City of Muskogee council votes to "proceed as discussed" after executive session on city attorney Carrie Spencer

The City of Muskogee City Council convened an executive session in 2026 to consider the employment status of city attorney Carrie Spencer and later voted in open session to "proceed as discussed in executive session." The council first moved into executive session after a roll call in which the transcript records affirmative votes to convene; the chair announced, "We are now in executive session."

After the executive session, legal counsel identified in the transcript as "Mister Barnes" told the council, "Pursuant to Section 307(b)(1) and (b)(4), Title 25, Oklahoma Statutes, the city council did convene an executive session to discuss the employment ... of city attorney Carrie Spencer." Barnes then said, "An appropriate motion would be to proceed as discussed in executive session," and the motion was seconded.

On the roll call for that motion the transcript records five 'Yes' votes (Jeremy Schuler; Mike Broly; Tom Martindale; Dan Hall; Shirley Hilton Flannery), three abstentions (Melody/Melanie Cranford; Tracy Hoose; Deputy Mayor Derek Reed) and one 'No' (Mayor Ryan Lowe). The chair announced the motion passed. The transcript does not include the substance of the executive-session discussion.

The meeting then was adjourned. The publicly available transcript lists the year only as "2026" and contains inconsistent spellings of several council members' names (for example "Mike Broly" vs. "Mike Brawley," "Tom Martin" vs. "Tom Martindale," and "Tracy Hoose" vs. "Tracy Hoos"). This account uses the names as they were called during roll call in the transcript; where spellings vary in the record, the transcript's variants are noted.