OML Holds Annual Business Meeting
Oklahoma City, OK - The Oklahoma Municipal League (OML) held their annual business meeting. During the virtual meeting, the slate of new officers and district representatives were presented. Those include:
OML Board of Directors President: JD Spohn, City Manager, Ardmore
OML Board of Directors Vice-President: Kim Peterson, Vice Mayor, Guymon
District 2 Director: Dwayne Elam, City Manager, Wagoner
District 6 Director: Pamela Polk, City Manager, Collinsville
District 11 Director: Kelly Parker, Mayor, Alva
Randy Ross, Mayor Choctaw and former OML Board of Directors President will serve as Past President.
Past President, Randy Ross and OML Executive Director, Mike Fina both gave reports highlighting the past year’s accomplishments and activities. Ross said that through the COVID-19 pandemic, OML continued to serve Oklahoma cities and towns, in a very impressive way. “Even with remote working for several months and changing to virtual meetings and educational workshops, the OML staff continued to provide our members with the information and leadership that we as municipal leaders needed to do our jobs. I am very proud of the way Mike and his team have navigated through this difficult time and never slowed down,” Ross said.
Fina reported that from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Stitt relied heavily on OML to be his voice to our cities and towns. “OML has facilitated numerous virtual meetings between our mayors and local, state, and federal officials. This relationship actually created an emergency network that allowed us the opportunity to keep our municipal leadership informed with up-to-date information and opportunities being offered, such as the CARES Act funding processes and deadlines and more,” Fina said.
Jane Abraham, the OML Legislative Committee vice-chair, presented the list of priorities for the upcoming 2021 legislative session that were approved by the Board. “Our legislative priorities will mostly focus on legislation that was not heard during last year’s shortened session due to COVID-19,” Fina said. “We will also have to be weary of any preemptive attempts by legislators to diminish our authority during an emergency,” he concluded.