A woman in attendance at the Altus Municipal Trust meeting Tuesday night made her dissatisfaction with a council decision be known by confronting one of the councilmen.

During City Finance Director Joe Don Dunham’s monthly report, Kim Bryant, a CASA volunteer, walked up to the council seating area and dumped several jelly beans on the table in front of Councilman Scot Simco and said the candies represented the children who would not be served by the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program because of the City’s decision not to fund the service this year.

She was then escorted from the Council chambers by an Altus Police officer. Police Chief Mike Patterson said the woman was not arrested, but said that even though her disruptive behavior caused no physical harm, he feels the Council should consider not allowing citizens to get past a certain point, even to hand items to Council members as has been done in the past.

“There was no harm done with the jelly bean incident, but what if someone had approached a council member to throw paint on them, or do something worse?”

Councilman Simco said he felt Bryant had been given some false information, and hoped the incident didn’t shed any negative light on the CASA program. Simco also said he has spent considerable time researching the issue, and it is his wish that the local CASA organization can work with state legislators to change the law so cities could help fund CASA.

The CASA issue was addressed later during the “Comments from the Audience” section of the regular council meeting. Local CASA director Shirley Sutherland apologized to Simco and the Council for the woman’s behavior earlier and said her actions were not expected. She added that the incident would be addressed at the next board meeting.

Meanwhile, CASA volunteer Shirley Olson made a presentation on behalf of the group.

City Attorney Cahterine Coke said it is a legal issue that boils down to the fact that CASA works with the district court, and thus is not function for the City of Altus.