Turns out, an Improve Our Tulsa ballot proposition needed a little improvement.
City councilors voted after an executive session Thursday to add references to the city ordinances that outline the $918.7 million capital funding proposal voters will consider Nov. 12, citing a need to clarify the proposal for voters.
The minor additions apply to the proposition that details the $563.7 million sales tax portion of the proposal, which was approved along with a $355 million bond proposition Aug. 22 and was amended Sept. 3 to include the name Improve Our Tulsa.
The proposition now asks voters to "approve ordinances" extending the city's 1.1 percent sales tax, rather than simply to approve the tax extension. Ordinance numbers were also added.
The new language, according to a section added to councilor's earlier resolution calling the election, is intended "to add clarity and to better inform the voters as to the approval being sought."
But Senior Assistant City Attorney Mark Swiney told councilors Tuesday that the reason the amendment couldn't be discussed in public is because doing so would harm the city's ability to defend against potential litigation.
A pending legal claim is one of the few circumstances in which public bodies are allowed by the state's Open Meeting Act to meet behind closed doors, but City Attorney David O'Meilia has consistently interpreted that exemption broadly, saying it applies even when no claim exists.
O'Meilia, who was on vacation Tuesday, has told the Tulsa World that he interprets the act to allow for closed-door sessions when there is "anticipated, potential, possible" litigation.
The act states that executive sessions can be held for "confidential communications between a public body and its attorney concerning a pending investigation, claim or action if the body, with the advice of its attorney, determines that disclosure will seriously impair the ability of the public body to process the claim ... in the public interest."
Tuesday's executive session lasted nearly 30 minutes.
Improve Our Tulsa would fund $470 million in street repairs, public transit projects and a mix of what councilors call "nuts and bolts" projects such as facility repairs, and equipment purchases.
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: City Council votes to clarify Improve Our Tulsa proposal
