City Council Meeting Summary - December 9, 2025
City Council Meeting Summary - December 9, 2025
The City Council convened on December 9, 2025, to address three primary agenda items: the approval of a restoration agreement for a historic oil well, a proposal to amend the city's hotel guest room tax ordinance to include RV parks and potentially raise rates, and a continued discussion regarding the contract with the Cleveland County Economic Development Coalition. The meeting involved detailed deliberations on funding allocations, long-term economic development strategies, and transparency measures for city expenditures.
Consent Calendar
- The Council reviewed the Restoration Agreement between the City of Norman and Barber Energy Corporation (specifically the Norman 1 No. 118 well) under Item 21. The agreement acknowledges the remediation of the well site, which was drilled in 1967, to an acceptable condition for future use by the Norman Utilities Authority.
- Councilor Dixon asked about the perpetuity of the operator's liability for potential future leaks; Staff indicated that the Oil and Gas Inspector (OCC) would verify specific long-term responsibilities if the well becomes an orphan well, but a definitive answer was not available on the spot.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Short-Term Rental Concerns: A Council member expressed support for allocating a portion of any tax increase to address negative impacts from short-term rentals, specifically citing "party houses" causing noise and trash issues in neighborhoods, and suggested the funds could cover a dedicated code enforcement officer.
- Legal Aid Funding: A proposal was made to dedicate approximately 0.25% of the potential tax increase (est. $100,000) specifically to the Right to Council legal aid program, though Councilor Bruce noted this would require changing the established purpose of the tax via voter approval.
Discussion Items
- Guest Room Tax Ordinance Amendments: Staff recommended raising the existing 8% room tax to 9.25% or 10%. The proposed amendment would also extend the tax base to include RV space rentals. Staff presented data showing that neighboring cities (Oklahoma City, Midwest City) have already raised their rates to 9.25%, and that a 10% rate could generate approximately $986,000 annually for capital improvements.
- Council Positions: Councilor Grant and Councilor Pete expressed full support for raising the tax to 10%, viewing it as a way to fund quality-of-life projects without impacting local residents' finances. Councilor Bruce cautioned that the hoteliers should retain the largest portion of the tax to incentivize growth, suggesting any new revenue be allocated differently or to the General Fund for discretionary use.
- Legal Constraints: Staff clarified that changing the tax's purpose (e.g., dedicating funds to general law enforcement or legal aid instead of tourism/convention) requires voter approval to amend the ballot language, as the current ordinance was approved by voters for specific tourism uses.
- Cleveland County Economic Development Coalition (CCEDC) Contract: The Council discussed a renewed contract with CCEDC. Lawrence McKey (or similar staff) offered to allow for separate accounting and auditing of the city's specific contributions to ensure transparency, a condition requested by Councilors Keeton and Green.
- Council Positions: Councilor Keeton and Councilor Bruce expressed strong support for the CCEDC, citing its high return on investment in creating high-wage jobs (averaging $85,000) and facilitating the retention of University of Oklahoma technology innovations (e.g., nanotube research). Councilor Bruce advocated for a one-year probationary period with the CCEDC while simultaneously planning to develop an internal Norman-specific economic development position to ensure local interests are prioritized if the coalition model does not fully meet city-specific needs.
- Regional Strategy: Discussions highlighted the strategic advantage of accessing Cleveland County's land for industrial and aviation development, which Norman lacks internally, noting that other cities like Moore also utilize county-wide resources for economic growth.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Approval: The Restoration Agreement for the Norman 1 No. 118 well proceeds as a routine consent item pending the Oil and Gas Inspector's follow-up on perpetual liability.
- Tax Amendment Direction: The Council tentatively decided to pursue a ballot measure in April to raise the guest room tax to 10% and include RV rentals, with a target effective date of July 1, 2026. Staff will draft language for a study session on December 16 to finalize the specific allocation percentages before the ballot is finalized.
- CCEDC Contract Strategy: Council voted to support the continuation of negotiations with CCEDC, contingent on the inclusion of a clause allowing for the separate auditing of Norman's city funds. The Council directed staff to prepare for a potential one-year contract review while authorizing the beginning of a feasibility study or structural setup for an internal Norman economic development role.
- Next Steps: Staff will provide feedback from hoteliers and Visit Norman before finalizing the ballot language. A special session or study session will be scheduled to execute the CCEDC contract and finalize the tax amendment language.
Meeting Transcript
And get started with the City Council Conference for Tuesday, December 9th, 2025. We have three items on the agenda. And the first one is background and discussion regarding a restoration agreement between the City of Norman and Barber Energy Corporation regarding the plugging of the Norman number one te well in accordance with applicable law and remediation of the surface for future use by the Norman Utilities Authority. And we have uh Beth from the uh legal department to talk about that with us. Thank you. Uh so I just wanted to speak briefly. It's item 21 on your consent agenda, the remediation agreement. Uh, because we don't see these every day. Um, this well was drilled back in 1967, and that was about 15 years before the Oklahoma Surface Damages Act became law. But for that act, um, well operators were only responsible uh for any damages beyond quote reasonable use. The damages act created um right to all damages and and included basically a process where you enter into an agreement that would talk about how that gets remediated. Well, so we don't have that agreement, and this well has been in place for uh a long time, uh over 60 years. And so Harbor Energy has been the operator of that well for a great deal of time. You saw that um in the staff report if you had looked over that. And so uh they came to us and said, we have now plugged this and they followed the normal procedure. We've gone and we've looked at the OCC wells uh website to ensure that they filed all the applicable forms. The OCC saw, oversaw the plugging of the well, and so they reached out to our oil and gas inspector, Jeff Freed Potti. He has a good relationship with both the OCC and with the well operators, and so they wanted to work together to make sure that they remediated the surface uh where it was acceptable to us for our future use. Now, this property where the Norman 118 is located is utilized by the Norman Utilities Authority. And so our um environmental and sustainability manager, Michelle Laddenbach, she participated in the remediation process and she oversaw it to ensure that it was done well. In fact, she saw some stuff that she didn't like. We went back to the well operator and we said we want you to do it better. The well operator was actually really surprised that their contractor hadn't done a better job. So they worked with us to go back to the contractor and make sure it was done very well the second time. And so that's why it took a little bit longer for this to finally get to you. This was kind of churning for a couple of months. But uh, they've got it to the point where we want to incorporate it into the city's network of ecological and community use sites, which uh would be similar to Leaf and Lahoma Grove. And so the agreement itself, as you saw, is a one-pager. It simply acknowledges that we are accepting it in what we believe is an acceptable condition, and it confirms their um affirmation that they followed all the applicable regulations that the OCC has in place regarding how these sites are to be remediated. So that's it, and I'm here for any questions you might have. Any questions, council? Councilor Dixon. How long are they responsible for the PA on that? Is it kind of in perpetuity? Like if it starts, if it starts leaking in 10 years, is it on them? I mean, I know that would really be the question. OCC would be the right of that. I'm just curious if you had that off the top of your head. It's not in the still know that off the top of my head, but that's a very good question. Now I do there is a point where after the OCC um might take something onto its orphan well list and ensure that it stays you know uh good going forward, but that sounds like a great question that I can follow up with our oil and gas inspector um and get you an answer on. Okay, thank you. That's a good question. The other comment question. Okay. Thank you for that. Thank you. All right, item number two is a discussion regarding possible amendments to the guest room tax ordinance. And we have some rec and legal here. Just try to take out the park director. All right, the uh let's talk a little bit about the the gas tax.
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