Councilmembers told turnpike opposition would make them criminals.
NORMAN, OK. August 25, 2024. Scheduled to be a City Council study session regarding the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority's (OTA) desire to build 59 miles of toll roads through Central Norman, Tuesday's meeting at City Hall took a shocking turn when Mayor Larry Heikkila told Councilmembers they risked criminal prosecution if they opposed OTA's turnpike plans.
Mayor Heikkila's legal conclusions are based on his belief that OTA’s ACCESS Oklahoma turnpike-building plan is a law that has been introduced to and passed by the Oklahoma legislature, and then signed into law by Governor Stitt. As such, the "ACCESS Oklahoma Law" carries the same authority as the Constitution for the United States of America, making it, along with the US Constitution, "the supreme law of the land."
"The legislative bodies passed the [ACCESS Oklahoma] plan, and Governor Stitt signed it into law," Mayor Heikkila stated, reading from a prepared statement. "…we as council members swore an oath of office… that oath obligates us to follow laws in the state of Oklahoma. Access Oklahoma is the law, whether we like it or not."
"By choosing to disobey the law," Heikkila declared, "we hold ourselves above the law, and individuals on this council expose themselves and the City to legal consequences that can have profound personal and professional implications."
"His comments were flabbergasting," said one Councilmember. "I was left scratching my head." Another Councilmember called the Mayor's allegations "possibly the most damaging thing I’ve seen an official do to the public trust in its leadership."
Fact-checking reveals the Mayor's claims to be false. ACCESS Oklahoma is a turnpike-building plan started by Governor Stitt and the OTA. It has never been a proposed law that the State Legislature voted on and passed, and it was never signed into law by Governor Stitt. Claims that Council members who don't support turnpikes are risking prosecution and that OTA's ACCESS Oklahoma plan is on par with the US Constitution as "the law of the land" are also false.
After threatening the Council with jail time, Mayor Heikkila continued with a disjointed and confused diatribe about how eminent domain can never be challenged; that the OTA is above all laws and regulations requiring environmental protections, that the City of Norman is helpless in the face of the superior power of the State of Oklahoma, and has no right to challenge anything state agencies want to do; that it is wrong to think highways and bridges could pollute water sources like Lake Thunderbird; that advance planning to mitigate environmental hazards is wrong; that the OTA should never be required to conduct preventative NEPA-level environmental impact statements, and Norman has no business asking them to do so, all false and baseless positions taken by the Mayor in his desire to force the City of Norman to join him in groveling before and submitting to the greed and power of the OTA.
A video of the Mayor's "preamble" may be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEtDnO6qQog
The "preamble," intended to be part of a resolution Council is working on to deal with the OTA, was read by the Mayor immediately after presentations by geotechnical engineer Dr. Amy Cerato and attorney Robert Norman. Cerato and Norman had, at the invitation of the Council, been given what many called "token" 15-minute time slots to share their expertise regarding the multiplicity of problems associated with OTA's $5+ billion turnpike expansion project.
The time allotted was in stark contrast to the two-plus hours given to City engineer and turnpike advocate Scott Sturtz in the Council's first study session on the subject three weeks prior. The mayor abruptly overruled a Q&A session with Cerato and Norman.
The remainder of the meeting was spent exploring numerous competing strategies to either appease the OTA and beg for mercy or stop the turnpikes altogether.
Tuesday's meeting only served to confirm what many Norman citizens already believe: that their public officials are not serving the public. Government officials who are paid with taxpayer dollars should represent public, not private, interests. Yet citizens across the state of Oklahoma continue to suffer harm because public officials are colluding with private interests to deceive and mislead the public.
One thing it seems the Mayor and City Council have not considered is the law itself gives the City a considerable amount of clout in this situation, namely Oklahoma Statutes, Title 69, Chapter One Article 17 Section 1716. This law gives the City the power to "lease, lend, grant or convey" properties necessary for the OTA to build its tollroads and connect them to other highways, city streets and public roads. In other words, if Norman does not "lease, lend, grant or convey" these properties to the OTA, then the toll roads cannot be built.
As of this writing, Norman's next step is Tuesday, August 27, when a somewhat amended "Frankenstein" Resolution, R-2425-34, will be dragged out for a re-vote. It's not much different from the first version, with the City requesting and imploring the OTA to be nice to Norman, while literally getting nothing in return except more concrete and asphalt. With over 600 homes slated to be destroyed, thousands of acres seized, Norman's watershed violated and 10% of Normans population displaced, what happens in Norman will be a harbinger of things to come in all of Oklahoma.
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