Public Trust Boards and City Council Membership
I am currently serving as legal counsel for a Board of Freeholders elected to propose amendments to an existing municipal charter. The municipality has a public trust. The Board of the public trust and the city council are identical in membership (i.e. once elected as a council member that individual automatically becomes a member of the Board of the public trust). A proposed amendment may be made to include in the Charter a provision which requires that the Board of the public trust be comprised of different members than those of the city council.
Any known legal prohibition to such a Charter provision or to such a schema?
Expected pitfalls (e.g. (1) elections, do the elections coincide with council elections, elections by ward or at-large, (2) potential that the public trust board may withhold funds necessary and customarily used by the municipality for government functions such as fire and police).
I think the real issue is your trust indenture. ON the Charter side I think you could have a provision prohibiting dual office holding, even specific to the point of saying that no elected council member can serve on any public trust of which the City is the sole beneficiary. While I don't personally like that concept, I think it can be legally done.
The better vehicle to control that is the trust indenture. Limited the number of council members on each public trust to one or two council members, whose terms are limited to their term in office.
Wiley "Butch" Williams
Deputy Municipal Counselor
200 N. Walker, 4th Floor
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102
Direct: 405-297-2685
Mobile: 405-824-5198
From: Oama oama-bounces@lists.imla.org On Behalf Of Michael Beason
Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2019 2:41 PM
To: oama@lists.imla.org
Subject: [Oama] Public Trust Boards and City Council Membership
I am currently serving as legal counsel for a Board of Freeholders elected to propose amendments to an existing municipal charter. The municipality has a public trust. The Board of the public trust and the city council are identical in membership (i.e. once elected as a council member that individual automatically becomes a member of the Board of the public trust). A proposed amendment may be made to include in the Charter a provision which requires that the Board of the public trust be comprised of different members than those of the city council.
Any known legal prohibition to such a Charter provision or to such a schema?
Expected pitfalls (e.g. (1) elections, do the elections coincide with council elections, elections by ward or at-large, (2) potential that the public trust board may withhold funds necessary and customarily used by the municipality for government functions such as fire and police).
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This e-mail message and any attachments are intended solely for the person to which it is addressed and may contain privileged and confidential information protected by law. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone or e-mail, destroy this message and delete any copies held in your electronic files. Unauthorized use and/or re-disclosure may subject you to penalties under applicable state and federal laws.
I believe this email was meant to enclose James Hall from City legal, I get his mail by mistake a lot
Joshua L. Hall
President
AFSCME Local 1180, Tulsa
On Dec 5, 2019, at 3:14 PM, Williams, Wiley L wiley.williams@okc.gov wrote:
I think the real issue is your trust indenture. ON the Charter side I think you could have a provision prohibiting dual office holding, even specific to the point of saying that no elected council member can serve on any public trust of which the City is the sole beneficiary. While I don’t personally like that concept, I think it can be legally done.
The better vehicle to control that is the trust indenture. Limited the number of council members on each public trust to one or two council members, whose terms are limited to their term in office.
Wiley “Butch” Williams
Deputy Municipal Counselor
200 N. Walker, 4th Floor
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102
Direct: 405-297-2685
Mobile: 405-824-5198
From: Oama oama-bounces@lists.imla.org On Behalf Of Michael Beason
Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2019 2:41 PM
To: oama@lists.imla.org
Subject: [Oama] Public Trust Boards and City Council Membership
I am currently serving as legal counsel for a Board of Freeholders elected to propose amendments to an existing municipal charter. The municipality has a public trust. The Board of the public trust and the city council are identical in membership (i.e. once elected as a council member that individual automatically becomes a member of the Board of the public trust). A proposed amendment may be made to include in the Charter a provision which requires that the Board of the public trust be comprised of different members than those of the city council.
Any known legal prohibition to such a Charter provision or to such a schema?
Expected pitfalls (e.g. (1) elections, do the elections coincide with council elections, elections by ward or at-large, (2) potential that the public trust board may withhold funds necessary and customarily used by the municipality for government functions such as fire and police).
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This e-mail message and any attachments are intended solely for the person to which it is addressed and may contain privileged and confidential information protected by law. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone or e-mail, destroy this message and delete any copies held in your electronic files. Unauthorized use and/or re-disclosure may subject you to penalties under applicable state and federal laws. --
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I agree with the sentiment that it is not a good idea in the first place.
