City adopts rearranged budget in afternoon meeting
Jun. 15—Editor's note: this story has been updated to reflect that two councilors voted no on the internal audit function. The Transcript regrets the error.
The Norman City Council adopted its annual budget during a Tuesday afternoon meeting and with it boosted police funding, transit and a stormwater project.
Before the council unanimously adopted the fiscal year ending 2023 budget, members approved all proposed amendments.
Ward 1 Brandi Studley voted not to grant increases to the police department's budget. She also voted against a $1.5 budget allocation from the Capital Fund to pay for a stormwater park where a homeless encampment was cleared in May 2021.
Police pay
The police department amendment will allocate $570,691 from the General Fund and $225,850 from the Public Safety Sales Tax [PSST] Fund. The PSST fund is a voter-approved half-cent sales tax.
While City Financial Services Director Anthony Francisco has predicted shortfalls in the PSST fund for the next few years, he said he did not anticipate the need for a general fund subsidy.
Following the meeting, Francisco said the increase in sales tax revenue growth has boosted the fund without the need for a subsidy.
Studley said she voted no because the council does not have a seat at the bargaining table. City Manager Darrel Pyle that the collective bargaining process is not open to the public and adding the council to those meetings would violate that closed meeting process. He added that the department will begin to implement community policing as soon as the budget becomes effective July 1 and as they hire more officers to fill those roles.
Studley also said she had not witnessed promised changes to the department nor the emergence of mobile crisis units.
"I do appreciate and can recognize the fact that we haven't had any major violent episodes with our police department here compared to other cities across Oklahoma, so I do appreciate Norman police for that," she said. "However, I don't think that more funding for police is what we need. I think we need more community outreach that involves actual mental health case workers that are not police."
The state is expanding its mobile crisis unit program statewide with additional funding it has received from the legislature.
Stormwater improvements
Council approved an amendment to capture $1.5 million in the Capital Fund for the park at Carter Avenue and Alameda.
City staff told the council that a planned stormwater park would have little impact on stormwater runoff in Bishop Creek after local resident Cynthia Rogers questioned its impact on stormwater mitigation.
"Will this project actually mitigate flooding downstream from there and with our stormwater resources being so scarce, is this the best and highest use of these funds?" Rogers asked.
"If the question is will it do significant mitigation downstream, the answer is no," said Shawn O'Leary, the city's public works director.
The park would have a "small stormwater detention pond," and the mitigation would be minor, O'Leary said.
Ward 4 Lee Hall defended the project as "a rare opportunity" for a unique, "educational" park in the community, and one that had been earmarked for American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Francisco clarified for the newspaper that if ARPA funds become available for the project through the application the city has submitted to the state, the project would not be paid for from the capital fund.
Studley voted no as a matter of "principle" because the project came on the heels of the homeless camp removal. The homeless community faces the closure of the city's emergency shelter at the end of June, the newspaper has reported.
"We displaced many of our homeless residents from this park who had been there for years," Studley said. "And the one place we did offer them, the warming shelter, is now going to be shut down. So they really have no place to go. I think the $1.5 million could be used for the homeless community instead of to add another park to Norman."
Internal audit added
The council approved an amendment 7-2 to increase funds by $131,847 to hire an internal city auditor with Ward 3 Councilor Kelly Lynn and Hall voting no. The council expressed support to create the new department, even if voters do not approve a charter amendment to place the position under the direct authority of the council.
If voters do not approve, the city could also decide to contract for the position that would answer to the council instead of the city manager.
Transit in question
Local resident Christina Owen raised a concern about the council's amendment to increase the city's payment to the Regional Transportation Authority by $182,654 after Moore and Midwest City pulled out its financial support.
The authority has agreements with cities in the greater Oklahoma City Metro area, including Norman, Oklahoma City, Del City, and Edmond to work toward mass transit and commuter rail. Midwest City exited the agreement in December, and Moore left on June 6, news reports indicate.
Mayor Breea Clark said the city's contribution only funds stops in Norman, but admitted that it does make those stops "more expensive."
Holman said as long as Edmond and Oklahoma City agreements remain in place, he had no problems with the amendment.
The council also approved another transportation amendment to increase the Public Transportation Fund allocations by $750,000 to pay for a micro transit program."
The program will offer smaller vehicles introduced in limited zones or defined areas of the city where same-day transportation would be available. The service is designed to provide transportation where gaps exist, including in addition to existing para-transit services provided to people who cannot ride the city's mass transit buses on fixed routes.
The city's budget for total revenue — with all funds projected — is $251.8 million, and $244.2 million is expected for total expenditures.
Mindy Wood covers City Hall news and notable court cases for The Transcript. Reach her at mwood@normantranscript.com or 405-416-4420.
