Hard questions and discussions regarding money held ad Shawnee City Commission meeting.
During Citizen’s Participation at the Nov. 8 Shawnee City Commission meeting, citizen Rob Morris brought up the board’s failure to file their Personal Financial Disclosure (PFD) Statements required by the Oklahoma Ethics Commission.
Morris said, “When I did a public information request, only one has been done; one period, not one per year, one. And even the one that was done didn’t list property, didn’t list anything other than checked a bunch of boxes and signed it.”
The Ethics Commission requires all elected officials of a municipality to file an initial PFD with their clerk within 30 days of taking their seat in office, and once annually between Jan. 1 and May 15 in the years to follow.
According to the Ethics Commission’s Financial Disclosure Guide, “The purpose of the personal financial disclosure (PFD) statement is to identify and disclose potential conflicts of interests between public duties and private economic interests.”
Commissioner Lauren Richter was the only one to acknowledge the issue during Commissioners Comments. Richter said, “Thank you, Rob, for bringing me a copy of the disclosure agreement and making sure that we’re held accountable as elected representatives.”
The current Financial Disclosure Form and further information on the topic can be found at www.ok.gov/ethics/ Financial_Disclosure/.
There were a few approvals during Monday evening’s meeting as well, including the vote to approve a partnership with Shawnee Housing Authority for the Mental Health Assistance portion of the CDBG-CV2 grant received from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.
“This is an agreement using our COVID relief funds through the CDBG program to help the Shawnee Housing Authority provide mental health assistance to its residents. Out of the $1.1 million dollars in the CV2 grant that we were awarded, we budgeted just over 175,000. For this project,” Community Development Director Rian Harkins said. “ This will be designed to help provide expanded internet infrastructure in their facilities, their buildings, as well as provide necessary equipment for them to provide mental health assistance.”
Approval was made also to renew an agreement with Dunnington Consulting and Latham Consulting.
According to a memo by Assistant City Manager Jacob Foos, “In October 2021, the City of Shawnee first engaged Dunnington Consulting and Latham Consulting for governmental and community affairs services. The City of Shawnee has worked closely with these consultants to help build important relationships between City staff and state agencies and elected officials.”
City Manager Andrea Weckmueller-Behringer also presented the Board with info on the upcoming 2023 Sales Tax Election. The election will take place Jan. 10, 2023, and voters will decide if the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant project will be paid for with a 0.5% Sales Tax increase or a Utility Improvement Fee. According to the FAQ sheet made by city staff, “In order to secure financing for the project that replaces the City of Shawnee’s 40- and 70-year-old wastewater treatment plants, a new Utility Improvement Fee was approved on August 15, 2022, and will take effect on March 1, 2023. Understanding the significance of a new fee, the City Commission asked that the voters be given the opportunity to decide whether they prefer a fee or sales tax option.”
Weckmueller-Behringer said citizens have asked why ARPA funding is not being used for the project, and “The answer is that the $8.3 million that the city was allotted in ARPA funding is not enough to complete the wastewater treatment plant project, which will cost 117 billion in total.”
Further details on the election can be found at bit.ly/Shawnee2023.
