CityofBlanchard.com
From the Mayor
Frank Broyles
February 23, 2012 For those of you who read the Blanchard newspaper on February 15th, the first quote attributed to me was completely incorrect. In this week’s paper, I want to thank Tony Strickland for putting in a correction, but I’m afraid the damage had already been done.
I would also like to take the opportunity to tell people it is a physical impossibility for me to "stalk off" anywhere. I received an injury to my knee while on active duty in the U.S. Army that makes me walk stiff-kneed. Favoring the injured knee has caused my other knee to have problems. (In fact, I just received shots in both knees to help me walk.) I have braces for both my knees to keep them from buckling and causing me to fall. To me, saying I stalked off the council was an obvious attempt to use my disability to make me look bad. I was not angry, because I had expected this to be done and had sought counsel on what to do. I did not take this action lightly nor was it done in a fit of anger because I did not get my way. I did this because the people had asked me to stop it from happening.
Because the paper has declined to print my article and I no longer have to meet a deadline, I had the opportunity to read this week’s paper before writing my column. There were some letters to the editor written by people that obviously do not know what is going on -- believing what they are told or read in the paper to be the complete story and the whole truth. As you can tell by the correction published in today’s paper, this is not always the case and people do make mistakes. If you listen to the video on the cityofblanchard.com website, you will also know the whole story isn’t always put in the paper. A reporter writes a story, but it is the editor who decides what is put in or left out.
Some people have approached me about what they feel is the biased, one sided coverage in the paper and their anger that the paper will not print my column anymore. I will tell everyone else what I have told them. The paper is owned by an individual. He has the Right to print what he wants and what he does not want in his paper. I spent 22 years in the military to protect His rights, and will continue to defend them even though I do not agree with what he is doing.
I believe in the Constitution. I believe in our Rights. I believe in upholding the law. I believe in Government of the People, By the People, For the People.
Our Ward 1 council seat is still vacant. (I openly and honestly have admitted to trying on three separate occasions to get the council to agree to appoint people who expressed their desire to me to be considered. There was no attempt by me to "stack" the deck in my favor.) Even with the next possible election, it will be a
year that Ward 1 council seat has been vacant. I would like to make it clear that the people I nominated to the council for appointment consideration expressed their desire to me to be considered, but one had to withdraw because they received a threat and one because they received an anonymous letter. Before these people had come forward, I had already been told by the two councilmen that they would never agree to anyone I nominated for appointment -- they even rejected the one who was elected by you, the people of Blanchard, in April of last year.
I don’t do things because it is what I want to do. Many of the citizens of Blanchard have asked me to fight for their rights. They want an election to choose who sits on the council. If you listen to the audio of the meeting last year that is on the cityofblanchard.com website, you will hear Mr. Hagan, with Mr. Ferencich supporting him, saying: "Let’s just set an election. Let’s just do it. Let the voters have their say. This is their city. They didn’t elect us to appoint somebody we like. They elected a person. Unfortunately, that person couldn’t stay on. Let them have their choices. Let’s do it as soon as we can." If they believed that then, what is so different now? Is it because they were the ones who appointed Mrs. Harris and now Mike wants to appoint someone else?
I would like to state that I have not had my way on the council. When Mr. Lacy was appointed as interim city manager, it was a 4 council members to 1 vote. Most of the appointments to the subcommittees were reappointments of the people they put on them. I have stressed repeatedly the need and importance of having an actual treasurer, and have been turned down every time I brought it up. Without an actual treasurer, there is no oversight of the city’s money to ensure proper accountability which is the council’s responsibility by State Statute. The only regular meeting after the elections that we had a five-person council was the first meeting in May 2011. After that, it was a split decision, an agreed decision, or their way.
If I disagreed with the others, I would state my reasons or objections, then vote no, and would try to move on to other business. Unfortunately, there have been ink pens thrown, rude faces and gestures made, and I was put down because I dared to disagree with the others. I believe in standing up for what the people who elected me want me to do, not what the others on the council want. I have been the target of numerous attacks in the paper, received actual threats of physical harm (Greg Shupert was found guilty), and received anonymous letters, all for daring to disagree and standing up for the citizens’ rights. Doing what the Citizens of Blanchard
want is not a popular thing on the council in this town.
After listening to the citizens’ desire to put the vacant positions up for an election so the people could vote, I am fighting for an election instead of an appointment; that’s what the people want. The citizens’ biggest concern is that Mr. Ferencich is attempting to appoint his own majority to the council so he can control everything that goes on in the city.
If you want the city to move forward, call Mr. Ferencich and Mrs. Harris to get an election to fill both vacant seats. If we can fill both seats at a June 26 election, we will have a full council with four seats voted on by the people and Mrs. Harris filling the other. Whoever the people choose to elect, I will still be only one vote on the council, and will still represent the people who elected me and not give in to pressure to do what the others on the council want.
