Oklahoma Politics: May 2026 Archives

Once again, a small Oklahoma city has approved an ordinance enabling a large data center to move forward, over the objections of local residents. On May 18, 2026, Claremore City Council approved three measures in support of the Project Mustang data center: a tax-incentive district (TID), a development agreement with Mustang Tulsa Holdings LLC, and an ordinance creating a new electric rate schedule for mega-users. Here is the May 18, 2026, agenda and the backup packet containing all the ordinances and contracts approved.

The Claremore Progress published a press-release from the City of Claremore. KOTV had a story about the meeting. The City of Claremore has a webpage about the proposed data center, and City Manager John Feary wrote a letter to citizens defending the project. (Long-time BatesLine readers will remember Feary from his unsuccessful 2014 run for Tulsa County Assessor and his unsuccessful 2015 special election run for State Senate District 34. Feary worked for the City of Owasso during Rodney Ray's reign as City Manager there.)

In Sand Springs, after a similar vote, residents began circulating recall petitions against the city councilors who voted in favor. The same approach is being discussed in Claremore. Some cities in Oklahoma have the power to recall elected officials written into its city charter, and the circumstances and valid reasons for recall will vary from one city to another, but there is no general right in Oklahoma to recall an elected official and remove him from office. (Claremore's recall process is found in Section 6.09 of the City Charter.)

There is a remedy that is universally available in Oklahoma: Initiative and referendum. Oklahoma's state constitution grants citizens the right at every level of government, in every political subdivision, to circulate a petition to enact legislation and to repeal legislation. Here's the language from Article 5:

Section 1: The Legislative authority of the State shall be vested in a Legislature, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives; but the people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws and amendments to the Constitution and to enact or reject the same at the polls independent of the Legislature, and also reserve power at their own option to approve or reject at the polls any act of the Legislature.

Section 2: The first power reserved by the people is the initiative, and eight per centum of the legal voters shall have the right to propose any legislative measure, and fifteen per centum of the legal voters shall have the right to propose amendments to the Constitution by petition, and every such petition shall include the full text of the measure so proposed. The second power is the referendum, and it may be ordered (except as to laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety), either by petition signed by five per centum of the legal voters or by the Legislature as other bills are enacted. The ratio and per centum of legal voters hereinbefore stated shall be based upon the total number of votes cast at the last general election for the Office of Governor.

Section 5 is where the same power is applied at the local level:

§ 5. Reservation of powers to voters of counties and districts - Manner of exercising.

The powers of the initiative and referendum reserved to the people by this Constitution for the State at large, are hereby further reserved to the legal voters of every county and district therein, as to all local legislation, or action, in the administration of county and district government in and for their respective counties and districts. The manner of exercising said powers shall be prescribed by general laws, except that Boards of County Commissioners may provide for the time of exercising the initiative and referendum powers as to local legislation in their respective counties and districts.

The requisite number of petitioners for the invocation of the initiative and referendum in counties and districts shall bear twice, or double, the ratio to the whole number of legal voters in such county or district, as herein provided therefor in the State at large.

Specifics about the municipal initiative and referendum process are set out in Article XV of Title XI. If a city or town doesn't have ordinances or charter provisions governing initiative and referendum, the laws in this section will apply, with mayor, municipal clerk, and municipal attorney performing the roles played in statewide petitions by the Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General, respectively. Section 6.08 of the Claremore City Charter explicitly defers to the State Constitution and State Statute.

The form of a municipal referendum petition is found in 34 O.S. 1. The petition must include the full title and text of the measure to be placed before the voters. The number of signatures required is at least twenty-five percent (25%) of the total number of votes cast at the most recent preceding general municipal election (11 O.S. 15-103). A referendum petition must be submitted within 60 days of the passage of the ordinance for which the referendum is sought.

At the last election for Mayor of Claremore, on April 4, 2023, 1,482 votes were cast, so 371 signatures would be needed to get a referendum on the ballot. There was a more recent general election on April 1, 2025, where 1,231 votes were the most cast for any one at-large council seat, but 1,425 votes for a 1% city sales tax. Depending on how the law is read, you might only need 357 signatures, but probably safer to get the extra 14 signatures.

You can browse the citations at the bottom of each section of law on OSCN to see how the law has been applied in practice, and how some attempts at petitioning for a referendum have fallen short of the legal standard.

For example, a 2007 petition to repeal a City of Norman zoning change failed to qualify for the ballot because proponents failed to include the text of the ordinance they wanted to repeal. A case involving a 1976 City of Tulsa petition notes that the City Auditor, as Chief Clerk of the City under the City Commission form of government in place at the time, acted as the equivalent of the Secretary of State for the purpose of receiving and certifying petitions affecting the city's ordinances and charter.

The use of the much-abused emergency clause may also impede the successful use of a referendum to repeal a city ordinance. City councils routinely vote by supermajority to declare that the ordinance is "necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety," even if it is not, so that the ordinance can go immediately into effect. This is a way to bypass any waiting period mandated by the city charter or other law. Article 5, Section 2, of the Constitution cites the typical emergency clause language as an exception to the citizens' power to petition for a referendum. It might be possible to challenge the validity of an emergency clause, but courts have generally deferred to legislative findings of that sort.

A municipal referendum seems to be very rare in Oklahoma. If you're aware of any successful attempts in recent years, please email me at blog at batesline dot com. I hope this overview is helpful to citizens trying to keep their city councilors in check.