Resident claims his rights were violated at Oklahoma board meeting

OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma resident is demanding a state board apologize and consider reconvening after its audio equipment failed to work properly, hampering his ability to participate in a public meeting.

Cedar Lake property owner Mark Sullivan, who wears hearing aids, said he filed a grievance after the audio equipment at Tuesday’s Oklahoma Water Resources Board meeting was not working properly despite requests for a fully functioning sound system prior to the meeting.

“My rights were violated both as a citizen of Oklahoma under the Open Meetings Act and as a person with a disability,” Sullivan said.

He is demanding at least an apology, but said the board should reconvene to hear his concerns about the approval of a consent order allowing dams to remain on a property upstream from his community.

Sullivan said he approached the board to request an agenda item pertaining to the dams be considered as a standalone item, only to find out the board had already voted to approve it.     

The Oklahoma Water Resources Board said Tuesday that it regrets reports from the audience who were dissatisfied with the sound quality, but those were an issue beyond the agency’s control.

It declined Friday to comment on the grievance.

The meeting was moved to the Judicial Center auditorium from the agency’s offices in Oklahoma City to accommodate the expected crowd.

Dozens of angry residents living in the community about 45 miles west Oklahoma City attended the meeting to oppose the Water Resources Board’s plan to leave in place nonpermitted dams on a property that is owned by former Oklahoma Senate Pro Tem Glenn Coffee. 

They argued the dams are impounding water residents believe should be flowing into Cedar Lake.

Residents say the dams created low lake levels, causing grounded boat docks, dry water wells and reduced property values. 

A report from the state agency blames the deterioration on a drop in aquifer levels related to homeowners’ domestic wells. Coffee, who serves as an adviser to the Senate Republican Caucus, blames drought.

Open Meeting Act expert Joey Senat said the law does not require public bodies to use a working sound system, but it is a good idea.

“People attending the meeting should be able to hear and see what the members of the public body are saying and doing,” Senat said. “If they can’t, the Open Meeting Act’s purpose – to help the public observe and understand how the government body makes decisions on the public’s behalf – is defeated,” he said.