By Barb Walter

For The Times & Free Press

The Hennessey Board of Trustees’ discussions to update the town’s “2006 to April 2022” code book made a quick U-turn last Thursday evening.

That came about 15 minutes after Mayor Clif Vogt read aloud from a “Legal and Editorial Research and Report” by American Legal Publishing.

That 39-page report questioned some of the town’s current code book language and noted: “… any questions of a legal nature contained in this report should be addressed to your Town Attorney.”

Before Trustees could turn another page in their 283-page code book, Vice Mayor Harold Shaw said neither the town’s current code, or the state code, were used when he took his oath of office.

The state code reads: “The term of office of an elected official shall begin at 12 noon on the second Monday following the general municipal election.”

Hennessey’s code states: “take office within five days after the election.”

“Elections are on Tuesday and the results aren’t certified until Friday at 5 p.m., so our current code is wrong,” said Trustee Bert Gritz.

Shaw said neither of those codes were followed when he was sworn in.

Previous news stories show Shaw was sworn in for a four-year term and took office Thursday, May 13, 2021. He went unopposed for that seat in February after longtime trustee Wes Hardin announced in January he wouldn’t seek re-election.

Trustees Randy Bohnstedt, Vogt and Gritz took the oath of office April 13 after the April 4 election in which those top three vote-getters won.

Attorney is Needed

Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman said she’d been told that town attorney, John Wynne, would be retiring soon.

Trustee David Jones suggested Jim Long.

“He’s the town’s judge and couldn’t do both,” Tillman said.

Jones then suggested Dakota Semrad, a 2011 Hennessey High School grad, who recently opened a law firm in Enid.

Tillman said they need someone familiar with government law for this particular issue.

Jones said there was an excellent speaker on laws at one of the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group or Oklahoma Municipal League workshops he’d attended.

Tillman said it was prob- ably Matt Long.

Since the board’s agenda only called for discussion of “codification of ordinances,” Tillman said she would check with OMAG and OML to see if they could recommend someone to help on a temporary basis with the ordinances.

Bohnstedt made the motion to adjourn at 6:50 p.m.

That was well within the two-hour limit decided before the start of the meeting.

Trustees thought that would give them time before they tired of reading both lengthy documents.

Tillman told them at this month’s regular meeting they’d need several special meetings to get through the codes.

No date was set for their next special meeting.