Commission proposes Norman charter amendments

May 11—A commission's review of the Norman City Charter explores the recent councilor recall process and demonstrates the crisis it would have created had the effort to unseat five been successful.

The Charter Review Commission (CRC) was scheduled to meet Monday to discuss changes to the recall petition process, but canceled its meeting due to a lack of quorum. The commission rescheduled for the following May 17.

The agenda contained several possible solutions to concerns that the 2020 recall petition drive created. Unite Norman attempted to recall then-Ward 1 Kate Bierman, Ward 3 Alison Petrone, Ward 5 Sereta Wilson, Ward 7 Stephen Holman and Mayor Breea Clark, five voting members of the eight-member dais.

No officials were recalled, but support for the movement prompted the council and staff to re-examine the charter.

"For the first time in the city's history, according to staff research, multiple recall petitions were filed last summer against several council members and the mayor," the staff background analysis reads. "Now having utilized the provision in the charter in an actual recall scenario, staff identified several things that could be changed to make the process clearer and better."

Had Unite Norman been successful, the resulting recalls would have brought dozens of city business items to a halt each week. Article 11, Section 1 of the charter requires five members to vote yes to adopt any resolution, ordinance or motion, "meaning a successful recall of five council members would result in an insufficient number of council members to take any action at all," the staff report states.

Staff urged the CRC to consider adopting language that would allow the remaining councilors to vote as a whole if more than four members are recalled. A recall election should be scheduled for the next available election date, the staff report reads.

The CRC also will consider extending the deadline for the city clerk to review petitions from 30 days for the mayor to 90 days, due to the greater number of signatures required for the recall, and 60 days for multiple petitions. Staff did not recommend the CRC change the existing 30-day period for one recall petition.

A recall time window may narrow. While the charter states no official can be recalled within six months of being seated, the official can be recalled any time thereafter.

The deadline for signature verification and the issuance of a recall election, in the case of Unite Norman's recall attempts, fell close to the timeline for the seat's regular election for odd-numbered wards.

"For example, in the most recent experience (recall), odd-numbered ward representatives were already scheduled for the regular municipal election in February [2021]," the staff report reads. "If the recall election had been set for March 2, 2021, then the election to fill that vacancy under state law could not have occurred until May 11 for a term that ends on July 6, 2021."

Even stranger, if the recall election saw a runoff, the election would have been on July 13, a date after the official's current term expired.

Staff's recommendation was to allow an official to be removed by recall "any time after six months" from the date of taking office and no later than six months before the current term expires, the report reads.

Some of the city's recall requirements were silent where state petitions speak loudly, The Transcript has reported. After the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled municipal recall petitions must follow the same rules for state petitions, a contested recall for Petrone was thrown out of district court.

State law requires a felony warning against false signatures, notarized pages attesting to signature validity and a gist, or summary, of the petition's action at the top of each page. The city's charter stated that a form "prepared by the city clerk" was sufficient.

To comply with the ruling and state law requirements, staff recommended those changes to the city's form. The CRC could approve a gist specifically for recall petitions to prevent those from being contested in court.

"Staff has attempted to draft language that would comply with state law but provide more standardized gist, particularly since the gist of a recall petition is less nuanced than many subjects of initiative and referendum petitions," the report states.

One charter requirement for recalls did not budge: the required percentage of signatures for a recall, which recall proponents said was too high during last year's attempts.

The charter requires signatures from 25% of registered voters "qualified to vote" per official for a successful recall.

Staff also provided language that would formalize the mayor's process to appoint a committee for nominations to council vacancies.

The charter states that the council will appoint a replacement by majority vote within 60 days of a vacancy or call for special election. Clark has faced numerous vacancies and used a committee, but the charter does not address the committee structure or requirements.

Proposed language would add that the selection committee is to be made up of five members of the ward to nominate a replacement.

None of the CRC's proposed changes reflect those put forward by Unite Norman. The group planned to circulate three petitions for charter amendments but did not do so in January, due to the pandemic.

One petition would have required signatures for recalls from 35% of voters who cast ballots in the most recent election for that office, rather than 25% of registered voters.

The group argued that the threshold was too high and the total count skewed by a voter database inflated with deceased voters, duplicate voter entries and other errors.

Its second petition would have changed council meetings to 8:30 a.m. from the current time of after 5 p.m., while a third sought to require a special election for all council vacancies on the next available date.

Charter amendments are adopted by the electorate.

Mindy Wood covers City Hall news and notable court cases for The Transcript. Reach her at mwood@normantranscript.com or 405-416-4420.