League of Women Voters of the Bartlesville Area Candidate Forum on June 17th

Washington County Grassroots Encouraged to Attend & Ask Questions

 — Watch on CableOne Channel 16 if unable to attend in person —

   LWV to host candidate forum – June 17th

 

To help citizens prepare for the June 24 primary election, the League of Women Voters of the Bartlesville Area will hold a forum featuring area primary election candidates on June 17.

The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Council Meeting Room in the Bartlesville City Center Building, 401 S. Johnstone Ave.

Candidates for the Oklahoma House of Representatives District 10 and the Washington County Commission will be speaking and answering written questions from the audience.

Seeking the seat being vacated by Rep. Steve Martin from the Oklahoma House of Representatives, District 10, are Travis Dunlap and Randy Barnett, both Republicans.

The other primary race of local interest is between Pat Evans and Mitchell Antle, both Republican candidates, who will compete for the Washington County Commissioner, District 1, position being vacated by Gary Deckard.

Area residents are invited to attend and will be given an opportunity to write down questions directed to one or all of the candidates. To schedule as many questions and answers as possible, League volunteers will read the questions to avoid duplications and a timekeeper will maintain time limits for the replies.

County commissioner candidates are scheduled first on the program, followed by the candidates for the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

LWV officials remind voters that Oklahoma has closed primary elections in which party candidates are chosen only by voters registered in that party. Although all the candidates speaking at this forum are Republicans, the non-partisan League encourages Democrats and Independents to attend and participate with questions.

The LWV statewide Vote411.org website is now open with statewide information including information from Oklahoma House District 10 Candidates. For more information about the local League of Women Voters, visit http://www.lwvok.org/Bartlesville.html. The local League’s e-mail is lwv__bvilleok@yahoo.com.  

For more information about the forum, call the local LWV contact at 918-333-7007.

Source Article: http://examiner-enterprise.com/news/local-news/lwv-host-candidate-forum#sthash.NnIfXLkX.dpuf

.

Posted by Sandra Crosnoe for Finding Gems & Sharing Them

Randy Barnett for HD10 Website

Travis Dunlap Website

.

Note:  If the commissioner’s race candidates have websites, I was unable to find them (please provide links in comments section below if you have any additional information).

Side by side comparison of questionnaire answers for HD10 on Vote411 here >>>

Silver Lake Road Extension Eminent Domain Issue – a little history here >>>

Permalink: https://scrosnoe.wordpress.com/2014/06/16//

Advertisement

Silver Lake Road Extension Eminent Domain Vote on Monday — Why? — Because We Can, But Should We?

Thanks to Sharon Hurst for the heads up on this, I plan to let my city councilman know my thoughts on the matter.  Hope you will do the same.  Here is Sharon’s email to me just received:

On Monday, the City Council will vote to exercise its power of eminent domain and take property from Evans Nursery in order to construct the Silver Lake Road extension.  I don’t know about you, but I find it extremely disturbing to see our city government using power to seize private property.   This is the kind of thing they do in Connecticut or California… not in Oklahoma!  Yes, we know there may be some rare instances when eminent domain is absolutely necessary.  But is this road really such a necessity that it requires the City take property from people who don’t want to sell?  I think any of us would be hard pressed to say it is.  Especially when we remember this has nothing to do with diversion of traffic and everything to do with easier access to Robinwood Soccer Fields.  Don’t forget — this Silver Lake Road extension was originally part of the 2007 Park Proposal.  I’m also curious… is it legal for the City to exercise its power of eminent domain over property outside the City limits?  Two parcels of land fall in Washington County — not within the City (or at least that’s the legal description from the Resolution in the City Council packet).

 

Let’s hope these City Council members, who have professed themselves to be such avid private property rights advocates, hold to their principles when it comes time to vote on Monday.  Why not send them an email or call them, and let them know what you think?  Or better still, come Monday night at 7pm and tell them in person.

 

Tom Gorman, tagorman@aol.com, 918-333-2244 ext.100

Ted Lockin, ted.d.lockin@gmail.com, 918-333-6692

Mike McGrew, mikeslock@sbcglobal.net, 918-440-2715

Dale Copeland, copeland4bville@aol.com, 918-333-4488

Erin Tullos, eetullos@gmail.com, 918-213-4240  [However, I believe Erin is on extended maternity leave and no longer attending Council meetings. Is this true?]

Sharon M Hurst

=========================================================

 

The excerpt from the E-E article is reproduced below.

 

City plans to condemn property

By Jessica Miller

jmiller@examiner-enterprise.com

Steps to condemn property in the path of the Silver Lake Road extension are expected to be taken by the Bartlesville City Council during a 7 p.m. meeting Monday.

According to a resolution that the council will consider during the meeting, employees and agents of the City of Bartlesville have been unable to acquire certain tracts of land necessary for the construction of the roadway extension — between Frank Phillips Boulevard and Tuxedo Boulevard.

City of Bartlesville Director of Engineering Terry Lauritsen said Friday that the land to be considered for condemnation is located on the very north end of where Beck Drive ties into Tuxedo Boulevard. He said the city is looking to square up where the road ties into Tuxedo to make it more perpendicular to Tuxedo.

If approved, the resolution states that because the land cannot be acquired by negotiation or purchased at Fair Market Value, the city attorney is authorized and directed to institute necessary legal proceedings to acquire the rights, title and interest to the land “by the exercise of the power of eminent domain and to take such further action as may be convenient or necessary to acquire the identified property interest.”

