Academy Releases Priority Recommendations from Municipalities Town Hall

OKLAHOMA CITY - December 16, 2010 - The Oklahoma Academy held a press conference Thursday morning in the Blue Room of the State Capitol to officially release the priority recommendations from its November Town Hall conference on municipal government.

Academy Chair-elect Tom McKeon, Tulsa Community College, and Academy President and CEO Julie Knutson reviewed the Town Hall focus, presented the recommendations and discussed the organization’s plans for implementation.

The prioritized recommendations cover four areas: sales tax, public employee unions, municipal revenue streams and intergovernmental cooperation. The recommendations will be available on the Oklahoma Academy website, www.okacademy.org, Thursday afternoon.

The Oklahoma Academy has already begun taking the Town Hall findings and recommendations to state and community leaders. An implementation committee made up of Town Hall participants and Oklahoma Academy board members has been formed and will work with the legislature, municipal governing bodies, NGOs and citizens to implement the recommendations.

The complete findings report, which will be released after the press conference, is the synthesis and consensus findings of over 120 Oklahomans who were invited to demographically represent Oklahoma’s populace. A mix of almost half who work in city government and half private sector, they collaboratively discussed municipal topics such as municipal services, revenues, expenditures and intergovernmental cooperation.

The Oklahoma Academy is a statewide, private, nonpartisan research and catalyst organization. It focuses on public policy issues having direct impact on the state and develops policy and community recommendations through the Town Hall conference.

Each year the Oklahoma Academy holds a Town Hall conference that gathers a diverse group of citizens from across the state to review and collaborate on the selected topic. A full list of Town Hall topics and findings is available at www.okacademy.org/library.html.

For more information about the Town Hall conference or the Oklahoma Academy visit www.okacademy.org or call the Academy at (405) 232-5828.

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Last Updated December 16, 2010