Who Really Runs Meeker? Here's What I Learned Reading the Ordinances Before Tonight's Meeting

By Market Meeker · June 30, 2026 · Government

MEEKER, Okla. — Tonight, the Meeker Board of Trustees will meet in Executive Session to discuss the employment, discipline, performance, and possible demotion or termination of Officer Kyle Crow and Chief Trent Norton.
Market Meeker will be there covering the meeting from start to finish.
But before tonight's meeting begins, I wanted to take a step back—not to talk about personalities, but to talk about something much bigger.
For the past several weeks, I've spent dozens of hours reading Town ordinances, employee handbooks, meeting minutes, agendas, budgets, and public records.
I thought I had a pretty good understanding of how Meeker's government worked.
I was wrong.
Because I had never actually read all the documents.
Like many people, I assumed I understood who made decisions, who supervised employees, who hired people, who fired people, and how contracts were awarded.
The more I read, the more I realized there was a big difference between what I thought I knew and what the ordinances actually say.
Who Runs Meeker?
Most people know that the Town Administrator runs the Town's day-to-day operations.
What surprised me wasn't that.
It was how much authority the ordinances actually delegate to that position.
The Board of Trustees remains the governing body of the Town. They are ultimately responsible for Meeker's direction, finances, ordinances, contracts, and the appointment of the Town Administrator.
But trustees are part-time elected officials.
The Town Administrator is a full-time employee.
Because of that, the ordinances delegate significant responsibility to the Town Administrator to keep the Town operating between Board meetings.
The ordinances assign responsibilities including supervising departments, preparing budgets, managing personnel, recommending hires, conducting employee discipline, updating employee policies, overseeing public works, implementing Board policy, and recommending actions to the Board.
In other words...
The Board establishes policy.
The Town Administrator carries out much of that policy every day.
That's not unusual.
Many Oklahoma municipalities operate that way.
What makes that arrangement successful (or not) is oversight.
Delegating authority doesn't eliminate accountability.
It makes accountability even more important.
The Mayor Isn't Elected... At Least Not Directly.
Another surprise?
Many residents believe they're voting for a mayor when they cast their ballot.
They're not.
Meeker residents elect five Trustees.
Once those trustees take office, they select one of their own to serve as Mayor and another to serve as Vice Mayor.
That means every trustee election is also, indirectly, an election that influences who may become Mayor.
It also means the Board's composition has a significant impact on the Town's leadership.
Can Citizens Remove the Board?
This has become one of the most common questions we've received.
Based on our review of the Town's ordinances, we have not identified a local procedure allowing citizens to recall elected trustees before the end of their terms.
That doesn't mean citizens are powerless.
Far from it.
Citizens can attend meetings.
Request public records.
Speak during Citizens' Participation.
Contact their elected trustees.
Vote.
And perhaps most importantly...
Become informed.
How Do You Get Something on the Agenda?
Another question we've been asked repeatedly.
If you want the Board to consider an issue, the Town currently requires an agenda request form to be completed and submitted to Town Hall.
At this time, those requests are not accepted electronically.
To be considered for a regular Board meeting, the request generally needs to be submitted no later than Thursday morning, as agendas are typically finalized and posted later that same day.
Knowing that deadline gives residents the opportunity to bring issues forward before decisions are made.
The Questions I Still Have
The more meetings I attended, the more I found myself asking questions.
One thing I noticed was that when vendors appeared before the Board during meetings I attended, I generally saw a single vendor presented for approval.
I did not personally observe discussions comparing multiple competing proposals or bids for those agenda items.
That observation alone does not mean competitive procurement did or did not occur.
Much of that work, if it occurred, could have taken place before the meeting.
That's exactly why Market Meeker has begun requesting contracts, purchase orders, invoices, vendor ledgers, grant agreements, and other supporting records through the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
For example, the Board recently discussed paying Town Administrator Jeff Wilbourn to mow portions of the lake property using his own equipment before the Fourth of July celebration. During that discussion, a citizen suggested opening the work for bids in the interest of transparency.
The Board has also considered using an LLC owned by Leslie Wilbourn—the wife of Town Administrator Jeff Wilbourn—to research, apply for, accept, and administer grant funding.
Neither of those examples tells us whether every required process was followed.
But they do raise reasonable questions.
How are vendors selected?
Are proposals requested?
Are competing options considered?
What documentation exists before an item reaches the Board?
What oversight occurs before work is approved?
Those aren't accusations.
They're questions.
And questions deserve answers.
Why Tonight Matters
Tonight's Executive Session may focus on two employees.
But the conversation surrounding that meeting has already revealed something much larger.
Many of us—including me—have discovered that we didn't fully understand how our own local government worked until we started reading the ordinances ourselves.
That shouldn't discourage us.
It should encourage us.
Government works best when citizens understand it.
Not just during controversy.
Every month.
Every meeting.
Every election.
Coming Soon to Market Meeker
One of the biggest challenges I've encountered while researching these stories is that the documents governing our Town are difficult to locate, difficult to search, and scattered across multiple sources.
We're working to change that.
Over the coming weeks, Market Meeker will begin building a searchable public document library containing Town ordinances, meeting agendas, meeting minutes, employee handbooks, and other public records we've obtained.
Our goal isn't to ask you to trust our reporting.
Our goal is to let you read the same documents we're reading and reach your own conclusions.
We're still building that feature, so it isn't available just yet, but we'll let everyone know as soon as it launches.
If that's a resource you'd find valuable, we invite you to follow the Market Meeker FB page and sign up for our newsletter and continue this journey with us.
We'll be covering tonight's meeting.
But regardless of what happens there, one thing has already become clear:
Understanding how Meeker works may be one of the most important stories we've ever reported.