The Kellyville Special Town Hall meeting held on Wednesday of this week dealt with some pressing issues, but not the ones some people were expecting.
Related: Kellyville Fire Department gains a new emergency reporting system
With only two items on the agenda, the meeting made for a much shorter affair than the nearly-five-hour meeting from last week, which, despite its longevity, left several important issues on the table, namely, the hiring of a third police officer.
The Kellyville Board of Trustees turned some heads by voting to not promote their interim Police Chief Byron Davis to official Police Chief—though they did give him a raise. Officer Tyler Stroup—the only other full-time officer on the force—approached the bench and said: “if you all can’t get us some help, you can consider this my two week’s notice.” After the meeting, folks in Kellyville Facebook groups expressed their disbelief at the idea that the small town might not have a police force in two weeks.
Thankfully, at least a portion of that meeting has been handled, with more to come…hopefully.
It was expected that the Special Meeting would tackle the issue of the third police officer, but there were no items on the agenda for it. Instead, it was all about the Kellyville Fire Department (we’re covering the meeting properly in a separate story). After the meeting, Sapulpa Times asked Board Trustee Ed Pruitt about whether or not the agenda item of hiring a third police officer—which had been tabled at the previous meeting—would now be handled in September’s Regular Meeting, since it was not a part of this Special Meeting. Pruitt replied that he had thought it hadn’t been tabled, just dropped. We quoted from the official meeting minutes that it had been motioned to be tabled, with all trustees voting in favor of the motion. Pruitt replied, “Well, I guess it may very well be at the next meeting, then.”
When asked about whether or not the resignation of officer Stroup was going through, Pruitt said he could not speak for the city and directed us to speak with Mayor Terry Voss. Mayor Voss confirmed that Stroup had rescinded his notice and would be staying with The Kellyville Police Department after all, and further added that of the two reserve officers who had withdrawn their status after last week’s meeting, at least one had returned, and the other was still pending.