The Economic Development Committee will be setting up a survey soon to ask for your input on how you would like to see our city grow and what direction you would like it to take for economic development. When the survey is available, please take the time to complete the survey to allow the input needed. Printed forms will be provided for those who do not have access to a computer.
The city continues to have sewer problems, especially in the older parts of town. It seems that many years ago, between 1950 and 1970, the sewer line material in use was a bituminous fiber pipe called "Orangeburg." After time, these pipes have started deteriorating. Tree roots are starting to grow through them and some are collapsing due to the weight and pressure of the soil around them. The drought also caused more problems. We need to develop some spending priorities to start replacing these old sewer pipes and the old water pipes in the these sections of town -- this is part of what the sales tax that was voted on by the people was to be used for. Once these are replaced, the streets can then be repaired or replaced without the fear of them having to be dug up for water line breakages or sewer backups. Mr. Bishop is looking for grants that would help us cover some of the costs.
I see that Morgan Road is getting some surface repair. Unfortunately, this is just a "drop in the bucket" to what is needed throughout the town.
The next regular scheduled council meeting is February 28, 2012, at 7 p.m.
March 1, 2012 My apologies for the late posting. I have been sick off and on for the past week, and was unable to attend the meeting last Tuesday night.
A Writ of Mandamus has been filed to have the court order the council to call for an election for Ward 1. This needs quick attention -- a resolution for an election. It was also left off the agenda that was posted for the Tuesday night meeting. I have called for a special meeting for Monday evening, March 5, at 7:00 p.m. to deal with this issue.
A woman in the newspaper article stated that she does not feel like I am representing Ward 4 (although she forgets I have worked with them towards the city setting up a road district for their area). The ones who are saying this are the ones who stood up and supported the other council members when they refused to call an election for Ward 1, denying the citizens of Blanchard their Constitutional rights.
The citizens in Ward 1 have deserved representation!
I will never agree with anyone or vote for anything that takes away our citizens’ Constitutional rights. If this makes some feel that that I am not representing them, then so be it. There are those in our country now working to take away our Constitutional rights. I will not be one of them!
March 28, 2012 - Since Mike Ferencich appointed Barbara Harris to the vacant Ward 2 council seat and Ward 3 became vacant, I have been told by numerous citizens of Blanchard that they want an election for Ward 3 and not another appointment by Mr. Ferencich.
On January 10, 2012, Mr. Ferencich nominated and Mr. Hagan seconded the appointment of Mrs. Barbara Harris. This was done without notice to anyone, including me. No one had been allowed to have a voice on this appointment and no one else was allowed to "volunteer." Mr. Ferencich apparently knew Mr. Hagan was going to be moving and had to resign.
On February 14, 2012, Mr. Ferencich added an agenda item to appoint someone to replace Bob Hagan who resigned January 27, 2012. I sought advice from a state official and was told the only way to stop the appointment was to break the quorum.
I wanted the citizens to have an election for the person of their choice, as asked. Mr. Ferencich wanted to appoint another person of his choice. Ask yourself, who was wanting control?
The city manager ensured the appointment was the last item on the agenda so all city business could be taken care of before the appointment. Before any business could be conducted, Mr. Ferencich, seconded by Mrs. Harris, quickly moved the agenda item ahead of all other items. I calmly stated my objections to the agenda item and as I walked out, I informed them they no longer had a quorum.
I did not stalk out. I did not get mad. I did not throw a fit. I stood up for my beliefs in doing what the people elected me to do, and I stood up for our citizens’ rights and wishes to elect someone, instead of allowing Mr. Ferencich to appoint another person of his choice to this vacant position. Please watch this websites’ video recording of that meeting to actually see what happened. I believe it proves the concern of the citizens.
On February 28, I fell ill and was unable to attend that meeting. Some are passing a rumor that I just didn’t show up. I had also been feeling sick the Sunday before and Monday morning. I wish the people putting out these rumors would at least feel the way I felt all that day, and they would then know why I wasn’t there. After that episode, I had a recurring bout of the same sickness on the following Saturday morning which was witnessed by several people.
The following week, I was notified by a citizen that there was an important item that had not been presented to the council which needed the council’s attention, so I scheduled a special meeting for Friday, March 9, to take care of it. Unbeknownst to me, the agenda had been removed inadvertently by the city clerk (along with the city manager who said he did not notice it even though he was watching and filming), so the meeting could not be conducted. I immediately scheduled another special meeting for Monday, March 12, which was the soonest it could be done.
