February 5, 2010 — Claremore City Council members voted yesterday to cancel Tuesday’s planned special election on the reallocation of one-penny of the city’s sales tax.

Council members met in emergency session after it was brought to the attention of city officials this week that an error in the legal publication of the notice of the election would have rendered the election’s results “void and invalid.”

City officials did not meet the legal requirements of publishing notice of the election 15 days prior to the vote.

“Claremore Progress staffers discovered that the legal notice was submitted for publication less than the 15-day period and brought it to the attention of City Mnager Troy Powell,” said Randy Cowling, Progress editor.

“We (the city) had planned a special election Tuesday (Feb. 9), relating to the allocation of dity sales tax revenue,” Claremore City Attorney Matt Ballard told council members, “but an oversight in the legal requirements of its publication as required by Oklahoma law and the City of Claremore would have resulted in the election results being invalid.

“The city has a fiduciary duty to use public funds in a prudent and responsible manner and take steps to ensure (public) funds are used to benefit the citizens, preventing waste and avoiding unnecessary costs,” he continued. “If not stopped, the holding of this election (and associated costs) would result in an immediate financial loss.”

Claremore City Manager Troy Powell said he’d been told by personnel at the Rogers County Election Board that the cancellation of Tuesday’s special election would save “about $1,000 to $1,200” in costs to the city.

Powell also expressed his “extreme disappointment” in the oversight of the proper legal publication of notice of the election.

“Although we’d had the (special election) date listed unofficially in the paper — both in regular news articles and in an editorial I wrote — it was not included in the official public notice when it ran (in the Claremore Daily Progress) in December,” Powell said, “and the second notice was not submitted for publication early enough to be in compliance with City and State statutes.”

Under Oklahoma Statutes regarding elections, “Not fewer than fifteen (15) days before the filing period for any regular municipal election, or in the event of a special election, not fewer than sixty (60) days before such election, the governing board of any municipality shall submit a resolution to the secretary of the county election board conducting such election.

Title 26 continues: “Such resolution shall contain the following facts: Dates of the election or elections; offices to be filled or the questions to be voted upon at such election or elections; Qualifications for such offices; Designation of which offices shall be filled by voting by ward and which offices shall be filled by voting at large; Indication of whether the election will be partisan or nonpartisan; For charter cities where the charter is silent, indication of any portion of state law which will apply; and any other information necessary for conducting said election or elections.”

With the vote to cancel Tuesday’s special election, the next earliest available date to reschedule it is in May 2010.

“The delay in voting is disappointing, as it’s vital that we place this option before the voters sooner, rather than later,” said Ward II Council member Mick Webber. “The financial pressures in our city government are real and most likely will continue to be an issue through 2011.”

Despite — or perhaps because of the delay in the special election vote — Webber said the need for the reallocation is “critical.”

“Claremore is the largest city in Oklahoma where all the dollars are pre-allocated or encumbered, thus not allowing us to attack the many infrastructure issues that are plaguing us today,” he said. “Timing regarding this vote is still critical.”

As to how the oversight happened, several factors came into play, including January’s severe weather issues, the transitioning of City attorneys from Randy Elliott to Matt Ballard, and the departure of longtime Deputy City Manager Matt Mueller, but Powell said it ultimately rests on his shoulders.

“Simply put: this is a case where we simply didn’t do a good enough job checking the details,” Powell said. “We’ve held several elections before now — all of which have been done correctly — but this was one of those rare times where everything was done right except for one small, but critical detail — the listing of the (planned) special election’s date, and when you’re dealing with these kind of issues, you can’t afford to miss anything, and the bottom line is that’s my responsibility.”

Following the unanimous approval of the cancellation of the election, Council members were told by Powell that the tentative date for the election to be rescheduled would be May 11, 2010 — a resolution for which is to be put before the Council members at their next regular meeting.

Tuesday’s school board elections for Collinsville, Chouteau-Mazie, Claremore, Chelsea, and Foyil will still be held as previously scheduled.