This week we held a special, experimental event called “3-2-1 Council Contact,” which was a mashup of two podcasts - Let’s Pod This and the WAFTI Show - interviewing three members of the Oklahoma City city council, James Cooper, JoBeth Hamon, and Nikki Nice. The idea for this event came about because the Tower Theatre sits at the intersection of their respective city council wards.

The conversation included our usual News Roundup and WAFTI’s usual trivia, but we also heard the council members’ perspectives on transportation, infrastructure, MAPS, and more. Full video of the event is below, followed by links to pertinent articles and topics mentioned in the episode.

Before we get to all the links, here is the video of the March 26th OKC City Council meeting that Councilwoman Nikki Nice references during the show:

News & Articles

NewsOK, SB227: Splits OMES into 2 with IT having its own agency

• Passed out of Committee

• 4-3 vote

• Agency says this is more expensive way to do business

• IT unification takes a hit

Tulsa World; Failure to renew 2014 Excellence in Mental Health Act

• Demonstration project

• Red Rock, NorthCare, Grand Lake Mental Health Center

• Potentially devastating blow to OP mental health services

Major news:

• Yesterday (3/25/19) OK Supreme Court declined to request to postpone the beginning of the opioid lawsuit

  • 13 companies

  • Alleges fraudulent marketing to docs and patients

  • Seeking $20b in damages

• Today (3/26/19): AG Hunter announces settlement with Purdue Pharma

  • $270m

  • Sackler family is responsible for $75m

  • We have so many questions….

    • Why settle?

      • Purdue filing for bankruptcy? <— settlement is “bankruptcy proof”

      • Does this make other companies likely to settler?

      • Does this save the state money in litigation costs?

    • Is $270 appropriate?

    • $200m to one research center seems like…a lot - was this a condition of the settlement?t

    • $12m for the entire rest of the state seems like...not much

    • Will funds awarded by the court be distributed similarly?

    • Some members of the community are quite upset about not getting to confront Purdue in court