Transcript Oklahoma Municipal League

Oklahoma
Oklahoma Municipal
Municipal League
League
OML Legislative Program
Grass Roots Involvement Program
(GRIP)
Oklahoma
OML Legislative
Municipal
Department
League
 Federal (NLC affiliation)
 State
 Interagency
 Member Involvement:
 OML E-newsletters
 Website
 OC&T
 GRIP Alerts
Oklahoma Municipal League
The Oklahoma Municipal League (OML) believes that
informed and active participation is essential. The right to
lobby is a constitutional right -- to "petition the government."
In fact, in today's government, lobbying is more than a
right. It is a practical necessity that keeps the democratic
process representative. In addition to making decisions at
the local level that affect your citizens, local officials must
also advocate at the state level on behalf of their
municipalities. The OML strongly encourages each
municipal official to be a part of our Grass Roots
involvement Program (GRIP). This program allows you to
be notified of legislative issues at the state and federal level
that need immediate attention. Although league staff spend
many hours working with the legislature on issues affecting
cities and towns, you must also make the contacts with
your own house and senate members to confirm what they
are hearing.
Oklahoma Municipal League
How do our Members Join the GRIP?
Since the GRIP is a voluntary program, we include
GRIP Sign Up forms in the attendee packets at
every seminar and training session we offer.
Forms are also available on OML’s web site at
www.oml.org.
Sample GRIP
Sign Up
Form
Oklahoma
Municipal
League
Oklahoma Municipal League: Where Rural and Urban Unite
GRASS ROOTS INVOLVEMENT PROGRAM
(GRIP)
In an effort to have a favorable outcome on legislation involving cities and towns, this program has been created for key municipal leadership actively
involved in the legislative process.
The GRIP program will allow us to make quick contact with you, who in turn, can make quick contact with your legislator(s) on issues of importance to
you during the legislative session. Whenever a contact needs to be made, you will be notified. These issues often turn on a few hours of notice.
When contacted you will receive all information that you need on the issue. If there is time we will e-mail or fax. In critical situations we will try to
call you.
NAME: _______________________________ TITLE:
CITY/TOWN: _________________________
FAX NUMBER:
Daytime: ____________________ Evening _____________________
E-MAIL ADDRESS: Daytime: ____________________ Evening _____________________
PHONE NUMBER: Daytime: ____________________ Evening _____________________
CELL PHONE:
_____________________________
MAILING ADDRESS: _________________________________________________________
Please describe the relationship that you have with state/national officials whether or not he/she represents your city or town.
Name & office
How well known*
Relationship
(Example) Sen. Terry Smith
_____1_____
Attends Church_____________
__________________________
___________
____________________________
__________________________
___________
____________________________
__________________________
___________
____________________________
*1- exceptionally 2-very well 3-well 4-not well
Issues that are of special interest to you:
_____________________________________________________________________________
Please mail, fax, or e-mail this form to:
Oklahoma Municipal League
201 N.E. 23rd St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
FAX: (405) 528-7560 E-Mail: [email protected]
Oklahoma Municipal League
 After we receive the forms, we determine which
Congressional, State House and State Senate District
the member is in, as well as the population of the
municipality the member is from.
 All information is keyed into our master database.
 Then, when an issue arises, we send out GRIP Alerts
to everyone in the database.
 We can also do targeted GRIP Alerts if necessary,
using the demographic information we have collected.
Oklahoma Municipal League
GRIP Alerts are
communicated to
our members via
e-mail.
Oklahoma
Municipal
League
Typical
GRIP Alert
To:
OML GRIP Members
From:
OML Legislative Department
Date:
June 2, 2006
Subject:
SB 1084
SB 1084 in the version that passed the Senate and House on the last day of session – Friday, May 26, 2006 – was unveiled
literally at the last moment prior to constitutional adjournment. The bill went from a small bill of 4 pages to a complex bill of
114 pages. It was not even printed by legislative staff for legislators until after 12 o’clock on Friday. It was physically
impossible for the representatives and senators to have read it prior to voting.
According to the enclosed Legislative Information Network (LIN) article the proponents of the bill described it as “everything is
either a minimal or no impact clean-up.” This description does not apply to Section 4. This section greatly harms future
economic growth by tying the hands of municipalities in providing police, fire and other services to newly annexed
areas. This language is new to SB 1084 and first appeared on Friday.
The language will substantially curtail public and private development activities and prevent the creation of jobs and economic
growth in Oklahoma. It will undercut needed rural economic growth incentives and stifle growth in urban areas.
There are existing laws that guarantee that annexed areas will receive municipal services in a reasonable and orderly
process. Section 4 actually undercuts the ability of cities and towns to provide these services since the bill removes the
chief revenue source to pay for water, streets, garbage collection and the like.
This language was proposed to address a local situation involving a country club in Oklahoma County. However, it is written so
broadly that it impacts every municipality across the state.
We encourage you to contact the Governor’s office immediately at 405.521.2342 (Telephone) or 405.521.3353 (Fax) or
www.gov.ok.gov/contact.php and ask that he VETO SB 1084. Despite legislator’s promises to fix this provision in the special
session, the harm it can impose is far too great. It still has yet to be determined whether the Governor’s call for a special
session is broad enough to address the issue. Should the legislature fail to address the issue, cities and towns stand to lose
significant revenues and face great difficulty in trying to borrow money to provide essential services and update aging
infrastructure.
Oklahoma Municipal League
Does It Work?
You bet it does!!!
Legislators tell our lobbyists at the Capitol “I hear you,
please call your people off!”
Legislators call our lobbyists after GRIPS go out,
seeking additional information and wanting to work
on language/compromises.
Over 600 of our members are enrolled in the GRIP.
We often ask them for copies of their
communications with their legislators and we get
30-40 member responses per GRIP.