Claim: The City of Edmond could lose up to half of its currently allocated General Fund if a sales tax is not renewed. It also represents about 30 percent of the money that goes towards employing staff and our first responders. General Fund revenue is typically used to pay city employees not funded through other means, including the Edmond Police Department and Edmond Fire Department, which each receive more than 30 percent of General Fund revenues.
While it is technically not impossible to recall an elected official in Edmond, the requirements outlined in Article XI of city ordinances are steep. The holder of any office, either by election or appointment, can be removed after they have been in office for six months. Edmond elects all of its councilmembers via citywide vote instead of by ward, so the same threshold applies to each office.
If those two requirements are met, then a recall election is posed to voters citywide. The 10 percent initial affidavit followed by the 35 percent petition requirement that Edmond adopted in the s is not significantly out of line with other major municipalities, but it is higher than several smaller, nearby cities.
Oklahoma City also requires 35 percent of eligible voters to initiate a recall, but no initial affidavit is needed. In Tulsa , preliminary petitions are required, but in Norman they are not. Recall elections in both of those cities ultimately require a petition featuring signatures from 25 percent of voters who cast ballots in the previous election.
Cities like Nichols Hills , Warr Acres , Del City and Bixby accept a lower 20 percent of eligible voters who cast votes in the most recent general election. While there have not been any recent convictions in Oklahoma County for human trafficking tied to Edmond massage parlors, there have been at least eight prostitution sting operations conducted at Edmond massage parlors dating from Jan.
