury disaster loan is December 29. Uh we have a center in Harac church at 101 Dubs Road in Harac, Oklahoma. It's open Monday through Friday 9 to 6:00 p.m. So they can go there and apply in person or they can apply at lending.sba.com. sba.gov. Oh, I think my time is up. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing that information. Uh, yes, city manager. Yeah, we can we can work with U. Javier to make sure that we get information out to businesses, work with the chamber and all. So, any way that we can help you with that, our public information office can help connect you and we'll make sure that we help get information out. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both for that. That's very important information and thank you for being here. I understand there was some even more recent uh weather kind of getting in into our homes and our streets. So, thank you all. Thank you. Okay. Uh William Kathy. No. Okay. Thank you. Um Detta Davis. Oh, good morning. If you wouldn't mind stating Yeah. Go ahead. Good morning. First and last name and address. And you'll have three minutes then. Thank you. Nevada Davis, 721 North Kellum Avenue. So, I am here. I know that the um special permit 592 uh with standard iron and metal was withdrawn, but had it not been withdrawn, we would have been here in numbers to share some information. So, I wanted to do that today. So uh the first thing is that the last time I was here I think was early March I reported that there had been five explosions that we had experienced. So as of today there have been 14 and there have been two of them that really rocked us to our core. They were so loud we thought I thought and some of the neighbors as well thought that somebody had run into my home. It was so loud and so scary. And so the second thing is that we also um collected signatures on a permit. So saying no to this um to the special permit and we have over 300 signatures and I wanted you to know that. And so the last thing that we definitely wanted to share is we know that Councilman Cooper this is your last meeting and we want to thank you. We've thanked you in per, you know, privately, but on behalf of the JFK neighborhood and the 17 other neighborhoods that are part of the Northeast Oklahoma City Neighborhood Coalition, we want to thank you for standing with us, supporting us. You have shown us again how um it looks when neighbors and council work together. So, uh we appreciate you. We know that it's not goodbye. We'll just see you later. But may God continue to bless you and keep you. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, Miss Davis. Um u make sure I see you uh after meeting today, please. Okay. Alrighty. We have Todd Reed. Todd Reed. No. Okay. And then we have Steve Hunt. Thank you, Steve. Would you state your uh first and last name and your address and then limit your comments to uh three minutes, please? Thank you so much. Steve Hunt, 2825 uh Northwest 57th. Uh right around the corner from Mediterranean Imports. Want to give them a shout out. The good people there. Um they're freaking out over the tariffs and everything and it's it's an absolutely wonderful place. It's a lot like many of the things that have gone away from Oklahoma City for the big league city stuff we're doing. Um there's a number of things that I want to discuss. Um I had meant I think you all remember I was here about six or seven weeks ago talking about the issue of Mayor Holt having the uh police officers follow me. Um that has kind of subsided. Uh I don't know if it's I thought one of the officers said, "Steve, I'm not going to follow you. I know you you're not doing anything." But um I want to address something that happened after this. Um you know I had mentioned JB Williams threatening me, Mark Faulk, Kevin Perry and others with violence and he's a good friend of Daves because you know as a exploer of East Side suffering that's someone that he wants to side with. He's not a very bright person. So he wants to hang out with people like him that are stupid so he can satisfy his racist beliefs that black people are stupid. Okay. Um so I want to talk about what happened. Joe Beth's uh charity case trauma culture predator partner Marty put something on Twitter calling me a racist for pointing out how ironic it was that I was being followed and that someone like JB was threatening me with violence and he he went on Twitter and I and I shouldn't have looked I should have just let him talk to his five followers all the high-waisted pant curly hair glasses trauma culture girls that he tweets to. And so I responded to it and shortly after that, Charles at Literati Press reached out to me and said, "You will never do an event here again." James, you are talking about housing. You were talking about we need more housing. And that's true, but the elephant in the room is private equity. Private equity that tore down Fountains of Canterbury so that Welltower Capital could build a uh rental neighborhood there. And now they're not doing it. So, three years that place has been abandoned. Everyone was kicked out. A number of seniors died as a result of being kicked out of there. My heart was very heavy this weekend thinking about that and how no one cared because as someone who worked downtown during the bombing, I had always wondered what would happen if something like that happened again. And that was it because Fountains at Canterbury was economic terrorism. 