The Pension reform bill has passed, at least the one that pertains to state employees. The firefighter, police and teacher pension programs are not affected at all by SB 2120 or its sister bill HB 2630. Thursday, February 27, 2014
Midwest City voters will head to the polls next Tuesday, March 4 to cast their votes in the primary election for three city council seats. Thursday, February 20, 2014
As a former teacher Senator Ron Sharp makes it a point to look out for the best interest of educators and students. Senator Sharp wants to give teachers more authority and a power to enforce rules that he believes is severely lacking. Thursday, February 20, 2014
House Representative James Lankford came to OKC Tuesday night for a “Town Hall” style public meeting. Lankford informed the crowd as to the nature of his ongoing work in D.C. and then fielded questions submitted from the audience. Thursday, February 20, 2014
Despite frigid weather the Parent Legislative Action Committee (PLAC) had a fairly large turnout for their day at the capitol.
PLAC had a team of parent volunteers set up an information booth, directed parents to their specific legislatures, provided agenda packets and encouraged parents to sit in on committee meetings and express their opinions to the decision makers at the capitol.
"Our goals were to help parents get acquainted with the capitol, help them identify who their legislatures were in the event that they did not know. we gave them a packet [of information on bills pertaining to education] and we had a letter where they could write out their concerns," Meredith Exline a leader in the PLAC said.
Political agendas were outlined at the Midwest City Chamber breakfast.
Cliff Aldridge, Charlie Joyner and Gary Banz appeared alongside representatives from Scott Inhofe, Tom Coburn, Tom Cole and James Lankford spoke on the issues facing our state and especially the Mid-Del area.
Aldridge and Coburn both spoke on the fact that they this is their final session. Aldridge has reached his term limit and plans to move back into the private sector. Coburn is stepping down in order to spend more time with his grandchildren and family. Coburn denies that his current bout of cancer is the primary reason he is leaving office.
There are several accusations floating, statistics quoted and tempers flaring when it comes to Oklahoma’s attempt at pension reform. However many of the facts from both sides of the issue are skewed to an individual bias and generate a deceptive picture of the situation. Thursday, February 06, 2014
Governor Mary Fallin delivered the State of the State address Monday, Feb. 3, first giving credit to the Oklahoma Legislature and that they should be proud of how they made it through the tough financial times the past few years. Thursday, February 06, 2014
Dist. 96 Representative Lewis Moore wants to protect Oklahoma, first and singularly.
With his militia bill, several Federalism Acts, repellants to several aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and bills questioning federal spending, the Republican is attempting to strengthen the sovereignty of the State of Oklahoma.
"The position that I’m in is to defend, in every area that I can defend it, our state sovereignty."
Moore believes that the national governments’ enumerated rights are greatly out stridden with the ACA and other principal policies of this administration.
Midwest City’s State Rep. Gary Banz doesn’t know what’s exactly in store for the upcoming legislative session but he is sure another tough round of budget cuts is in the state’s future again this year.
As the filing deadline was the week of Jan. 13, Banz said no one can predict what bills will be voted on or what will surface as the most controversial bills until session has begun.
Rep. Banz of District 101, though, talks about the things he’s been hearing so far this year.
"The tax issue that was tossed out by the Supreme Court as a violation of the single-subject rule, will probably be a topic of conversation. The Speaker is pretty much on record as favoring it and the Governor has backed off of it," Banz said.
Reduce pension debt is listed as the No. 4 item on Oklahoma State Treasurer Ken Miller’s policy goals for 2014.
Oklahoma Educators Association and Keep Oklahoma’s Promises (a coalition of present and future pension beneficiaries) are expressing extreme misgivings about the stated plan.
This week is the filing deadline for all state legislation. Despite not knowing the full text of any bill pertaining to pension reform, activist groups and unions such as the OEA are fighting the concepts for change being discussed.
"First of all our pension system works," OEA President Linda Hampton said. "It is definitely not broken and the Teacher Retirement System has outperformed 99 percent of other systems in the United States and it’s in the best shape it’s been in 20 years."
In his Economic Report published Dec. 31, Miller outlined the problems he sees with the current structure of the pension program.
Del City council members turned down a rezoning request Monday, Jan. 6 after more than 20 concerned citizens showed up to protest changing 401 S. Sooner Road from residential to commercial.
Proponents of the rezoning cited the city’s comprehensive plan to turn all of Sooner Road into commercial space as the basis for their request, they reported during the rezoning hearing.
Heather Hancock, an owner of the property in question, said she has redrawn plans in order to meet community requests that promise commercial property and office space with limited traffic.
"This rezoning would be light commercial, for example office, medical and light retail," she said.
The search is over for Choctaw's new city manager.
On Wednesday, June 20, Choctaw councilmembers interviewed four finalists for the position and ended up instructing Mayor Randy Ross to offer Roger Nelson, 48, the job and to handle contract negotiations.
The council's decision, though, is not final until they approve Nelson's contract at their July 10 meeting, Ross said.
Once that happens, the mayor anticipated Nelson's first day on the job to be Aug. 6. He will replace Robert Floyd, whose contract was not renewed this spring by councilmembers after working with the city for 25 years.
Currently, Nelson is the city manager in Clyde, Texas, a city of about 3,700 people located just outside of Abilene. He has worked in Clyde since September 2009, but the city leader started his career in Warrensburg, Missouri.
From 1989 to 1992, Nelson served as the assistant to the city manager and then city manager in 1992 to 1994 in Missouri. He then moved to Grapevine, Texas where he worked as assistant city manager from 1994 to 1997 and city manager from 1997 to 2005.
State Rep. Gary Banz scored a landslide victory over Republican challenge A.J. Bailey Tuesday with 85 percent of the vote in the GOP primary.
Banz will face Democrat Stephen Colvert in the Nov. 6 general election for House District 101.
"I'm honored that the Republicans of House District 101 chose me to represent the citizens of Eastern Oklahoma County at the State Capitol." Banz said.
Banz has represented parts of Eastern Oklahoma County since he was first elected to the House in 2004.
Republican incumbent Brian Maughan earned another four years in office Tuesday when District 2 voters re-elected him as Oklahoma County Commissioner.
Maughan defeated fellow Republican Gordon Jeney, of Harrah, receiving almost 75 percent of the vote with 5,549 ballots cast in his favor and 1,863 for his challenger.
Late Tuesday night, Jeney told EastWord News the primary was an "up-hill battle" since Maughan was the incumbent and heavily involved in the Republican Party.
