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Owasso councilors debate subsidized lease for food bank OCR amid legal risk concerns
Summary
Councilors and staff debated whether to preserve a subsidized lease for Owasso Community Resources (OCR) at 109 N. Birch, balancing OCR's role serving hundreds of families against legal exposure when leases are below fair market value. The city attorney will research options and return with recommended lease language and precedents.
Council discussions over a proposed lease amendment for the building at 109 North Birch focused on whether the city can legally justify a below-market rent to support Owasso Community Resources (OCR), a nonprofit that provides food, rent and utility assistance.
"Owasso Community Resources provides a valuable and measurable benefit to the people of Owasso," Councilor Chad Baldrop said, arguing the city should consider a lease that recognizes the organization's role in preventing homelessness. Baldrop proposed writing lease language to connect that community value to the rental terms and said the council should consider maintaining the financial arrangement while a three-year sunset on occupancy remains in place.
Mindy Burns, OCR's executive director, told the council the organization has been told its rent could double and asked for phased increases. "When we found out our rent was doubling ' that was a huge sucker punch," Burns said, adding OCR serves "over 500 families a month" and uses modest utility assistance dollars to keep households housed.
Councilors pressed for comparables and for a way to quantify the value OCR provides to residents. Several members said they wanted documentation showing how other municipalities handle subsidized leases or lease concessions for nonprofits.
The city attorney warned that any lease priced below fair market value exposes the city and potentially individual officials to legal risk. "Anytime the lease or the sale is less than fair market value, you are at risk," the attorney told the council, urging that the city quantify and document the public benefit if it pursues a below-market arrangement.
Councilors and staff discussed practical options: retain the 2004/2009 lease rent (noted by staff as $960 in prior discussions) and add a $200 monthly utilities payment for the near term; commission staff and the city attorney to pursue a deeper legal and precedent search; and return the findings at a work session. The city attorney offered to perform a detailed legal review and contact counterpart cities for sample lease language, asking for roughly 30 days to complete the research.
No formal motion or vote was taken; councilors asked staff to return with legal options, comparables, and precise financial calculations to inform any future lease action.
