By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
City officials again faced an audience spouting derision and displeasure with roads and employee raises during the Piedmont council meeting Monday night.
Tensions have run high for months as citizens pack the room during meetings and complain about roads.
Former Mayor John Bickerstaff opened the meeting with prayer as he often does before the pledge of allegiance.
“Lord this is a community, but right now it’s divided,” he prayed. “Be with us and give wisdom to all who serve the community within the city.”
MAYOR’S EXCEPTIONS
A conversation during Monday’s city council meeting cast the suspicion that someone on the council leaked information to the public regarding a matter discussed in executive session last month.
The meeting kicked off with Mayor Kurt Mayabb complaining about City Manager Jason Orr’s proposed raise of two percent which increases his pay to $102,000.
Orr’s contract was discussed in executive session during the May meeting.
“My deal is, I don’t believe at this time we need to be spending more money,” Mayabb said.
“My personal opinion is times are tough and when times are tough I don’t ask someone for a pay raise. I try to do my job as it is.”
Mayabb asked if there was anything he could discuss about Orr’s contract from executive session. Segler and the council said no. Mayabb mentioned there were “other issues” with the contract discussed in the executive session last month.
Councilman Al Gleichman also complained about the item.
“I don’t like the way this was put on the consent agenda,” Gleichman said. “I don’t think it was proper.”
Mayabb said he did not know what “all we can discuss on this,” but Ashford made a point that details expressed in executive session ended up being made public.
“That’s why I was disturbed when Facebook showed a status by someone who almost verbatim spoke about what was said in executive the night before,” Ashford said as she looked at Mayabb.
Councilman John Brown immediately made a motion to approve the raise for Orr which was approved, except for Gleichman who voted no. The mayor is not allowed to vote except to break a tie. He insisted that the council could not vote on the item since it had been pulled from the rest of the consent agenda. Vice-Mayor Kevan Blasdel argued.
“Yes we can. We do that every month,” Blasdel said.
Attorney Mike Segler insisted it can be approved after it has been pulled and discussed on another agenda item. The Open Meetings Act allows items to be pulled from the consent agenda and can be voted on separately.
Those in the audience erupted in discussions among themselves and as the noise level grew louder, City Clerk Valorie Cumming had to “shoosh” people into silence.
With the dull roar a little less than a roar, Gleichman continued to argue with Segler until Mayabb slammed his anvil.
“Moving on,” he said firmly. “It’s been voted on.”
SEWER LINE
The next item Mayabb discussed was the sewer line project. Piedmont came under a consent order by Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality in 2017 after a lagoon’s water level dropped too low and caused foul odors. The city had the option to install a lift station or a gravity-fed water line to correct the problem. The city council at the time opted for the lift station, but later decided to install the water line instead.
“I don’t agree with spending $1.02 million on a sewer line that takes care of half of our city,” he said. “I think we should be putting in a lift station and a junction box in there that will take care of our city as a whole.”
Brown pointed out that a sewer lift station would not take care “of the whole city,” he said.
“It was cheaper to do a lift station, is that not true?” Mayabb asked.
“Yes initially it was,” Orr said.
Brown said because the city has been under a under consent order for two years, DEQ may not allow them to change their plans a second time.
Mary Mach of Garver Engineering explained that the sewer line was the most economical choice because the maintenance and operating costs for the line are less than the lift station. The cost of the sewer line had increased since the original engineering report, but the cost of the lift station would also likely be higher and a new line would also have to be installed if the lift station was replaced, she said.
CITIZENS SPEAK
A woman identified as Diane Ridgely said her family had been longtime residents of Piedmont and while they loved their town, the roads were becoming an issue.
“We have potholes five-foot-long and three-foot wide,” she said. “I’m just concerned about the roads are being fixed and or patched. I realize the rain and everything has added to all these problems but our contributions on our water bill and trash bill, do you have a plan for that? Is there like a written plan about the roads? That’s just my concern.”
Two citizens spoke up about a culvert installed by Tim Kudron near their home. Tammy Todd and Jason Ruth said a drainage ditch on Sara Road near Emerald Point and Coyote Springs was causing flooding. The ditch was installed as part of regular road repairs.
“I called in August in 2018 and a young man was supposed to come out and assess the drainage issue and get back with me and never again did I hear another word,” Todd said. “My house has almost flooded twice.”
Todd said she doesn’t live in a flood zone but is forced to purchase flood insurance.
“We had to replace our septic drainage pump because it went out and our house is not even five years old,” she said.
Todd presented photos of the flooded area and said, “a man” with the city told her he could no longer help her and she had to “come to the higher-be’s and he said you guys were.”
Todd wanted to know if there was a blueprint for the drainage ditch and if there was, who approved them.
Ruth, who lives nearby, said his yard stays flooded and muddy.
“I’ve had to have my septic pumped on three different occasions at my expense because it’s overwhelmed,” he said. “It has not dried out since the first rain in February. My kids are 10 and four and they cannot even play in their yard.”
Orr promised to send a city employee to the area, but Ruth said someone was out last week to look at it and had something to say about it.
“Do you know what your city employee told me?” he asked Orr. “’That’s f-d up. I can’t believe they did that to you.’ So can you please send someone else out? Can we fix this ditch?”
A man who lives near a washed-out area on 234th asked when the council would fix the road. The heavy rains eroded a section of the road weeks ago and is impassible.
Orr assured the gentleman that it would be fixed about 30 days following a bid that has been solicited for its repair.
Complaints about the roads and Orr’s raise continued during public comments and Mayabb failed to enforce the three-minute time limit on each speaker.
Ashford said the city’s roads were not originally built for “oil rigs” traffic and if “you want the roads fixed right you’re going to have to put a lot of money into it.”
Orr spoke about the road dilemma saying sales tax revenues could not keep up with the cost to repair all the roads that need to be fixed.
“As you can see here Mr. Mayor and council members, there’s about $600,000 worth of road projects here (on the agenda),” Orr said. “The question is asked, ‘where does my $10 road fee go to?’ The road fee generates about $300,000 annually. In order to fix a road properly you’re looking at about $600,000 for one mile.”
People in the audience said that was not true.
“As you can tell, that’s the reason why we can’t get ahead,” Orr said. “They were never any good to begin with. The only way they’re ever going to be fixed properly is through a road bond. We don’t have the amount of sales tax revenue to fix the roads.”
The council sided with Mayabb to decline to fix 150th between Piedmont Road and Mustang Road and apply the funds to further repair one mile north of Edmond Road.
Orr said the Simpson family and Piedmont Board of Education member Greg Duffy requested that 150th be fixed to due to increasing school traffic.
