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Holdenville City Council voted 3-2 in their last meeting in favor of the mayor’s proposal to create a transition committee to prepare for the change of government from aldermanic to city manager/council happening in only 13 months. The proposal was to create a committee which will begin to work on all the things for the next year which have to be done in order to have a seamless transition when the time comes. There are several major and time-consuming tasks which must be completed by that time, not the least of which is rewriting 2/3 of the city code. The mayor stated that if we wanted a smooth transition we better get started right away. Councilwoman Orr argued that this committee had already been created because she had seen the list of committees and the transition team was already named on it. City Attorney Trey Irby explained that while those names may have already been considered by the mayor, that the action being considered at this meeting was the proper first step in the process to officially create a new committee. The council creates the committee, and the mayor fills it, he explained. That is the difference in the legislative (council) and executive (mayor) function of creating a new committee. Ms. Orr stated that she had been speaking with a representative from Oklahoma Municipal Management Services (OMMS) who had offered to come speak to the council as a whole and help them with the transition. Some in the community may remember the representative who came and held a townhall meeting about changing to a city manager form of government during the campaign for it. Ms. Orr stated that she believed the council needed to hire outside help to come guide them through the process. Councilman Tony Wulf agreed with Ms. Orr stating that he did not believe the council was qualified to work on such things on their own. He argued that someone, whether it be the gentleman from OMMS or the city attorney, would have to be paid to do this work. Councilwoman Orr stated that the representative from OMMS had informed her that an interim city manager could be installed under the current form of government and work with the mayor and council on the transition. City Attorney Irby tried to explain to Ms. Orr and the council that a new form of government cannot encroach upon the current form of government. The change that was voted for in February of this year does not take effect until April of 2023. Ms. Orr argued that Mr. Irby was wrong and that she could have the representative from OMMS come tell everyone for himself. Mr. Irby further explained to Ms. Orr that according to the Oklahoma State Statutes, a municipality cannot have two forms of government simultaneously.
