State Rep. holds meeting for town to discuss police and council issues

BENNINGTON, Okla. (KXII) -- There were two hot topics at Tuesday night's meeting: the legality of a council member's position in the city council and the amount of traffic tickets police officers are handing out.

One woman News 12 spoke with who didn't want to go on camera says she feels like she gets harassed by the city's police when she drives through town.

"It's to the point now when I pick my father in law who is 70 and I have to take him to the store and take him back home and stuff, they're following me and it's getting to the point where people are like wherever you are, they go," said the woman.

Last month's council minutes show in the month of July, officers issued 120 citations out of a town that has a population of approximately 280.

Humphrey says he will ask the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to investigate the police department's ticket writing practices.If that's the case, the police department could barred from patrolling on the highway, like Stringtown, Oklahoma was in 2014 after getting too much money from issuing traffic tickets.

Moving over to city council concerns: in April, Bennington Mayor Idanell Wright lost her seat in the city council election and then claimed the election was invalid because she says her seat was not up for re-election.That's something Representative Humphrey says he will personally look into.

"If the facts say her election was up premature and she still has a year on her term, then she still has a year on her term," said Humphrey. "But if her election was (over) and was officially beaten and she needs to leave, then we're going to find out what steps that will take to let that happen."

Wright, who was not at Tuesday night's meeting, says she still has two more years left on her term, even though she lost the election.

Humphrey says he will get to work on all these issues and have another meeting in 45 days.