Will the city council still appoint the trustees?
I also agree that the indenture is key. If the governing body is not in
favor, then the trust indenture probably can't be modified to allow for it
if the indenture is consistent with the ones I've seen.
If a prohibition or restriction on dual office holding is included in the
charter, as Mr. Wiley suggests, but the trustees don't approve a change to
the indenture consistent with that, what then?
Finally - I am curious and envious! The municipalities with which I work
struggle to recruit dedicated citizens to serve on the governing body. We
would be in real trouble if the governing body members were prohibited from
serving as trustees of the public trusts.
Kimberlee T. Spady
Hinton, Oklahoma 73047
Telephone: 405-542-6056
Email: Kim@SpadyLaw.com
From: Oama oama-bounces@lists.imla.org On Behalf Of Williams, Wiley L
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2019 3:14 PM
To: Michael Beason mbeason@altusok.gov; oama@lists.imla.org
Subject: Re: [Oama] Public Trust Boards and City Council Membership
I think the real issue is your trust indenture. ON the Charter side I think
you could have a provision prohibiting dual office holding, even specific to
the point of saying that no elected council member can serve on any public
trust of which the City is the sole beneficiary. While I don't personally
like that concept, I think it can be legally done.
The better vehicle to control that is the trust indenture. Limited the
number of council members on each public trust to one or two council
members, whose terms are limited to their term in office.
Wiley "Butch" Williams
Deputy Municipal Counselor
200 N. Walker, 4th Floor
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102
Direct: 405-297-2685
Mobile: 405-824-5198
From: Oama <oama-bounces@lists.imla.org mailto:oama-bounces@lists.imla.org
On Behalf Of Michael Beason
Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2019 2:41 PM
To: oama@lists.imla.org mailto:oama@lists.imla.org
Subject: [Oama] Public Trust Boards and City Council Membership
I am currently serving as legal counsel for a Board of Freeholders elected
to propose amendments to an existing municipal charter. The municipality
has a public trust. The Board of the public trust and the city council are
identical in membership (i.e. once elected as a council member that
individual automatically becomes a member of the Board of the public trust).
A proposed amendment may be made to include in the Charter a provision which
requires that the Board of the public trust be comprised of different
members than those of the city council.
Any known legal prohibition to such a Charter provision or to such a schema?
Expected pitfalls (e.g. (1) elections, do the elections coincide with
council elections, elections by ward or at-large, (2) potential that the
public trust board may withhold funds necessary and customarily used by the
municipality for government functions such as fire and police).
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This e-mail message and any attachments are intended
solely for the person to which it is addressed and may contain privileged
and confidential information protected by law. If you have received this
communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone or
e-mail, destroy this message and delete any copies held in your electronic
files. Unauthorized use and/or re-disclosure may subject you to penalties
under applicable state and federal laws.
I have never worked in the situation you are describing, but a charter probably can do that legally.
Would the charter do this solely with the existing public trust or require it for all public trusts? If all, you effectively lose the ability to form or participate in regional trusts (meso, possibly OMAG, regional water supply, regional jails, etc.
To what extent is the current public trust a property owner as opposed to a long term tenant?
Cities have a hard time raising money under current law. What will you do if the independent trust board fails to raise utility rates or to transfer enough money for other city programs/ departments?
Bet that police and fire takes most of your sales tax. Do you propose to lose your parks, library, public works, planning/zoning, etc?
Sent from my iPhone MRV
On Dec 5, 2019, at 2:41 PM, Michael Beason <mbeason@altusok.govmailto:mbeason@altusok.gov> wrote:
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I am currently serving as legal counsel for a Board of Freeholders elected to propose amendments to an existing municipal charter. The municipality has a public trust. The Board of the public trust and the city council are identical in membership (i.e. once elected as a council member that individual automatically becomes a member of the Board of the public trust). A proposed amendment may be made to include in the Charter a provision which requires that the Board of the public trust be comprised of different members than those of the city council.
Any known legal prohibition to such a Charter provision or to such a schema?
Expected pitfalls (e.g. (1) elections, do the elections coincide with council elections, elections by ward or at-large, (2) potential that the public trust board may withhold funds necessary and customarily used by the municipality for government functions such as fire and police).
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