Comanche holds special city council meeting to discuss City Manager position

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) - Comanche’s city council held a meeting to discuss two things: the employment of the city manager, Chuck Ralls, and people who had stolen items from the Fairlawn Cemetery.

The city hall was packed with people from the community hoping for some resolution.

“The rumor going around was Chuck was supposed to resign or get terminated tonight,” said Dylan Savage, one of the attendees. “That was the whole purpose of this meeting.”

Ralls himself also thought so when 7News spoke with him over the phone. During that conversation, he said, “city council would be discussing his termination”. However, what actually happened, was slightly different.

After city council ended their executive session they made the decision to retain Ralls’ position and give him a 5% raise.

This left many of the people who attended distraught.

Phillip Dean, another attendee, said, “I understand everybody’s real upset because they wanted a new city manager. To give him a five percent raise and retain him, it’s not what people wanted.”

“There were almost two hundred people that attended. Lots of comments, and whenever they finally read the verdict there was a lot of unhappy people. A lot of people walked out of the room. A big slap in the face to the community in Comanche in my opinion,” said Savage.

While many were angry at the decision, a person who did not want to go on camera said there were people there in support of the city manager.

Also on the agenda was the discussion of insurance claims for the people who had items taken from the cemetery.

7News spoke with Comanche Police Chief Cory Faulk this morning as well who said there is an active investigation to the manner of how the items went missing.

The meeting ended with citizens having just as many unanswered questions as the last city council meeting that discussed the Fairlawn Cemetery.

“There’s been some talks about maybe recalling the city council, and if that’s what we’re going to have to do to get change that’s what we’re going to have to do,” Savage added.

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