OkStateExpansion.com

Boone Pickens’s Gift
To Oklahoma State
Sparks Local Rivalry

Some Neighbors Jeer Plans
For Huge Sports Complex;
Lampooning the Largess
By RYAN CHITTUM
March 30, 2006; Page A1

STILLWATER, Okla. — Boone Pickens has seen legendary fights over oil and corporate takeovers. Now, a giant gift to help his alma mater build a huge sports complex — and a winning football team — has plunged him into a different kind of battle, with residents of a low-income neighborhood.

Mr. Pickens’s recent $165 million contribution to build new sports facilities at Oklahoma State University is the largest single donation made to a U.S. collegiate athletic program and more than half the size of the university’s entire endowment.

OSU wants to use the money to expand its football stadium and build an “athletic village” complete with practice fields and new stadiums for soccer, baseball and other sports. But to do so, it will have to clear out a large residential area adjacent to the campus.

The university owns part of the 100-acre tract and is offering buyouts for the rest — deals that have some people balking and refusing to leave. The plan puts Mr. Pickens at the center of a skirmish featuring tenants, property owners and the university.

Last month, community members packed the local library to hear OSU officials present the latest details of the plan, which is backed by the state’s power of eminent domain. Some attendees cried, and others groaned. A question-and-answer session with OSU President David Schmidly drew boos and emotional exchanges from the crowd.

“My house and my home is my special building,” said longtime resident Liz Doyel. “You’re trying to steal it.”

“I’m not a thief,” Mr. Schmidly replied.

Calvin Anthony, a pharmacist and chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce, supports the plan because he believes it will be good for both the school and local business. He told people in the crowd they should thank Mr. Schmidly for meeting with them despite the intense opposition. “He may feel like a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs,” he said.

Here in Stillwater, a city of 39,000, the plan stands to affect hundreds of people — from students to pensioners — who say they can’t afford higher housing costs. OSU says 550 students currently live in the neighborhood, but it is unable to provide total population figures. According to geoVue Inc., a company that culls demographic information for commercial real-estate searches, there were 1,315 people living in 725 housing units in the area as of 2004. The median household income of those over the age of 25 was about $20,000 as of 2000.

Mr. Pickens, 77 years old, isn’t sentimental about razing the neighborhood. “You look at it and think ‘Gosh Almighty, we’ve got to get this stuff out of here,’” he says. “I mean, it’s so bad looking. Those houses are in horrible condition.”

On March 3, the Board of Regents unanimously approved the athletics plan, which calls for the demolition of many properties by year’s end. About one-fifth of the owners, however, still refuse to engage in price negotiations — and some have threatened to stand up to the bulldozers. Mr. Pickens, meanwhile, says he recently met with university officials to discuss how to speed up the process. “It’s gonna get done so we might as well get at it,” he says.

Over the past 25 years, Mr. Pickens has given about $250 million to OSU. The bulk of contributions were in the past three years, with about 80% of the total earmarked for athletics.

Mr. Pickens, whose spokesman says he has a net worth “in excess of $2 billion,” made his fortune running the Irving, Texas-based Mesa Petroleum Co. (now called Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and unaffiliated with Mr. Pickens). In the 1980s, he earned fame attempting corporate takeovers.

An Oklahoma native, Mr. Pickens first attended Texas A&M. The school took away his basketball scholarship — “I wasn’t good enough,” he says — so he went to Stillwater to enroll in what was then Oklahoma A&M. Mr. Pickens tried out, unsuccessfully, for legendary coach Henry Iba’s basketball team. In 1946 it was the last OSU squad to win a national basketball or football championship. He graduated in 1951 with a degree in geology.

A rendering of the expanded OSU Boone Pickens Stadium, now under construction.

Today at OSU, Mr. Pickens’s influence extends well beyond the treasury. Last year, the billionaire recommended the appointments of football coach Mike Gundy and Athletic Director Mike Holder. The latter is a longtime quail-hunting buddy of Mr. Pickens who was formerly the school’s golf coach. While Mr. Schmidly, the university president, says Mr. Pickens has no veto power over any decisions, he acknowledges that the appointments “had a lot to do with Boone gaining confidence” to make his record contribution.

That happened just after Christmas of 2005. Mr. Holder met with Mr. Pickens in his Dallas office to pitch the idea for a sports complex, to be built near Boone Pickens Stadium, the football facility named for him in 2003. Mr. Holder had been angling for a big donation, throwing out numbers Mr. Pickens called “ludicrous.”

A day after the meeting, Mr. Pickens wired $165 million to the university, enough to cover more than half of the $300 million project’s costs. The funds were almost immediately invested in a hedge fund controlled by Mr. Pickens — a move that drew some criticism and was the subject of a New York Times article. Mr. Pickens says the fund has waived all fees.

