Oklahoma City responds to David Slane's challenge of MAPS-3

OKLAHOMA CITY — The City of Oklahoma City responds to the threat of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of MAPS-3. A team of lawyers gave the city until Tuesday September 3 to respond, and now both sides are talking about the possible lawsuit.

On Tuesday city attorneys delivered their response to attorney David Slane. They are asking him to re-evaluate his position. Slane believes MAPS-3 violates the single subject law, but the city says it respectfully disagrees with his legal opinion and it is willing to continue defending the projects.

Slane responded saying, "We feel like we have an obligation to go back to square one and take a look at everything and make sure that we are right.

"In the City's response, attorneys say MAPS-3 does not violate the constitution and go on to cite cases that back up their position.

City spokesperson Kristy Yager said, "We feel like the ordinance is written to hold up to the constitution."

Yager says it was important for the city to respond to Slane's challenge and to respond on time.

"We don't mind people questioning what we do," said Yager. "I think that's what's important in government."

Last week Slane wrote a letter to Mayor Mick Cornett saying he believes MAPS-s violates the single subject law. MAPS-3 passed three years ago, so we wanted to know why it took so long to bring it up.

Slane said, "What brought it to the forefront was the fact that the legislature just went into special session because the supreme court struck down a law for the single subject rule. That's what brought it to our attention. Not politics, not anything else."

To learn more about the lawsuit click here.

The city says the legality of MAPS-3 is something it looked into from the beginning.

"We feel like we researched it fully in 2009. We discussed it on the horseshoe at city council meetings, and we feel like it's rock solid and will hold up to the constitution now," said Yager.

Slane says he plans to look into all the cases the city mentioned and will respond back within a week.

"It's important. It's dealing with $777,000,000 of taxpayer money. We need to look at it," said Slane.