{"id":34897,"date":"2022-05-23T11:20:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T16:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=34897"},"modified":"2022-05-23T11:20:29","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T16:20:29","slug":"norman-area-residents-allege-open-meetings-act-violations-in-lawsuit-against-oklahoma-turnpike-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2022\/05\/23\/norman-area-residents-allege-open-meetings-act-violations-in-lawsuit-against-oklahoma-turnpike-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Norman-area residents allege Open Meetings Act violations in lawsuit against Oklahoma Turnpike Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 200 residents are listed as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority that alleges the agency violated Oklahoma\u2019s Open Meetings Act by using vague wording in its meeting agendas and public documents.<\/span><\/p>

Feb. 22, the OTA announced its <\/span>ACCESS Oklahoma<\/span><\/a> plan, which would construct new turnpike extensions in Oklahoma and Cleveland Counties. The South Extension route is set in east Norman and bumps up to the west side of Lake Thunderbird, and the East-West Connector route goes through the north side of Norman, connecting to Moore and Newcastle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A newly formed opposition group, Pike Off OTA, <\/span>estimates around 665 homes<\/span><\/a> would be demolished for the project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The lawsuit \u2014 the <\/span>second suit filed since the turnpike announcement<\/span><\/a> \u2014 points to wording from <\/span>January<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>February<\/span><\/a> agenda items referring to the projects as \u201ccertain turnpike projects\u201d and \u201cSpecial Project 65\u201d or \u201cSP65.\u201d It also lists a Project Status Report document referring to it as \u201cACCESS Bond Project.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

According to the suit filed by Norman attorney Stan Ward \u2014 who is also listed as a plaintiff \u2014 not only did the agenda fail to reference the projects in simple, direct language, but the <\/span>meetings\u2019<\/span><\/a> minutes<\/span><\/a> also left out identifying details on the projects.<\/span><\/p>

Norman Ward 5 Councilmember Rarchar Tortorello, whose ward includes much of the proposed South Extension, said the lawsuit is an attempt to \u201ccorrect [an] injustice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

\u201cAs a state entity, they owe it to the citizens, the constituents, to speak plainly and clearly, articulate the scope of the project. And they have not done that,\u201d Tortorello said. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why they have these agenda items published, it\u2019s so the citizens can read and understand what\u2019s to be discussed. And so when they use terms that are so vague as to include the overreaching of authority, that does no good for the state\u2019s own citizens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

The suit requests the OTA be permanently restrained from taking any property from owners, and the OTA be mandated to provide \u201cactual notice\u201d to anyone adversely impacted by construction of any turnpikes.<\/span><\/p>

OTA spokesperson James Poling said the agency\u2019s legal team is reviewing the suit and had no further comment.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 200 residents are listed as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority that alleges the agency violated Oklahoma\u2019s Open Meetings Act by using vague wording in its meeting agendas and public documents.Feb. 22, the OTA announced its ACCESS Oklahoma plan, which would construct new turnpike extensions in Oklahoma and Cleveland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":34898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492,301,16],"tags":[33,1396,1407,1395,1400],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34900,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34897\/revisions\/34900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}