F&M sues City, individual councilors
F&M Bank and Trust Corporation has filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in District Court to force the City of Tulsa to approve the final plat on their 71st & Harvard development. While all eight sitting Tulsa City Councilors are named as defendants, the bank is only seeking monetary damages from the five Tulsa City Councilors (Christiansen, Henderson, Mautino, Medlock, and Turner) who initially voted to deny the plat. You can read a the petition (500 K PDF file) here. While a councilor would ordinarily be immune from legal action pertaining to a vote he cast, F&M is arguing that approving a plat is a ministerial action, not discretionary or legislative, and therefore legislative immunity does not apply.
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I just wish I had money in F & M Bank so I could walk in and close my account and tell them why. Notice their billboard with the word TRUST??? You have got to be kidding!
Hard to believe that City Councilors are held liable personally, while fulfilling their duty as councilors! Shouldn't the City provide legal defense, like they have for Councilor Christiansen, in his case at Jones Airport?
This sounds like F&M's retaliation for loosing some of the "control" they have been used to having. So, the councilors should feel they MUST APPROVE all requests by banks or businesses, or they will be sued. How rediculous!!
FAIRNESS, INTEGRITY & ACCOUNTABILITY are key elements in the votes from the councilors and certainly don't seem to be well understood by
F&M's folks. We also think the legal councils for some of these banks are well into that "good-ole-boy" system. Ummmm......who would that be?!!
Interesting link here. Robert Lorton, publisher of the Tulsa Whirled, is the former Chairman of the Board of F & M Bank.
Hmmmmmmmmm.....