Youth and Family Affairs Committee

City of Lawton Lawton City Hall 212 SW 9th Street Lawton, Oklahoma Youth and Family 73501-3944 Affairs Committee Minutes Tuesday, April 15, 2025 9:00 AM Lawton City Hall 3rd Floor Conference Room This meeting will be conducted in person for all Committee members and members of the public to attend. Meeting Called to Order and Roll Call The meeting was called to order at 9:00 AM by Chairman Bob Weger. Upon roll call vote, a quorum was determined to be present. Members Present: Bob Weger, RL Smith, Mark Cox, Carl Fuqua, Taron Epps Members Absent: Mary Ann Hankins (excused), Reshard Horne (excused), Bernita Taylor (excused) Also Present: Tammy Branstetter, Senior Deputy City Clerk; Cynthia Williams, City Auditor; Matina Davis, Citizen of the Community Statement of Compliance with Oklahoma Open Meeting Act, 25 O.S. 301-314 Chairman Weger confirmed with Branstetter that the notice and agenda for this meeting were posted by the City Clerk’s Office as required by law. Introduction of Guests Matina Davis, a citizen of the community, introduced herself. Chairman Weger thanked Ms. Davis for attending the meeting. Business Items 1. Consider approving the minutes of the March 18, 2025, meeting. A copy of the minutes from the March 18, 2025, meeting may be obtained from the City Clerk's Office upon request. Motion by Smith, Second by Fuqua, to approve the minutes of the March 18, 2025, meeting. AYE: Fuqua, Cox, Smith, Weger, Epps. NAY: None. Motion Passed. 2. Elect a Vice-Chairman for the Youth and Family Affairs Committee. Chairman Weger said our By-Laws state that the Committee can, at any time, vote to elect a Vice-Chairman. He asked the Committee for nominations. Smith nominated Mark Cox. Cox said he does not believe he'd be interested in this. Smith nominated Taron Epps. Motion by Smith, Second by Cox, to select Taron Epps to serve as the Vice-Chairman of the Committee. AYE: Fuqua, Cox, Smith, Weger. NAY: None. ABSTAIN: Epps. Motion Passed. Chairman Weger thanked Epps for his willingness to serve. 3. Discuss a request for funding from the Last Frontier Council – Scouting America in the amount of $64,008.00 for fiscal year 2025-2026 youth programs within the City of Lawton and make a recommendation to the City Council. Chairman Weger provided background information on this item. A copy of the request for funding from the Last Frontier Council - Scouting America in the amount of $64,008.00 for fiscal year 2025-2026 youth programs may be obtained from the City Clerk’s Office upon request. Chairman Weger noted that this request was tabled during the last Committee meeting in March. It was tabled due to an investigation going on regarding the funding of this organization. Chairman Weger said it was suggested by a former employee that the previous funding was not used as per the requirements of YFAC. He said there was a registration that took place at Cleveland Elementary. Our Auditor did the research and found no paperwork at all. The only thing we do have to verify was that YFAC did issue a check awarding the grant for $18,000. The monies were spent, but we have no receipts turned in. Chairman Weger said that's why we went to the reimbursement plan, because at that time, he does not believe the reimbursement plan was in place. Chairman Weger said the Auditor contacted Cleveland Elementary. There was no reply for a little while. He said we did have two others that came forward and verified the same story that the initial accuser had made. Chairman Weger said they had 200 students that were registered to participate in January 2023, and the program was then delayed until March 2023 due to a lack of adequate staffing to begin the program. Chairman Weger said the children that were going to participate in the program were going to give up their PE time to attend the program. He said the program was delayed further until August 2023 due to lack of staffing, and this is kind of where it fell off the cliff. He said in the meantime, $18,000 of YFAC money was used. This has been verified by three people who have come forward to share this information with our Auditor. Regarding the application for funding, Chairman Weger said they do not have a "SMART" goal in line with YFAC. They do not show clear performance measurements or have goals established that are in line with YFAC goals. There is no clear timeline regarding when the events will happen, and we have nothing to measure the application against. Chairman Weger said the Auditor did not recommend approval of this funding application. Cox said the application said nothing about reaching high-risk kids. He said we're looking for people who are trying to affect change in high-risk kids. Motion by Epps, Second by Smith, to recommend denial of the funding application from the Last Frontier Council - Scouting America. AYE: Fuqua, Cox, Smith, Weger, Epps. NAY: None. Motion Passed. 4. Discuss the Committee's annual written report due to the City Council on or before May 1st of each year. Chairman Weger provided background information on this item. He said in the last Committee meeting in March, there were some questions raised regarding who would give the report to the City Council. It was discussed what the report entails. Chairman Weger noted that the Auditor also has a report that she must submit. Chairman Weger said the Committee's report has to be provided to Council on or before May 1st. Cox asked if it would be adequate for Cynthia Williams, Internal Auditor, to give this report. Chairman Weger said he believes Cynthia will address most of the information in her audit report, but if there's something she doesn't cover, he can present the Committee's report as the Chairman or pass it off to the Vice-Chairman if he's available. Epps said if he's in town, he can be there to present. Chairman Weger noted that the report will go to Council on April 22nd. Epps said he is available on April 22nd. Branstetter said she will ensure this item gets added to the Council agenda. Cox asked if the report should also include what we're seeing in the community as a whole regarding our youth. Chairman Weger said he thinks that's a great point to bring that up. Along with this, it reaffirms why the Committee wants to make sure that we send a strong message that the guidelines for the funding applications have been set by the City Council, and they have to meet these criteria. Epps said he thinks we need to talk about what happened in previous years because that's what's stated as required, but we also need to talk about some of the changes, because there were some issues with last year. We need to talk about the effectiveness of those changes that are being put in place. In terms of new ideas, Epps said he thinks this should be a more deliberate process. If we're going to assess other ways to be effective within the community, then we should have some strategic meetings with the group and then have that discussion and lay this out as more of a strategy that we can recommend to the Council. Smith said he likes that idea. Cox said that would be perfect. Chairman Weger said we want to send a message to the community of those who are going to be applying for grants that these are the parameters that have been set for funding. If you're not going to follow these policies set forth by the City of Lawton, then there is no recommendation for funding. No action was taken on this item. Reports/Comments from Chairman and Committee Members Chairman Weger thanked Committee members for their service. Chairman Weger thanked Williams for her help and insight in her role as Internal Auditor. Chairman Weger said he would like to request with the Committee that we take the remaining funds we have and roll them over to next year. He asked how we'd go about doing this. Williams said this would be a request to the Finance Director in the planning stages of the budget to note that these funds need to be rolled over. Chairman Weger asked if this is a request the Auditor or Chairman would make. Williams said the Chairman would make this request. Epps suggested an item be placed on the next agenda to discuss this. Smith thanked Chairman Weger for his service as Chairman. Reports/Comments from Staff Audience Participation Matina Davis said this was a great meeting. Adjournment Motion by Epps, Second by Fuqua, to adjourn the April 15, 2025, meeting. AYE: Fuqua, Cox, Smith, Weger, Epps. NAY: None. Motion Passed.