Apparently it’s starting. On Tuesday, February 4th at 10 am, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s unelected board will vote to condemn three properties along the east-west connector.
The meeting is at the ODOT building at 200 N.E. 21st Street Oklahoma City, OK 73105.
You know…. they are starting the eminent domain proceedings along a transportation route that does NOT have ANY traffic justification studies, does NOT have ANY impact studies (human, archeological, cultural, biological, historical, environmental), does NOT have ANY official FEDERAL PERMITS or PERMISSIONS to cross and does NOT have ANY updated revenue studies to reflect the reduction of entry points along the route.
By their own trust agreement, in their revenue bond application for the ACCESS project, they were supposed to show the Council for Bond Oversight (COBO) that by the end of the fifth year, their proposed route would produce enough revenue to exceed the operations and maintenance and required deposit to the reserve maintenance fund. The OTA has failed to follow this rule on every turnpike since the H.E. Bailey Spur.
And yet again, without a positive revenue projection shown on the east-west connector, the COBO greenlighted their bond sale.
This is part of the OTA’s M.O.! They have refused to do things correctly for seven decades. They attempt to move so quickly through the process so that no one can stop them. How many times do the Citizens of Oklahoma have to endure this tyranny before our legislators, elected officials and judicial branch do their damn job and hold the OTA accountable with proper oversight and citizen guardrails?
It’s real easy. NO. NO. NO. YOU DID NOT HAVE LEGISLATIVE AUTHORIZATION TO BUILD THIS TURNPIKE SO NO! GO POUND SAND.
NO. NO. NO. YOUR REVENUE AND TRAFFIC STUDIES ARE BUNK. SO NO! GO POUND SAND.
NO. NO. NO. YOU HAVEN’T SHOWN THE NECESSITY NOR HAVE YOU COMPLETED THE NECESSARY IMPACT STUDIES. SO NO! GO AWAY AND DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
See? Easy.
How did our State Supreme Court flip from a 5-4 vote agreeing with us in March of 2023 to a 6-3 vote against the truth on August 1, 2023? Think they will turn over the paperwork to prove that the first vote actually occurred? We shall see. How many more supreme court justices can we help remove from the bench?
How is the Attorney General, the OTA’s revenue bond legal counsel, allowing the OTA to continue to sell bonds? Statute 69-Section 1728 spells it out.
It is hereby declared to be the intent of the Legislature, and the Authority is therefor directed, to hold payments for engineering and legal services to the barest minimum, and it is further the intent of the Legislature that in regard to bonds hereafter issued, so far as possible, the service of the chief engineer of the Authority to be utilized as the consulting engineer and the service of the Attorney General be utilized as legal counsel for the Authority. The Authority is hereby directed to submit to the Governor and the Legislature a complete detailed and itemized annual report of all sums, expended for engineering and legal services, showing the amounts of and to whom paid. Such report shall be submitted within thirty (30) days after the convening of the Legislature for general sessions.
Did the OTA fire the Attorney General in lieu of using their own bond legal council?
The Oklahoma Supreme Court excused the OTA from using the Attorney General in the 1989 bond validation case. Then the OTA used the AG in their 2011A Bond Sale and paid the AG a fee.
But in September 2023, COBO ignored this statutory requirement when PIKE OFF OTA brought it to their attention in the September 2023 bond issue objection.
How can OTA choose when they want to follow the law or not. It’s WRITTEN IN OUR STATUTES!
We know that the Council of Bond Oversight (COBO) gets a boatload of fees everytime OTA goes to the bond market.
SUBCHAPTER 5. FEES 90:10-5-1. Fee payment requirements (a) Applicants must pay a fee to the Council if their submitted application is approved by the Council or if their application is deemed approved by operation of law, but only if the financing subject to an application is issued and closed. The State Bond Advisor may enter into written agreements with issuers to provide for periodic payment if the approved obligation will be in the form of draws or a line of credit. The State Bond Advisor may waive fee payment if the issue is a conduit financing with a state entity loan program financed with bond proceeds. (b) The fee shall be paid to the Council by means of a check or negotiable instrument upon receipt of an invoice from the official office of the Council and shall be paid within two weeks.
If my math is correct, that means the COBO gets more than $135,000 on a $1.3 billion dollar revenue bond sale. This is honestly peanuts compared to the projected $250 MILLION in fees that Poe and Associates is going to bank for acting as corridor manager, design consultant and right-of-way acquisition lead (talk about conflicts of interest), but still….
Why do unelected state boards who aren’t paid salaries get fees from bond sales that they are in charge of approving? Isn’t THAT a conflict of interest? What do they do with those fees?
Check out all the fees that were paid out from the $500 million September 2023 bond issue. It PAYS big time to be the bond underwriter!!!!
There are a lot of people that make a ton of money off of debt, aren’t there!
Turnpikes have nothing to do with transportation. They have EVERYTHING TO DO WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND MONEY FOR THOSE THAT FACILITATE THE GRIFT.
Also ask yourself WHY the bond rating agencies would get a fee for every bond sale? Please watch “The Big Short” about the 2008 financial crisis to get a good understanding of just how incredible messed up our entire system is. The bond rating agencies are supposed to provide an unbiased review of entities looking to sell bonds and “rate” them according to the risk, but they get more money if they rate them higher…. and if the entity can’t sell bonds, then the rating agencies don’t get fees.
You see the conflict-of-interest?
OTA Resolution of Necessity
In case you need more rage for the day, check out their resolution about how “necessary” these properties are and how they are going to treat the landowners.
The resolution says that the “appraisal established an amount that appears to be reasonable and just compensation,” and the OTA “will negotiate in good faith.”
Seriously. Who are we kidding folks? Is that what happened along the Kickapoo? Is that what ever happens? You know, when 44 of the 104 properties that were destroyed have to take the OTA to COURT to get more money for their private property! We have the data. We put it out there for all to see.
Did they get to move forward with eminent domain? Is this South of Noble between the Canadian River and I-35?