At first meeting, Red Oak’s new mayor apologizing

RED OAK — In his first meeting as Red Oak’s mayor, Bill Billings found himself apologizing on several occasions for replacing members of a city board without notification.

As is standard practice, Billings made recommendations to the city council for new members of several city boards, including Low Rent Housing, Planning and Zoning, Board of Adjustment, Historical Commission, Park and Tree, Airport Commission and the Downtown Urban Renewal Board.

However, the Downtown Urban Renewal board was unique in that all members are appointed yearly, and in the past, the board had always been reappointed in its entirety.

That didn’t happen this year, as Billings, who took over as mayor on Tuesday, Jan. 3, wanted to include more city residents on the board and make it more gender balanced according to a state mandate.

As a result, some members were replaced unbeknownst to everyone on the board, including its chair, Jan Norris, who spoke at the council meeting.
“I would have liked a courtesy call that there was going to be changes to our board,” Norris said. “I don’t have any problem with the people you selected … its just I don’t like the procedure that has taken place. I would have liked to have been a party to some of the discussion or your consideration.

“People who are doing the work should probably be contacted to give consideration what criteria should be used.”
Roger Vial was one of the board members replaced and he agreed a courtesy call would have been nice.

“I’m a little offended because I feel I’ve contributed to the board and been a good addition to it,” he said.

Council member Larry Barnett had brought up the subject, stating he had worked with several volunteer organizations and recognizes how hard it is to find people willing to help.

“We don’t just dump people off a board without contacting them,” he said. “Their term expired; I understand that. But we just automatically replace them without contact. I think it is just wrong. It sends a message to the volunteer out there if the mayor or city council doesn’t want you on there, we aren’t even going to put your name in the hat and I don’t believe in that.”

Billings quickly conceded he should have contacted both Norris and the replaced members, despite the fact their term had technically expired.

“I don’t disagree, I should have been in contact with you … [but] nothing was done in an effort to offend anyone. I apologize,” he said. “Knowing the appointments had to be made tonight and given a limited amount of time to accomplish that between my professional schedule and my time to be mayor and make these decisions, I overlooked some things. For that, I will not do next year.”

The discussion also resulted in the revelation the mayor only has the authority to make nominations for two boards, Library and Planning and Zoning.

After finding the appropriate ordinance in the city code book, City Administrator Brad Wright defended Billings by stating the mayor nominating replacements to all the board had simply been past practice of several years.

Following the discussion with Norris, the council approved Billings recommendations to the boards, despite the revelation he didn’t have authority to make them.

The new board members are:

Low Rent Housing, Elsie Gray, Gary Johnson and Ray Housh;

Planning and Zoning, James Baker and Dave Hammer;

Board of Adjustment, Duane Elarton, Doug White and Marty Barnett;

Historical Commission, Dawn LeRette and Jerry Shellberg;

Park and Tree Board, Deb Crouse, Mark Snyder and Dale French;

Airport Commission, Nick Hildreth and Randy Cooper;

Downtown Urban Renewal Board, Darrel Steven Carlyle, Dwaine Hurt, Mark Jackson, Dawn LeRette, Jan Norris, Pete Crawford and Elaine Hollen.

Also at the meeting, the council agreed to pay Simmering and Cory $700 to prepare and submit a pre-application for a Community Development Block Grant that would help fund the downtown revitalization project.

The Council also agreed to provide Robert Schaefer a 90-day extension to either license or remove a Recreational Vehicle parked at 811 N. 3rd Street. Bearing expired Oklahoma license plates, the RV violates the city’s nuisance ordinance prohibiting unlicensed vehicles.