Norman disputes claims in police union lawsuit

City of Norman attorneys have asked a court to dismiss claims by Norman's police union that the city council illegally reduced the Police Department budget.

The lawsuit was filed after the council reallocated $865,000 from the department' s proposed $23.3 million fiscal 2021 budget.

Advocates of re calling the mayor and four council members have been collecting petition signatures on street corners with signs urging passersby to support police.

The group, Unite Norman, has run newspaper ads saying "Enough is Enough!"

The controversy developed as protesters in Oklahoma City and around t he nation demonstrated against police violence over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in late May at the hands of Minneapolis police.

At a special meeting on the budget June 16, Norman's council voted to reduce the city manager' s proposed police budget increase, directing the savings be spent for an auditor and for community programs, such as mental health services.

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 122 filed suit July 2.

The FOP contended public notice of the June 16 council meeting was inadequate and violated the state Open Meetings Act. FOP lawyers also said a voter-approved public safety sales tax ordinance blocked the council from cutting the police budget.

In its reply, the city says the meeting notice was lawful and that the council dipped into the general fund, the primary account for dayto-day expenses, to cover a $204,400 projected shortfall in public safety sales tax revenue.

Meeting notice

The city's attorneys say the June 16 meeting's agenda included notice the council would consider "adoption of the FYE 2021 city of Norman proposed operating and capital budgets."

By law, they wrote, public meetings must be "preceded by advance public notice specifying the… subject matter or matters to be discussed."

Notice of the meeting met the standard, they said.

"This language could not have been more simple, direct and comprehensible," the attorneys wrote in a brief filed last week in Cleveland County District Court.

Public safety sales tax revenue is dedicated to funding 41 police officer positions and 30 firefighters, according to the F OP lawsuit. The lawsuit says 177 active Norman officers are FOP Lodge 122 members.

The city's attorneys wrote that" undisputed facts" showed 100% of the projected public safety sales tax revenue plus $204,409 from the general fund were appropriated for "the purposes set forth" the public safety sales tax ordinance, as approved by voters.

Neither the F OP" nor its membership" are being deprived of public safety sales tax revenue, the city's attorneys wrote.

The city asked that the lawsuit be dismissed. As of Monday, no hearings had been scheduled.