City of Guthrie ordered to hold special election, for now

The Guthrie city council took another step in what is now coming up on eight years of litigation between the City and an initiative petition regarding raising water and sewer rates.

On Tuesday, the council voted unanimously (5-0) to hold a special election to be held August 23, 2016 for purpose of submitting to the registered, qualified voters of said City, a question of whether or not to add a new section to the Charter of the City of Guthrie to be designated as increase in utility rates.

To hold the election it’s expected to cost the City between $2,500 and $5,000.

The City was ordered by the Supreme Court to hold the election after the Oklahoma Court of Appeals overturned a Logan County judge’s decision on the initiative petition presented by former city Councilwoman Patty Hazlewood and resident Karen Schandorf on Sept. 7, 2008.

The City has since filed an appeal with the Oklahoma Supreme Court in hopes of having the appealed overturned.

“We may be holding an election that really means nothing, but we got to have it because the court said to have it,” City attorney Randel Shadid told council members.

The petition seeks a change to the City’s charter requiring a vote of the people before utility rates could be changed. Hazlewood and Schandorf have proposed the city should not be allowed to raise water and sewer rates, but instead be submitted to the legal voters of the city for their approval or rejection at the next regular general election, or at a special election.

In October 2013, District Judge Phillip Corley ruled in favor of the City. The court found if the initiative petition was in place it would create an undue burden on the City and Guthrie Public Works Authority that it would destroy the city’s ability to engage in the business of a utility.

City Manager Bruce Johnson appeared to be holding back his frustrations while addressing the council. “No representative has ever come to me in my entire career and said, ‘Bruce we want to make the city worse and somehow cripple it to make sure that our citizenry out there are in the worse possible condition they can be.’ That’s exactly what this type of lawsuit, vote and mindset could cripple our community going into the future.”

The lone city in the state that allows a vote for rate increases is Norman, but their finance director, Anthony Fransico, testified, in 2013, he believes it is a “bad business practice.” He went on to say that Norman has been delayed since 2001 on sewer projects and Norman voters have failed to pass two water and one sewer rate increase, but did vote for two water rate increases.

Hazlewood became displeased with the city’s implemented CMOM fee, along with a fee to pay for the new $15 million water treatment plant and the handling of the loan with Excel Jet for $375,000.

Last year, Hazlewood told The Oklahoman, “The city was raising them willy-nilly every few months, and it was awful. Every time they needed money, they raised the rates, and that’s not right.”

Johnson concluded by saying, “If we still don’t come together, learn to trust each other and want to have an open, honest discussion in a public forum as we do twice a month here in order to figure out what our issues are and how to resolve them together it’s going to give the community a black eye.”

You can view the entire discussion in the video below beginning at the 22:00 mark.