MAPS 4 board meets in person to begin work

The MAPS 4 Citizens Advisory Board met for the first time Thursday, kicking off a decade or more of oversight of the $ 988 million slated to be spent on 16 MAPS 4 projects that won voters' approval in December.

Nine of the 11 members met in person, along with staff, at the Cox Convention Center, following distancing and mask-wearing protocols.

Everyone's temperature was checked before entering the room.

It was the first inperson meeting of any city board or commission in months, since meetings went virtual in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

MAPS 4 Program Manager David Todd said the board's monthly meetings for the rest of the year will be virtual.

The board is scheduled to meet at 10:30 a.m. the first Thursday of every month. Meetings are open to the public.

The board voted unanimously Thursday to recommend the city council authorize negotiation of a contract with ADG PC to serve as MAPS 4's program consultant.

ADG is the MAPS 3 program consultant and will continue in that role several more years as MAPS 3 winds down. One of ADG's first tasks will be to draft an implementation plan and timeline for MAPS 4 projects.

MAPS 4 is funded by an extension of the 1- cent MAPS sales tax.

Collections began April 1 and will continue for eight years.

Metropolitan Area Projects began in 1993 with a vote to spend $350 million on nine projects, including the downtown library, Bricktown canal and ballpark, low-water dams on the Oklahoma River, and downtown's NBA arena.

MAPS 3 projects have included the downtown convention center, park and streetcar.

Projects are built as tax revenue is collected and open debt- free.

MAPS 4 board members are Chairwoman Teresa Rose Crook; Russell Pace ( Ward 1); Allie Shinn ( Ward 2); Harry Black ( Ward 3); Shay Morris ( Ward 4); Kevin Guarnera ( Ward 5); Daisy Muñoz ( Ward 6); Monique Bruner ( Ward 7); Bob Nelon (Ward 8); Brenda Hernández ( at- large); and Ward 8 Councilman Mark Stonecipher.

Black and Nelon, an attorney who fills the same seat on the MAPS 3 board, were absent.

The MAPS 4 advisory structure duplicates MAPS 3 oversight and will include six subcommittees.

Mayor David Holt will nominate subcommittee members, most likely sometime this winter.