OKC attorneys file motion to dismiss lawsuit with commissioners over sovereignty of jail site land
Attorney’s for the City of Oklahoma City have filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by the Oklahoma County Commissioners.
OKLAHOMA COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) – Attorney’s for the City of Oklahoma City have filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by the Oklahoma County Commissioners.
The commissioners filed the suit, claiming sovereignty on land for the proposed county jail.
Oklahoma City council members voted 7-1 in May not to allow the land, off Grand Blvd, to be rezoned for the jail.
Documents filed Thursday in Oklahoma County District Court requested the lawsuit be dismissed “based on the law in Oklahoma, the county simply is not automatically and absolutely immune from the city's zoning requirements."
The site borders the town of Del City. Elected leaders and community members have been fighting the decision to build a jail on the property since the beginning.
"We feel like it's David versus Goliath at this point," said Del City Ward 4 councilman Scott Tatom.
Tatom posted an opinion letter Monday. In the article, he stated that the commissioners claims of sovereignty would go against state law.
"It's not a hierarchy where one is above the other,” said Tatom. “The county cannot come in and tell Oklahoma City who they assume is a lesser government, what to do, how to rezone their property."
County commissioners went before the Oklahoma City council in 1988 for zoning approval to build the current jail. Tatom wants to know what has changed this time around.
"I want the county commissioners to know that they're up against equal citizens, equal to them, even though we may be smaller. We're equal," said Tatom.
Commissioners declined to comment due to the pending lawsuit. They have said, in past KFOR interviews, that they have done everything the city has asked of them pertaining to the new jail site and they have run out of options.
Concerned Del City leaders have also filed a grand jury investigation into Commissioner Myles Davidson for his involvement in securing the land off Grand Blvd., where the jail would be built.
They will be holding petition signings over the next two weeks and told News 4 they hope to get more than 1,000 signatures.