Oklahoma Municipal League OML Legislative Program Grass Roots Involvement Program (GRIP) Oklahoma Municipal League

OML Legislative Department  Federal (NLC affiliation)  State  Interagency  Member Involvement:  OML E-newsletters  Website  OC&T  GRIP Alerts

Oklahoma Municipal League The Oklahoma Municipal League (OML) believes that informed and active participation is essential. The right to lobby is a constitutional right -- to "petition the government." In fact, in today's government, lobbying is more than a right. It is a practical necessity that keeps the democratic process representative. In addition to making decisions at the local level that affect your citizens, local officials must also advocate at the state level on behalf of their municipalities. The OML strongly encourages each municipal official to be a part of our Grass Roots involvement Program (GRIP). This program allows you to be notified of legislative issues at the state and federal level that need immediate attention. Although league staff spend many hours working with the legislature on issues affecting cities and towns, you must also make the contacts with your own house and senate members to confirm what they are hearing.

Oklahoma Municipal League How do our Members Join the GRIP? Since the GRIP is a voluntary program, we include GRIP Sign Up forms in the attendee packets at every seminar and training session we offer. Forms are also available on OML’s web site at

Oklahoma Municipal League Sample GRIP Sign Up Form Oklahoma Municipal League: Where Rural and Urban Unite GRASS ROOTS INVOLVEMENT PROGRAM (GRIP) In an effort to have a favorable outcome on legislation involving cities and towns, this program has been created for key municipal leadership actively involved in the legislative process. The GRIP program will allow us to make quick contact with you, who in turn, can make quick contact with your legislator(s) on issues of importance to you during the legislative session. Whenever a contact needs to be made, you will be notified. These issues often turn on a few hours of notice. When contacted you will receive all information that you need on the issue. If there is time we will or fax. In critical situations we will try to call you. NAME: _______________________________ TITLE: CITY/TOWN: _________________________ FAX NUMBER: Daytime: ____________________ Evening _____________________ ADDRESS: Daytime: ____________________ Evening _____________________ PHONE NUMBER: Daytime: ____________________ Evening _____________________ CELL PHONE: _____________________________ MAILING ADDRESS: _________________________________________________________ Please describe the relationship that you have with state/national officials whether or not he/she represents your city or town. Name & office How well known* Relationship (Example) Sen. Terry Smith _____1_____ Attends Church_____________ __________________________ ___________ ____________________________ *1- exceptionally 2-very well 3-well 4-not well Issues that are of special interest to you: _____________________________________________________________________________ Please mail, fax, or this form to: Oklahoma Municipal League 201 N.E. 23rd St. Oklahoma City, OK FAX: (405)

Oklahoma Municipal League  After we receive the forms, we determine which Congressional, State House and State Senate District the member is in, as well as the population of the municipality the member is from.  All information is keyed into our master database.  Then, when an issue arises, we send out GRIP Alerts to everyone in the database.  We can also do targeted GRIP Alerts if necessary, using the demographic information we have collected.

Oklahoma Municipal League GRIP Alerts are communicated to our members via .

Oklahoma Municipal League Typical GRIP Alert To:OML GRIP Members From:OML Legislative Department Date:June 2, 2006 Subject:SB 1084 SB 1084 in the version that passed the Senate and House on the last day of session – Friday, May 26, 2006 – was unveiled literally at the last moment prior to constitutional adjournment. The bill went from a small bill of 4 pages to a complex bill of 114 pages. It was not even printed by legislative staff for legislators until after 12 o’clock on Friday. It was physically impossible for the representatives and senators to have read it prior to voting. According to the enclosed Legislative Information Network (LIN) article the proponents of the bill described it as “everything is either a minimal or no impact clean-up.” This description does not apply to Section 4. This section greatly harms future economic growth by tying the hands of municipalities in providing police, fire and other services to newly annexed areas. This language is new to SB 1084 and first appeared on Friday. The language will substantially curtail public and private development activities and prevent the creation of jobs and economic growth in Oklahoma. It will undercut needed rural economic growth incentives and stifle growth in urban areas. There are existing laws that guarantee that annexed areas will receive municipal services in a reasonable and orderly process. Section 4 actually undercuts the ability of cities and towns to provide these services since the bill removes the chief revenue source to pay for water, streets, garbage collection and the like. This language was proposed to address a local situation involving a country club in Oklahoma County. However, it is written so broadly that it impacts every municipality across the state. We encourage you to contact the Governor’s office immediately at (Telephone) or (Fax) or and ask that he VETO SB Despite legislator’s promises to fix this provision in the special session, the harm it can impose is far too great. It still has yet to be determined whether the Governor’s call for a special session is broad enough to address the issue. Should the legislature fail to address the issue, cities and towns stand to lose significant revenues and face great difficulty in trying to borrow money to provide essential services and update aging infrastructure.

Oklahoma Municipal League Does It Work? You bet it does!!! Legislators tell our lobbyists at the Capitol “I hear you, please call your people off!” Legislators call our lobbyists after GRIPS go out, seeking additional information and wanting to work on language/compromises. Over 600 of our members are enrolled in the GRIP. We often ask them for copies of their communications with their legislators and we get member responses per GRIP.