McAlester voters pass changes to Charter, Frink-Chambers bond fails

Sep. 12—Voters in McAlester passed three propositions related to the City's Charter while voters in the Frink-Chambers district voted no to a bond that would have paid for a new addition for the school.

Unofficial results from the Oklahoma Election Board show 475 total voters cast a vote in the McAlester special election.

McAlester's Proposition 1 received 301 yes votes for 65.40% of the vote with 164 no votes.

The city's proposition 2 passed with 359 votes for 75.90% and 114 no votes.

354 voters said yes to Proposition 3 for 73.89% of the vote with 124 no votes.

Voters in the Frink-Chambers Public School District said no on a $10,215,000 school bond, with 238 voters saying no for 76.77% of the vote with 72 voters saying yes.

McAlester's Proposition 1 asked city voters to amend the City Charter by changing the formula on how the city's emergency fund is funded from 10% of all city budget expenditures to 10% of all reoccurring unrestricted general operations expenditures, which is also known as the city's operational fund.

Currently, the city uses a formula based on 10% of its operational fund, or the money used to run the city on a day-to-day basis.

The issue came before voters after McAlester City Attorney John T. Hammons issued an opinion stating the city should be funding the emergency fund with 10% of all city budget expenditures — a much higher rate than the day-to-day operational funds.

Currently, the emergency fund has $3.9 million. A no vote would have forced the city to cut services and make possible layoffs in order to the reach the nearly $9 million the emergency fund would have needed; McAlester Mayor John Browne told the News-Capital before the election.

City of McAlester's Proposition 2 focused on reconciling candidate filing and election dates called for in the McAlester City Charter with municipal election dates set by the Oklahoma State Election Board.

Proposition 3 is concerned with trying to ensure all city councilors will serve equal amounts of time in office, Browne said.

Frink-Chambers' $10,215,000 school bond would have added additional classroom space to accommodate growth in the school district, a safe room to provide shelter for students and the community in case of inclement weather, and a multi-purpose area to be used as a cafeteria and physical education space.

The bond would have added an additional $18 per $100 in taxes for property owners in the district for 18 years depending on population growth.