The resolution also states that an emergency will be declared to preserve the public peace, health and safety “by reason of which this resolution shall be in full force and effective immediately from and after its adoption by the council and approval by the mayor.”

 

Related article from 2010 here >>>

Sandra Crosnoe for Finding Gems & Sharing Them

OKGrassroots

Do Not Connect the Dots USA via GiN: Keystone XL Pipeline will Increase Gas Prices!

TransCanada Trojan Horse: Keystone XL Pipeline Will Increase Gas Prices

Grassroots in Nebraska via Shelli Dawdy

As we’ve noted here, more than once, our primary interest in the Keystone XL pipeline project was the conduct of Nebraska’s elected officials at both the state and federal levels, and serious concerns about property rights. We did not have an overall position on the project and we did not recommend any particular action. Our simple purpose was to expose, as widely as possible, the truth according to all of the information that we had available so that Nebraskans would learn who is representing them (or not) in office.It was our analysis that Nebraskans’ primary concern is the property rights issue; people are particularly repulsed that a private foreign company has the power under our state laws to invoke eminent domain.

We did not call for a special session of the State Legislature because:

• Too many legislators who had previous opportunity to act chose not to; they were either deliberately obtuse, at best, or actively worked to bury information about the State of Nebraska’s ability to exert its sovereignty.

• The eminent domain problems within Nebraska’s statutes have not been mentioned by any legislators expressing concern, or by the Governor, so it was unlikely to be dealt with by them during the special session.

• We were concerned that legislators would create or expand a state commission with appointed or hired members not accountable to the people of Nebraska, which would result in yet another morass of bureaucracy. In addition to poor stewardship of taxpayers’ money, elected officials would be provided “political cover”. Ultimately, we feared, it would prove ineffective now and in future.

Nebraska’s officials have already placed the State in an intractable position…

• No action meant no fix for the property rights problem, no exertion of state sovereignty, inadequate reimbursement to counties for expenses caused by project, etc., and continued concerns about the pipeline’s placement through Holt County, which arguably, is a point of vulnerability along the route.

• Action as proposed still meant no protection for property owners, high potential for running afoul of the Constitution (ex post facto¹.  and “special legislation”²), and delays resulting in a costly lawsuit filed by TransCanada (bad faith³) and now, reportedly, potential lawsuits filed by other states in the line of the project.

Prior to this past weekend, at most, we would’ve recommended concerned Nebraskans focus on a “Hail Mary” effort to impact the eminent domain problem during the special session of the Unicameral. But, in researching some questions associated with this, we discovered some very disturbing information. It’s been difficult to absorb.

Our research is ongoing – what we know so far leads us to the following conclusions:

The TransCanada Keystone Xl pipeline project will result in increased gas and diesel prices in 15 Midwestern States – to the detriment of those states’ citizens and economies.

The project, led by TransCanada, was apparently designed by a cartel-like group of interests, essentially, as a market price manipulation tool.

TransCanada’s own documents confirm the purpose of the project; a 2009 permit application submitted to the Canadian National Energy Board lays out the facts. In addition, a group researching questions regarding TransCanada’s claims of “job creation”, allege the company made similar statements in shareholder presentations; but we have not had time to confirm as of this writing.

The permit application document includes the following points⁴

• Bitumen projects (tar sands oil) are cheaper to develop than synthetic crude

• New export markets are needed to handle increased heavy crude output

• Keystone XL Pipeline provides a line for getting heavy crude to new markets now – option to move synthetic crude in future

• PADD III (see map, below) is the largest untapped market for western Canadian crude oil producers

• The U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC), within the PADD III region is the stated target market for the Keystone XL Pipeline

• TransCanada has binding long term contracts with shippers in the USGC which are not fully available for public viewing

• The fifteen state Midwest region, PADD II, is oversupplied with Canadian heavy crude and currently receiving “a discount” (translation: selling for a lower price)

• Keystone XL will “strengthen” (translation: increase) prices for Canadian producers by removing oversupply

• Keystone XL provides additional benefit for transport out of any synthetic crude oversupply in Midwest (PADD II) “to mitigate a price discount” (translation: avoid price reductions)

• All Canadian producers should benefit from resulting price increases (estimated at $2 – $3.9 billion)

Market analyst Philip Verleger projected a $.10 – $.20 increase in cost per gallon as a result of the project, in his editorial entitled, “If gas prices go up further, blame Canada“, in the March 13, 2011, edition of theStarTribune.

Energy Information Administration U.S. Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD)

We do not claim to be the first group to point out the purpose of this pipeline, but it’s clear that the most important aspect of this issue has gotten completely lost or was never considered. Our research shows that several national news outlets and a U.S. Senator have attempted to draw attention to the market manipulation issue. See Footnote⁵ for a couple of examples.

Several groups in Nebraska have included, at one time or another, passing references to the fact that the pipeline will increase gas prices, but we have only seen it included in a general list of concerns, and it is always overwhelmed by a long list of environmental rhetoric.

One story on the subject did appear in the Lincoln Journal Star in February of this year, but for no explicable reason, this information has not appeared in any of the recent articles or editorials we’ve seen. Since the entire project is predicated on the concept of “national interest”, any coherent analysis of the subject would necessarily include concerns about negative impact.

The pipeline project undermines America’s sovereignty, erodes energy security, and decreases the likelihood we will tap our own oil.

Read the rest of the article on Grassroots in Nebraska here >>>

Posted by Sandra Crosnoe for Finding Gems & Sharing Them

Cross Posted OKGrassroots