Chris Stellman, an OSU senior who would be displaced by the project, created an online comic strip lampooning the university as “Boone State” and featuring Mr. Schmidly bowing to Mr. Pickens’s every whim. One strip depicts Mr. Pickens talking about building the football team a day spa.

Although some locals resist the plan on principle, others are haggling over price. Opponents say OSU is offering owners about 70% of the assessed value of their properties. They complain the university has them over a barrel by threatening to use eminent domain, the legal process that allows government-related entities (including public colleges) to appropriate private property for the public benefit.

The university says it doesn’t want to use eminent domain, though will as a “last resort” if property owners refuse to sell, Mr. Schmidly says.

County assessor Jacquie Rose describes OSU’s offers for property in the area, where the median home price is about $70,000, as “low.” Mr. Schmidly counters that the assessed values are too high. Instead, the university’s buyouts prices are equal to 105% of its own appraiser’s estimates. The university is also paying a “longevity bonus” to homeowners based on years of occupancy, plus moving expenses.

If Mr. Pickens’s largess boosts OSU’s football team as he hopes, he and university officials expect other benefits to follow — in both sports and academic programs. At rival University of Oklahoma, about 70 miles south, a national football championship in 2000 spurred a $110 million fund-raising campaign that renovated and expanded its stadium, according to school officials there. Applications for enrollment soared and the school had to turn away students for its incoming freshman classes for the first time.

Ryan Chittum
The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty St., 12th Floor
New York, NY 10281
212-416-4133
ryan.chittum@wsj.com

Please post this from me on your site. I am not afraid to make my
position known and stand for what is right.

I realize that some in the community have issues with Mayor Bud Lacy,
yet, none should question question his absolute devotion to the City
for the past 15 years. From planning commission, to city commissioner
and now as our Mayor. There is no practical reason to throw that level
of experience and knowledge away. He has done nothing harmful to the
City and has usually made the right decision for the long term of
Stillwater. He brings dialogue to a healthy debate and we, as
Commssioners decide issues and move on. No consequence to opposing
viewpoints!

While some may not like his management style or decision making process
at times, I respect his role as Mayor and one I know he takes seriously
to heart. I am out front trying to get him re-elected. He stood by me
when the commission voted 3-2 to not re-appoint me to the Stillwater
Visitors and Convention Board (because I voiced opposition against the
Stw. Chamber of Commerce). Further, he has allowed me to speak out and
to express my viewpoints, whether he agreed or not.

From my personal and political experience, Roger is both vindicative
and definitely in lock step with the Chamber and the University. If you
disagree with him at all, you become an enemy for life!
That is not how a Mayor should or can operate.

With the appointment of Calvin Anthony to the Board of Regents, those
two will, or should I say will try, to railroad the City Stillwater
policy and finances more to their special interests with no consideration
for the rest of the community. Decisions will be made with disregard to
the city; and the Chamber and University interests will come
first. This has happened with most of the past Mayors who pictured
their support in an ad for Roger. His support is NOT solid and is mostly on appearance (big money and signs in rental properties).

This community needs to look forward and not be operated as the city of
the 60s-70s-80s and early 90s. We should not turn the city back to the
Chamber of Commerce political machine and further allow the
University to further step on our citizenery.

PLEASE HELP - find just 20 people and get them to vote! We can
win! We need to energize the grass roots pockets of different thinkers
to rally around Bud Lacy. He is our the best alternative to standing up
for what is right.

You can vote in person at the Payne County Administration Building on
Friday or Monday prior to the election. We need to get to the 2,000
person level of voter participation. Watch for the papers to publish my editorial and watch the mail for my letter.

I have not changed and I have stood by my principles and goals the whole
year. Now, I need my voice to be carried by helping re-elect Bud Lacy
as our Mayor.

I would appreciate your support with my efforts here.

Thank you.

Hank Moore

Ms. Williams:
I sent this out bcc to a number of people on Faculty Council and to the Boone State guys. I don’t know whether you ever received it. A later story in the Tulsa World stated that Cinnabar’s contract with the Tulsa Airport was terminated with the work done on the noise retrofits resulting in management fees per house of $14,000! I think they are a sleazy, but well-connected, outfit. What is their link to Gary Clark? I wonder if their contract with the Foundation can be accessed or whether it is immune to public records claims because it is with the Foundation, not OSU? I would like to see what their true incentives are for taking advantage of property owners. I think this would refute Schmidly’s claims that the Foundation and OSU had the property owner’s well-being at heart.

I also believe that the Foundation’s reinvestment of Picken’s $165 million in his hedge fund is not sound fiscal management and would not pass any proper financial scrutiny. In the pension fund (including Teacher’s Retirement) story in the Oklahoman over the weekend, the State Treasurer was quoted saying that hedge funds were too risky for public investments. Again, this move may be hidden from public access because it is with the Foundation, not OSU. I think someone should raise the issue of whether this good ol’ boy, sloppy paperwork, and risky investment scheme in one fund(Holder as investment officer!) could impact OSU’s standing for any future bond issues. I can’t believe that it even would meet the rules governing the Foundation at this point. I bet bonds are coming, too.

