August 17, 2018
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
Monday night is the big night as Cordell city leaders decide whether to send to a vote of the people the idea of changing the form of city government for Cordell.
It’s an idea the council kicked around at their last meeting, though it’s an idea that Mayor Bob Plummer has contemplated for a much longer time.
Plummer got a chuckle out of a reporter’s question regarding if he’s ready and excited about the meeting and the issue.
Monday night’s agenda, among many other topics, is the resolution calling for a question to be placed on the November 6, 2018 General Election Ballot asking if the City of Cordell should change the form of Municipal Government from the Statutory Aldermanic form to the Statutory Council-Manager form of Municipal Government.
Plummer has a former city manager Steve Whitlock who has knowledge in the area of different types of municipal government that could best fit the needs of Cordell. Whitlock was most recently city manager at Coweta, Oklahoma.
Plummer says changing to the council-manager form will reduce the number of council members to five, one from each of the four wards plus one at-large position member. The most significant change would be not having a city-wide elected mayor for the council members themselves would vote a mayor from between their ranks.
Enough background work has been performed and enough questions have been answered to place the issue on Monday night’s agenda. Plummer has little question that this idea is a good move.
Plummer thinks the council will have it’s questions answered and will be prepared to vote to send the issue to a vote of the people – to let them decide if they want to officially change the type of government to a Statutory Council-Manager form.
To place the issue before the voters, it’ll take a simple majority of the City Council Monday night, which is four votes of the six total, currently.
The mayor says the deadline to submit the proposition to the election board is next Wednesday, August 22, giving Plummer just one more meeting, Monday night’s meeting, for discussion and to approve the measure in time to give it to the election board two days later in order for it to go to a vote of the people in the fall.
The Cordell City Council meets at 6 pm, Monday night, in the Community Center behind City Hall.
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