City Council preview: FISTA, money and the city attorney job

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - Lawton City Council is this week, but it’s on Monday instead of Tuesday and there are only three things on the agenda. Let’s talk about them as plainly as possible.

Finding a new City Attorney

Lawton needs a new City Attorney because the original one, John Ratliff, became City Manager late last week. A request for proposal for the position means City Council wants to start looking for a new person to take the job on permanently.

A whole lot of FISTA

We just put “FISTA” for this bullet point, because the actual agenda item was one sentence but fourteen lines long.

The highlights? It appears that if FISTA approves, the City might amend its agreement to include a lot more money. That includes over $36,000 to repair the Central Park Mall storm damage, another $250,000 for property insurance premiums on said mall, and a $1 million financial incentive that would support an agreement between FISTA and r4 Technologies. Half of that million would also be considered for next year’s support agreement with FISTA.

Amending an economic development assistance policy, AKA more FISTA

The policy in question would now specifically be for non-retail businesses, where it used to be known as the Industrial Development policy.

There are a lot of tweaks and adjustments, but what stands out is the addition of a whole new section about FISTA making financial development assistance requests, and how City Council approves those requests, as long as it’s in line with any specific policy requirements. Another new section clarifies that the agreement overall doesn’t stop the City from using economic development funds to support FISTA, LEDA or the LEDC.

7News reporter Seth Marsicano has been doing a deep dive on FISTA and covers City Council meetings, and will have more details when City Council officially meets at 2 p.m. Monday.

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