Cinnabar Services Company, the buyer of homes in the OSU Athletic Village project, seems to have a little baggage. The Tulsa Airport authority cut off its contract for noise abatement projects in neighborhoods around the Tulsa Airport. The company principals, Bacon and Parmele, also are two of the principals in IVI, which proposed the infamous private toll bridge in south Tulsa. They may even have done this after, as Cinnabar, they did a study on the project. The company seems very well connected in Tulsa politics. The stories I have read seem to suggest that Parmele has had posts that could involve conflicts of interest. I am sure there could be more. Please pass this along.

http://www.cinnabar.cc/cschomepage.htm

http://www.urbantulsa.com/article.asp?id=2927

http://www.tulsaworld.cc/cinnabarservice.html

http://www.movethatbridge.com/MoveThatBridgeTulsaWorldArticles.htm

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:GM4QZ24FAe4J:www.tulsaairports.com/taa/documents/lettertonoiseprogramparticipants-10-06-05.doc+Cinnabar+Service+Co&hl=en

http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=2&TOPIC_ID=1235奖

http://www.batesline.com/archives/001920.html

http://news.pajamasmedia.com/2005/12/28/6793911_Noise_plan_contr.shtml

http://www.cleanuptexaspolitics.com/images/TollCorridorMoney.pdf

http://www.millproject.org/pdf/forced.pdf

Here is a recent letter to the editor titled “Regents prove their stupidity” that appeared in the O’Colly. The letter was authored by an associate prof in engineering.

It seems to summarize the sentiments of many faculty members

http://www.ocolly.com/read_story.php?a_id=29498

{link also at left of site under “letters to the editor” - O’Colly}

Board of Regents meeting CHANGED: Now scheduled to meet in the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center in the Click Allumni Hall at 10:00 am, Friday, March 3. Vote for dis/approval of the proposed 5 year master plan is scheduled.

I have delivered the signed petitions to the Board of Regents. I enclosed the following note and asked that it be read to all the regents preceeding the Mar. 3 meeting. I typed all names and addresses into excel in order to sort them to check for any duplications. There were NONE. I will also take a copy of the signed petitions to the City Commissioners with a similar note, in order to impress upon them the necessity of standing strong for the city and its residents.

Petition to STOP the Condemnation/Eminent Domain Property Takeovers in Stillwater, Oklahoma, for the “Athletic Village”, Oklahoma State University.

This petition in no way purports to be a legal document. We are simply petitioning you, the Oklahoma Board of Regents of Oklahoma A&M Colleges, to “do the right thing”. It is your responsibility to oversee and approve or disapprove actions of the university. You are the decision makers. We look to you for leadership and guidance.

The petition was simply posted on the website: OkStateExpansion.com, February 4, 2006, only 24 days “lead time” before petitions needed to be returned. There are 872 signatures: 699 Stillwater residents. 172 residents of the state, in cities other than Stillwater and 1 Nevada. There are NO duplicate signatures.

Obtaining signatures for the petition was not an “organized” endeavor. No meetings were held regarding the petition, or people who went to public places to stand outside and obtain signatures. Businesses were not asked to place petitions at their establishment, since it was not desired to put anyone in a position in which their business might be affected in any way. Petitions placed in a business establishment were placed at the owner’s request. Petitions were also placed on the windshields of automobiles parked at the Library on February 21, 2006, during the OSU Town Hall meeting.

Anyone who wanted to print the petition and obtain signatures, at their own initiative, could do that. Some petitions were returned with only one or two signatures and a few people made a concentrated effort to obtain signatures.

Most people do not get involved in protesting an issue unless they feel they are directly affected. We understand that fact and are amazed that so many individuals, not living in the proposed acquisition area, chose to obtain signatures and/or sign the petition.

Individuals have stated various reasons for their opposition to the proposed “Athletic Village”. Some are concerned for the loss of revenue to the City of Stillwater, closing of streets and for property owner’s rights and lack of “fair compensation”. A few feel the “segregation of Athletes” is wrong. Many are upset about OSU’s seeming focus on athletics rather than academics. And many who have loved and supported OSU for years now feel “betrayed”, have a great distrust in the leadership of the university and feel their university has become a corporation. There is also concern regarding national adversity and unfavorable “attention” due to this situation. Kindredship and support for the university, has diminished. All feel that OSU should build the “village” on property it already owns.

As initiators of the petition effort, we feel the entire presentation and handling of the proposed master plan and acquisition has been a disaster. These signatures lament the unfortunate decision by OSU to be a “bully” rather than a “partner” in what could have been an awesome undertaking for the City of Stillwater and for the University.