30 seconds remaining. And none of you cared. None of you said a word about it. And those lives are at Ellison Estatesman. Your uncle is there, Craig. And you can't even be bothered to even talk about it. People are suffering. People are are unable to get housing because of the menace of private equity. And you know, Apollo Capital has bought that property, taking a massive loan against it. That's why your uncle is paying 40% more rent, getting poor services because they've cut employees, they've cut servers. My time's up. Um, we can talk more about it later, but thank you for your time. Yeah. Shake your head. Why don't you go do your paper route? God damn. Okie dokie. Um, William Kathy. Mr. Kathy, would you mind your first and last name? I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Oh, you're fine. Your first and last name and your address, please. And you'll have three minutes. My name is William W I L L I A M. My middle name is Reeves. R E E V E S. My last name is Kathy. C A T H E Y. I live at 632 Southwest 27th, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73109. Yes, Mr. Kathy, if you want to go ahead and give your comments. Well, after that last comment, I don't know if I I didn't know it got so rough down here. I thought Mr. Freeman might be called out to get his ass whipped, but I think he said go back to the paper out. I don't even know what that means, but I don't think it's good. So, keep it running. I got a lot to say because I'm just talking about myself today because I came out of a hospital bed from Integris. I know it as Baptist Hospital. It's on the Northwest Expressway, but it's actually called Integress Baptist. I don't know all these branding rules, but it's Integris. And I have something to say today because I probably won't I told the policeman out there that I I might not make it through this. I might just kill over dead or I might pass out. Just He said, "Well, we'll call take you somewhere." I said, "That's why I'm here. In case I keel over, somebody will call somebody." And I'm ready to die. I'm not wanting to die, but you know what? It's a difference in ready and wanting. And I really like this guy. I don't know him, James Cooper. We used to be in W 2. That's where I'm a lifelong resident of Oklahoma City. Ward two, the first the first uh city councilman I knew personally from W. His name was Eugene Matthews. Went by Eugene Matthews. He became a great judge. I think Mark remembers him as a judge over here in the Oklahoma County courthouse. Gene Matthews, a little bit liberal for me. He was like a lot more liberal than the Kathy family. We were We thought Nixon was too liberal. We liked Reagan and the hard We're all Trumpsters, so we're all happy, you know, but I'm sure a lot of people aren't. I'm not here to talk about that. But Gene Matthews was the greatest and he did a lot of work as vice mayor because he didn't have the time to be mayor. So I listened to James Cooper and somebody said he talked too much. Really? I liked everything he said. I wish he'd talked more. 30 seconds remaining. What' you say? You have 30 seconds remaining on your time. Well Amy, I'll have to address you personally. You're an idiot. A city clerk that didn't know April 22nd was 89er day. Didn't know what 89er day was. It's the founding of Oklahoma City. It's founders day. 89er day. Not mentioned once. He talked about Amsterdam. I want to talk about Guthrie, Oklahoma. Have you ever been to Guthrie, James? It's a good place. Yes, sir. What? I said, "Yes, sir, I have." But Amy didn't know what it was. And then she backtracked and said, "You caught me off balance. I know what it is. You know what the fourth of July is? There Kathy, we have 30. It's there. Thank you so much. I just want to pass this around starting with Mark 35 years. Thanks. And then uh you'll go and then uh Mr. Kirk, I dropped it. I'm sorry. Can't even pick it up. And this is my last statement. No, we the time's up. I'm so sorry. Okay. Come back next time. Thank you. It is. Thank you, Mr. Kirk. Don't lose that stuff. Yeah. Can you carry it back? I'll get it. Okay, Mr. Kirk, if you want to. Yes, sir. My name is Ronnie Kirk. My address is 2328 North Missouri. There's an article on page. Yes, sir. Now, I think the whole state should see that, know about it. But today I come to talk about a old jail and a new one that's not been built yet. Last week a young lady died in the jail we have today. Statistically shows every two months from the day back for a year at least two people die in our county jail. Lessons should be learned about the death of the people that died in the jail. Why did they die? How did they die? Was they being monitored? Was there enough people monitoring? They're all in our possession of the state as property. So why shouldn't we take better care of them while they're locked in our facilities? The new facilities that's going up, they call them jailhouse, mental fields facility, use facility. They calling it everything. The new one is going up on grand over here. So those are the things that police should know in those articles in those inserts I gave y'all. When a mental person a person calls in 911, the more questions should be asked, are they mental? Are they stable? Do they have a gun? Are you known to them? And the the correct person that should talk to them after they get this information should go to them so they know which police officer should respond to for this these situations. 30 seconds remaining. Yes ma'am. So those are the two inserts. It tell you everything the police need to do for training to get them to our new facility. The old one, the people used to be watching. They watching you to find out what you do where they know what they can do while they've been locked up. I'll say thank y'all this morning. Thank you. Y'all have a good day. Um, before we go, I just want to say just a couple quick things. I appreciate, Mr. Kirk, a couple words I heard you use, which were yes, ma'am, and I also heard you say thank you. And I just want to say as we conclude this meeting, uh, Councilwoman Hammond, uh, City Clerk Simpson, uh, City Manager Freeman, I am grateful for your work for in your respective positions. And I I'm so sorry you heard the language that you did um earlier from a resident in our city because I know that I I believe in my heart at least that the majority of our people are better than those words. So that doesn't mean you all always agree with each other and I don't always agree with each of you, but I just am grateful that um that you're here. So I'll leave it at that. Mr. Cooper, you're you're so right. Mr. Cooper was right. Thank you, Mr. Kirk. Thank you. And then um that would move us Thank you, Mr. Kirk. That will move us to our next item uh item 14, which is adjournment. Thank you so much. And I