Tulsa Development Authority group likely to meet in public to redo screening process

A Tulsa Development Authority advisory committee will likely meet in public to hear all 10 proposals for a vacant fire station, the Tulsa World reported today.

The newspaper reported last week that the committee overseen by Tulsa City Councilor Maria Barnes had met secretly to winnow the field of 10 to three without hearing presentations from the other seven.

Today's story says Authority Executive Director O.C. Walker recommended in a memorandum sent Friday that the authority tell the advisory committee to hear presentations from all 10 bidders in an open meeting.

The issue is set for discussion at the authority's Dec. 2 meeting, the newspaper reported.

TDA attorney Jot Hartley told the Tulsa World that although the authority had done nothing wrong, redoing the process in an open meeting would provide full transparency.

Good thinking. But Barnes' committee, created by the TDA at her urging, seems to have violated the Open Meeting Act by meeting secretly.

An ad hoc committee or citizens advisory committee that "exercises actual or de facto decision-making authority" must comply with the Open Meeting Act, the state Supreme Court said in 1978. (Sanders v. Benton, 1978 OK 53, ¶ 16)

A 1984 attorney general opinion said, "[W]hen a subordinate entity reviews and eliminates bids for contracts from consideration by a parent entity then the subordinate entity is exercising actual or de facto decision making authority and is subject to the Open Meeting Law.” (1984 OK AG 53, ¶ 6)

That reasoning seems to apply to Barnes' advisory group.

Hartley said last week that the TDA was not bound by the recommendations of Barnes' committee. But if the TDA had considered only the three proposals ranked and forwarded by the committee, then that committee would have exercised decision-making authority.

Still, the good news is that Tulsans' need to know will be served if the TDA requires the advisory group to redo the process in the open.

But legislators should strengthen the public's right to know by declaring that all citizens advisory committees and ad hoc committees -- regardless of decision-making power -- are subject to the Open Meeting Act.


Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications

Tulsa Development Authority committee headed by city council member held secret meetings in apparent violation of Open Meeting Act

Tulsa City Councilor Maria Barnes oversaw secret meetings by a Tulsa Development Authority committee that screened proposals to buy and redevelop a vacant fire station in the Cherry Street neighborhood, the Tulsa World reported this week.

Barnes told the newspaper that her advisory committee narrowed the field of 10 offers to three, heard presentations from those bidders, and then ranked them. The TDA is scheduled is to hear the three finalists' presentations Dec. 2.

The committee's meeting were not publicly posted, the newspaper reported.

One applicant, still expecting to make his presentation, didn't learn he had already been eliminated until told by the Tulsa World.

Given this scenario, those meetings violated the Open Meeting Act.

According to the statute, the definition of public body “shall include all committees or subcommittees of any public body.” (OKLA. STAT. tit. 25, § 304(1)) However, the state Supreme Court has carved out an exception for ad hoc committees or citizens advisory committees empanelled only for the purpose of furnishing information and recommendations to a governing or decision-making entity. (Sanders v. Benton, 1978 OK 53, ¶ 16)

(The court's decision was based on language found in the 1971 Open Meeting Act. The current statutory language including “all committees or subcommittees of any public body” in the definition of public body was added in 1977. However, the court has persisted in recognizing the exception is created based on old statutory language.)

But if “the subordinate entity in the performance of its assigned duties and responsibilities exercises actual or de facto decision-making authority, it must comply with the open meetings law,” the court said in Sanders.

In 1984, then-Attorney General Michael C. Turpen said, “[W]hen a subordinate entity reviews and eliminates bids for contracts from consideration by a parent entity then the subordinate entity is exercising actual or de facto decision making authority and is subject to the Open Meeting Law.” (1984 OK AG 53, ¶ 6)

That reasoning would seem to apply to the TDA committee headed by Barnes and created by the TDA at her urging.

The Tulsa World reported that TDA attorney Jot Hartley said the authority is not bound by the recommendations of the advisory committee.

But if the committee winnowed the list of applicants being reviewed by the TDA -- as it appears to have done -- then its meetings were subject to the Open Meeting Act.

Even if the committee's meeting weren't technically required to be open, the process described by the Tulsa World is anything but a good governmental practice. As a Tulsa World editorial said today:

In a word, the way this screening process was conducted stinks. It is indefensible. If the authority won't scrap the results and start over, someone higher up ought to take some steps to make that happen.

The TDA is staffed by the City of Tulsa's Economic Development and Real Estate Management Division. The TDA Board of Commissioners are:

• Julius Pegues, chairman
• Paula Bryant-Ellis, vice chairman
• Carl Bracy
• John D. Clayman
• Roy Peters

Casting doubt over whether the committee should have met publicly would be another example of a government body using a loophole created by the court in Sanders: A public body creates a committee to do the work of eliminating applicants. When challenged about the committee's secret meetings, the public body claims it isn't technically required to abide by those decisions.

Our state legislators should end this charade by reiterating this coming session that the statute means what it says: ALL committees or subcommittees are subject to the Open Meeting Act.


Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU School of Media & Strategic Communications