They eventually approved a timeline that would bump the convention center construction and completion up 30 months.

The council also approved a site west of the Oklahoma City Arena as the site for the proposed $280 million convention center.

But Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid and Ward 6 Councilwoman Meg Salyer were not at the meeting. In her absence, Salyer sent word to her colleagues to go ahead with the vote. Shadid, stuck in Boston due to a flight delay, personally phoned Ward 4 Councilman Pete White to request a deferral. The council is currently on its summer bi-weekly meeting schedule. The next meeting is July 19.

The council discussed the possible deferral. City Manager James Couch said his office is looking for direction from the council to move forward with the MAPS projects. With a 10-year timeline for projects, however, he said another two weeks would not derail those efforts.

“Two weeks is not the end of the world on the program,” he said in response to questions from White.

While White found support for the deferral in Ward 7, Councilman Skip Kelly and Mayor Mick Cornett weighed in that it could set a precedent where future measures might also be deferred if all council members are not present to vote at any given meeting. With seven present, a majority of four is needed to approve an agenda item.

“It’s a slippery slope to start deferring items based simply on the fact that a councilperson who can’t be here wants it,” he said. “If there are four votes for it, then that’s the way it’s going to be.”

White urged members to defer the vote on the timeline in respect to those not present.

“It just seems to me that if we have even one council member that had made all kinds of plans to be here and is unable to do it, that just as a matter of the kind of civility we’ve operated under the past several years we ought to do it,” he said.

Cornett said that despite two members absent, the plans being voted on had been reviewed and discussed in detail and no new information was presented. As part of the implementation plan, Architectural Design Group, the program consultant, presented drafts and workshops in April, May and June. A revised project order was presented to the MAPS 3 Citizens Advisory Board in May, and in June the board recommended the first option, which was the plan subsequently approved by the city council July 5.

 

Construction schedule for MAPS 3 projects under the revised plan adopted July 5:

2012
Oklahoma River (phase 1)
Sidewalks (phase 1)

 

2013
Fairgrounds (phase 1)
Downtown Park (Phase 1)
Oklahoma River (phase 2 and 3)
Senior Health and Wellness Center No. 1
Trails (phase 1)
Sidewalks (phase 2)

 

2014
Transit/Modern Streetcar (phase 1)
Fairgrounds (phase 2)

 

2015
Trails (phase 2)

 

2016
Convention Center
Senior Health and Wellness Center No. 2

 

2017
Downtown Park (phase 2)
Trails (phase 3)

 

2018
Senior Health and Wellness Center No. 3

 

2019
Transit/Modern Streetcar (phase 2)

 

2020
Downtown Park (phase 3)
Oklahoma River (phase 4)

 

2020
Senior Health and Wellness Center No. 4