Stilwell resident organizes volunteers for initiative petition on utility rate increases

Oklahoma Constitution bars referendums against emergency measures, leaving the initiative as the path to a vote on rates in effect since March 1

STILWELL, Okla. — A Stilwell resident is organizing volunteers to circulate an initiative petition asking voters to decide whether the city’s utility rate increases should stand.

Taylor Thomas announced the effort in a public post, stating she is compiling a list of volunteers willing to carry a petition in their neighborhoods and gather signatures once the petition is legally ready. Her post states no signatures are being collected yet and that petitions will circulate only in accordance with Oklahoma law once officially available.

Thomas limited eligibility to people who live inside Stilwell city limits and are registered to vote in Stilwell.

“This effort isn’t about attacking anyone,” Thomas wrote. She stated the goal is to give Stilwell voters the opportunity to decide the rate increases at the ballot.

Oklahoma Statutes Title 11, Section 11-15-101 reserves the powers of initiative and referendum to the people of every Oklahoma municipality. Sections 11-15-101 through 11-15-110 set the process: petition form and signatures, filing with the municipal clerk, a ballot title, presentation to the mayor and submission to voters.

The initiative route matters because the referendum route is likely closed. The Oklahoma Constitution, Article V, Section 2, reserves the referendum power to the people “except as to laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety.” Ordinance 309-I carried an emergency clause using that exact language. The clause that put the higher rates into effect March 1 is the same clause that stands between the ordinance and a repeal vote.

The Oklahoma Constitution also limits what an emergency may be. Article V, Section 58 states an emergency measure “shall include only such measures as are immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, or safety.” Thomas asked the city in writing on May 26 and again on June 3 to identify the specific emergency behind Ordinance 309-I. No written answer identifying an emergency has been produced.

The petition’s target may be moving. The Stilwell City Council’s July 6 agenda listed adoption of Ordinance 309 I-A, repealing ordinances 309 through 309-I, with a new emergency clause and rate increases scheduled through 2029. Whether the council adopted 309 I-A on July 6 has not been confirmed by this publication.

An initiative petition in Stilwell requires signatures from registered voters inside city limits. In Adair County, where per capita income runs $23,710 against a national figure of $44,673 and 21.5% of residents live below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey five-year estimates, the signatures Thomas is organizing to collect belong to the households paying the disputed rates.

Thomas’s volunteer list remains open. The petition itself has not yet been filed with the Stilwell city clerk.