Owasso city manager Rodney Ray receives 4-1 vote from city council, will keep seat

OWASSO, Okla. - Asked to step down by one city councilor, Owasso's city manager kept his job by a near-unanimous vote Tuesday.

The city council voted 4-1 in a packed room in favor of renewing Rodney Ray's contract for two more years.

The lone vote against Ray came from first-year councilman Patrick Ross, who initially asked for his removal.

Ross says Owasso is outgrowing Ray's leadership but isn't giving specifics as to why.

Said Ross: "In order to fix this, we're going to have to find a brain different than the brain that created it."

Ray has been leading Owasso for 23 years, when the city was significantly smaller and not filled with more a million square feet of retail business. Ray says when he started the city was very small and brought in no sales revenue. 

"I understand having disagreements," Ray said of Ross' comments. "What I don't understand is a deliberate effort to drive a wedge between the trust."

Ray says Ross speaks on behalf of small segment of Owasso aiming to push him out.

"I think [Ross] is highly influenced by a group of extremist, whose strategy is 'no' and I don't believe 'no is a strategy.'

Ross denied belonging to any such group.