Friday evening, after the cancelled meeting, the city manager called to say Mr. Ferencich had a previous
engagement and wanted to put it on the Tuesday agenda. I told him to offer Mr. Ferencich the compromise of taking everything off the agenda that related to appointment or elections, leaving just the city business to be conducted. I felt that the decisions for those items would be made in court. The city manager did not call me back.
On Monday, Mr. Ferencich did not show up at the meeting, and the item had already been added to the posted agenda for Tuesday’s regular, March 13, meeting. I felt that this was an attempt to force me to allow Mr. Ferencich to appoint someone to fill the vacant position.
Many citizens expressed their concerns about my attending the meeting on March 13, 2012, fearing that Mr. Ferencich would be successful in his attempt to appoint his person to the vacant position. If you watched the video of the meeting in which I walked off (February 14), you will hear Mr. Ferencich asking the city attorney if they could go ahead and appoint, even though they had no quorum.
People were worried that if I had merely walked off again, even though it would have broken the quorum, Mr. Ferencich and Mrs. Harris would have gone ahead and appointed, and then the citizens would have had to fight the legality of this in court -- just like they had to fight to force an election. What’s another court case to them -- they don’t have to pay for it -- your tax dollars do.
Early in the afternoon on March 13, 2012, I received an offer to meet with an individual to discuss the possibility of locating a hotel or lodging unit in Blanchard. Even though I had planned to, I did not make it back in time for the meeting that evening.
Mr. Leon Lacy, along with other citizens, took the city to court in an effort to mandate an election for Ward 1. His writ was successful and an election for Ward 1 is now scheduled for August 2012.
Also, the city was taken to court by Mr. James Lackey, husband of Yvonne Lackey who lost the election to me, in an attempt to force the city to appoint someone to Ward 3 (which basically, translated into forcing me to allow Mr. Ferencich to appoint someone). The city manager testified for them. Mr. Ferencich testified about how "important" it was to have another person on the city council, but failed to inform the judge that we could have already had another person on the council if not for his continued refusal to vote to call an election earlier. Mr. Lackey’s writ was not successful. The court determined there was a remedy (an election) to not appointing, and therefore, ruled against the Writ.
Ask yourself this, if Mr. Ferencich and Mrs. Harris were so concerned with having another person on the council because of "things" that might come up requiring four votes, why didn’t they push to have an election in February, March, April or June? The election board said they were sure they could have the voter registry done before the June election, but still they delayed it until August. My question is why? What do you think about your tax dollars being spent defending
the city because of their refusal to call an election?
One of Mr. Lackey’s reasons for forcing the appointment to Ward 3 was the cost to the city to call an election, although there would be no additional cost because we are already having the election for Ward 1. What do you think the cost to the city and you, the taxpayers, was to defend this in court? Does that make a lot of sense? What do you think the reason was for Mr. Lackey’s Writ?
As for the accusations against me that I am trying to fire the city manager, they are absolutely false, and also an impossibility. I am only one vote and in no way a majority.
An issue has come up about ratifying the city manager’s contract, which as I understand it takes four votes. The city attorney recently told me he had not seen the contract before it was approved. All contracts should go through the city attorney first to protect the city. The three who voted "yes" on this contract were Jon Owens, Mike Ferencich and Bob Hagan. I voted "no" because of the cost to the city.
I had requested clarification from Mr. Perryman in regards to the effective time the 60 day period would end for the appointment for Ward 3. Mr. Perryman had previously said he thought there may be a Statute that indicated the period would not end until midnight of the 60th day. I sent Mr. Perryman an email asking to confirm the reference he used for the midnight ending period vs. the 1:00 p.m. effective time of the resignation. In his reply back to me, Mr. Perryman stated the reference he was referring to was in Title 12 and the Statute for the appointment of council members is in Title 11. Based on this Mr. Perryman stated, "There is nothing in Title 11 that would appear to extend the time past the specifically stated effective time of the resignation on the 60th and last day". Since that time to appoint a council member to Ward 3 expired at 1:00 p.m., March 27, 2012, we now have to call an election for Ward 3 -- if the other council members will agree to call the election.
I will continue to fight for the rights of the citizens of Blanchard to elect who they want for their council members, instead of having an appointed majority to the council. With elections in Ward 1 and 3, we will have 4 out of the 5 council members elected by the people, who will represent the city’s and the people’s best interests and not their own.
On March 27, 2012, when I returned from participating as part of an honor guard for a veteran’s funeral, I had to rush my wife to the emergency room at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital. For those who think this was planned, my wife’s blood pressure was 198/105 in the ER, and thoughts were she might be having a stroke or heart attack. Because we were at the hospital and didn’t return home until after 9 p.m., I missed the council meeting.
I will review the items that were on the agenda. If there are items that need to be acted on before the next regular scheduled meeting, I will schedule a special meeting to take care of those items.