Council interviews city manager candidates

By Todd Brooks

The Comanche City Council interviewed three candidates during an executive session for the open city manager position but the council has yet to make any decisions following a nearly two-hour executive session that included two items.

Interim manager Wayne McCasland, long-time Comanche resident and business owner Anthony White and former Oklahoma Blood Institute vice president Daren Coats of Duncan were interviewed.

McCasland will continue as the interim city manager until a final decision is reached.

The other item in the executive session was a lawsuit against the city. Comanche property owner Gerald Pate is suing the city for $75,000 for allegedly not fixing sewer and run-off lines that allegedly flood his property when it rains. The suit was filed in November of last year.

Pate owns property at 604 S. 2nd Street and 110 and 108 Hickory Ave.

The suit alleges that water and sewage violently pushes through a sanitary sewer manhole on the city street adjacent to Pate’s property. Pate alleges that the sewage floods and covers it with toilet paper, sewage waste, and other refuse.

In answer to the petition, the city said it lacked sufficient information to admit or deny the allegations and demanded strict proof of the allegations.

Following the executive session, the council voted to hire an attorney and countersue Pate but did not say why they were countersuing.

In another matter, the council received good news about finances on the Public Works Authority side where they had a solid month in the black, but received some bad news on the city’s general fund. According to city clerk Cheryl Johnson, the city was nearly $19,000 in the hole for the month. She said several departments were over budget, making the general fund expenditures 2.2 percent more than its revenue.

Mayor Smokey Dobbins asked McCasland if he had cut out employee overtime to rein in spending and McCasland said he had already done so.

In another matter, the council voted to declare one of the police cruisers, a 2015 Dodge Charger as surplus. McCasland said there was local community interest in it. The council voted to give the community 30 days to decide whether they wanted to buy it. After 30 days it will be put on the market.

The council also voted to apply for a grant through the Oklahoma DEQ for a dump truck and a pole truck. The grant is part of the Volkswagon settlement trust agreement.

The council voted to accept a $6,000 grant from the Chickasaw Nation and add $3,800 from the city’s capital improvement fund to build a tornado safe room shelter in the fire department bay area.

The next council and PWA meetings have been rescheduled for Sept. 17 due to a scheduling conflict with the Oklahoma Municipal League annual conference on the original regular meeting date of Sept. 10.