{"id":35451,"date":"2023-01-03T17:49:10","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T23:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=35451"},"modified":"2023-01-03T17:49:44","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T23:49:44","slug":"oklahoma-turnpike-authority-corrects-open-meeting-violations-keeping-access-project-on-pause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2023\/01\/03\/oklahoma-turnpike-authority-corrects-open-meeting-violations-keeping-access-project-on-pause\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Turnpike Authority corrects Open Meeting violations keeping ACCESS project on pause"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority corrected Open Meeting Act violations Tuesday by re-voting on design contracts for its $5 billion ACCESS Oklahoma turnpike program.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

In December, the Cleveland County District Court\u00a0<\/span>found the OTA had violated the state\u2019s Open Meeting Act<\/a>\u00a0by using vague wording in agendas for two key meetings that authorized ACCESS projects. Because that ruling invalidated the board\u2019s votes for construction contracts and put the ACCESS program on pause, the agency re-voted on the contracts \u2014 approving all of them unanimously.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The 15-year ACCESS Oklahoma project was announced following the Feb. 22 OTA Board meeting. It would construct new turnpike extensions in Oklahoma and Cleveland Counties, among others, some of which are estimated to force over 600 homeowners out of their properties \u2014 though the OTA said the number is closer to 200.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

But although the re-vote corrected violations from previous meetings, Oklahoma Transportation Sec. Tim Gatz told media after the meeting ACCESS engineers aren\u2019t yet being given the green light to resume work.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to take us a little bit of time to ramp back up,\u201d Gatz said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some work to do.\u201d<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Beth Wallis\/StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Residents gather outside of the OTA January Board Meeting to protest the $5 billion ACCESS Oklahoma turnpike project on Jan. 3, 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gatz referenced the other lawsuit holding the ACCESS project in the balance \u2014 the case as to\u00a0<\/span>whether the agency has the legislative authorization<\/a>\u00a0to build several routes. That case was\u00a0<\/span>referred to the state Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0in December.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting also featured a rare public comment section. The last public comment section at an OTA Board meeting was in March, 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Amy Cerato, a civil engineer and turnpike opponent, alleged the authority\u2019s traffic projections \u2014 which are used in part to justify new projects \u2014 were grossly inflated.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Sec. Gatz later disputed this, saying the numbers brought forward in the meeting \u201cdon\u2019t align with the numbers that we have in our documentation and our facts.\u201d<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Gatz was later asked if the OTA intended to make good on its offer from a previous meeting to meet with Cerato.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Cerato delivered a presentation in March alleging major engineering and administrative missteps in the project, after which\u00a0<\/span>Sec. Gatz announced<\/a>\u00a0he \u201choped OTA\u2019s engineering team would use her as a resource and continue to have an open line of communication with her.\u201d He confirmed the OTA has not yet met with Cerato.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve met before,\u201d Cerato told OTA Board members during the meeting\u2019s public comment section. \u201cAnd when I spoke to you about why the proposed toll road routes in Cleveland County made no sense, I thought my engineering and environmental arguments might be persuasive because in my life, facts matter. But now I know better.\u201d<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The OTA\u2019s next board meeting is scheduled for Feb. 1.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority corrected Open Meeting Act violations Tuesday by re-voting on design contracts for its $5 billion ACCESS Oklahoma turnpike program.\u00a0 In December, the Cleveland County District Court\u00a0found the OTA had violated the state\u2019s Open Meeting Act\u00a0by using vague wording in agendas for two key meetings that authorized ACCESS projects. Because that ruling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":35452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492,1459],"tags":[1497,1396,1471,1395,1498,1400],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35451"}],"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=35451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35457,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35451\/revisions\/35457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}