Candy Depot ticket spurs outrage in Wagoner
TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — By its very nature the Candy Depot in Wagoner is a place of fun and joy with candy and video games around every corner. But not so jovial? The surveillance video of someone moving their sign from its normal location before the upcoming Bluegrass festival.
"The main objective here is just to see that this doesn’t happen again next year," said attorney Christopher Lopp. He represents the Candy Depot, which received a ticket for $165 for the sign incident, setting off a firestorm of complaints from other businesses as well.
"That feels like they were disadvantaged by the way the Bluegrass and Chili Festival was handled this year," said Lopp.
And it's not just this year, the BBQ restaurant next door has had run-ins with city officials about the festival before.
"Well like my table and chairs out here. They were like, 'You need to move that, you can’t have that out here, ADA compliance.' So I mean I immediately pulled up ADA compliance and I was like, 'No, that’s not true, ADA compliance is four feet of clearance, and there’s plenty of clearance for people to walk by,'" said Amy Matthews of Smokin' Sisters on Main Street.
Things have become so heated, that the mayor called a special meeting and the civic center was nearly filled with only two things on the agenda, the Bluegrass festival and whether or not to pardon the ticket against the Candy Depot.
"Do not punish city staff for you telling us to do our job," said City Planner Jessica Zwirtz. She says the citation was only issued after the business owners told her to just issue them a citation, and since then she's been hammered on social media.
"Do not punish city staff for having to enforce the rules that were put in place by this council," she said.
"Mam, we’re not punishing city staff, we’re trying to do what’s right here.," replied Mayor Dalton Self.
"I am being crucified on social media, that is a punishment for doing my job that you asked me to go do," said Zwirtz.
The council voted 5 to 3 against pardoning the ticket, but this story isn't over yet. The candy store's attorney has filed an open records request to look into the matter.
"Where’s the money flowing? Who’s profiting from these decisions that they’ve made? So we’re really going to do some diving in, some transparency as to how the money flows," said Lopp.