Oversight Committee looking toward quick Ward 2 selection process

Apr. 9—The Norman City Council hopes to approve a four-member selection committee for the Ward 2 seat at Tuesday's council meeting, jumpstarting the process to fill a vacant council chair.

The city is seeking a new Ward 2 councilor after Matt McGarry, elected to the seat in February, announced he will be leaving the position for a job with an Ivy League university. At Thursday evening's City Council Oversight Committee meeting, councilors and city staff nailed down preferences for what the Ward 2 selection process will look like.

Mayor Breea Clark told The Transcript early Thursday afternoon that she won't be calling a special election to fill the seat, as state regulations prevent Norman from holding a June 8 election, and instead push any possible election date back until at least September.

While Clark said Thursday that she's speaking with House Rep. Merleyn Bell, D-Norman, about creating exemptions to state rules that would allow a quicker election in the event of a death or resignation, but no potential fix to the election option will be ready soon enough for Norman.

Norman will use a selection committee, which will review applicants and present a candidate to the city council for approval. The council must appoint a new Ward 2 councilor by May 18 at the latest,, according to city charter rules.

Councilors already have four committee members in mind, including former Ward 2 councilors Joe Carter, Aleisha Karjala and Richard Stawicki, all of whom still live in the ward. The committee could also include Britton Perry, son of the late David Perry, a former Ward 2 councilor who died in August 2020.

All four potential members have indicated they'd be willing to serve on the committee if asked, councilors said Thursday.

The oversight committee decided Thursday that with a selection committee of four, at least three committee members should agree on a final candidate recommendation. Ward 4 Lee Hall said she wants to make sure it's clear how the committee can reach consensus on a recommendation.

City Clerk Brenda Hall said the city can create an agenda item that would allow the council to formalize the committee composition as soon as Tuesday.

Councilors expressed Thursday a desire to fast-track the selection process as much as possible to not only hit the May 18 deadline, but to allow Ward 2 a voice by the time budget hearings start April 27.

The potential selection process would mean applications for the seat are released Sunday, a committee is approved Tuesday and committee members complete initial applicant selections, interviews and a final recommendation as soon as possible.

City Manager Darrel Pyle said Thursday that in order to speed the process along and make sure the council's pick is ready to jump into city business as soon as they're approved, applicants should start reviewing council meetings and tracking city issues the moment they apply.

"We've got to tell them up front, 'we want you to be up to speed the day you hit the chair, so all applicants, you need to prep assuming you'll be it. This is like the understudy role for a Broadway play — you have to be ready on game day, because the public hearing's going to start and you're going to be expected to represent,'" Pyle said. "I think there is an opportunity for those interested to prepare and actually be of value to Ward 2 — we just need to make sure they understand the expectations."

City staff and councilors also reviewed questions for the Ward 2 application Thursday. The application already contains questions asking about additional experience or education applicants feel is relevant to the role, and why applicants are interested in serving as Ward 2's councilor. Clark and Ward 6 Elizabeth Foreman recommended adding new questions about any applicant conflicts of interest and about applicants' involvement in city and municipal activities.

The oversight committee agreed that actual interview questions should be kept from candidates until their interviews, and that the selection committee should interview only as many candidates as it can fit into one day. A two-day interview process may give second-day interviewees an advantage, Ward 1 Kate Bierman said.

"I think that it would be appropriate for the selection committee to create [interview] questions maybe with the assistance of staff, maybe soliciting questions from the public, but then keep them from the applicants until those applicants are in the interview," Bierman said. "I want to know what you know about TIFs based on your past research, not because you know I'm going to ask you about TIFs."

Oversight committee members said Thursday that while they don't necessarily have time to do so before the Ward 2 councilor selection, they want to create a more streamlined, consistent process for the city to select future councilors when needed. Clark said in her time as mayor, she's gone through multiple selection processes, and each has been different.

"I would like this to be cleaned up and formalized, perhaps in the charter, since we're working on that process, so future councils don't have to keep wrestling with this, because I'm not going to rely on the state legislature to fix this," Clark said.

Emma Keith covers Norman Public Schools and the University of Oklahoma for The Transcript. Reach her at ekeith@normantranscript.com or at @emma_ckeith.