(a) There is hereby established in each incorporated city and town and in each county of the state a public body corporate and politic which shall be an agency of the State of Oklahoma and shall be known as the "port authority" of the city or town or of the county. Port authorities created in this act may be combined to form joint port authorities by cooperative agreement executed by the governing bodies of any city or county or cities or counties. Such joint authorities formed by such cooperative agreement shall have all the powers and jurisdiction enumerated in this act. The authority shall not transact any business or exercise its powers hereunder until or unless the governing body of the city or town by appropriate ordinance, or the county by appropriate resolution, declares that there is need for an authority to function in the city, town, or county. No member of said authority shall serve as such who owns land, other than a residence, or represents in a fiduciary capacity or as agent any person who owns land located in an area within five (5) miles of lands surveyed or examined for port locations. Any member of said authority who has any interest which will conflict with the interests of the authority shall be subject to removal. Any member of the authority owning lands or having lands under his control as agent or in a fiduciary capacity in an area surveyed or examined for port location shall be deemed to have a conflict of interest and subjected to removal, except this limitation or membership and conflict of interest shall not apply where the site of a port has been presently engineered and designated by a port authority already organized under this act. A port authority created hereunder shall be a body corporate and politic which may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, and shall have the powers and jurisdiction enumerated in Sections 1 to 14, inclusive, of this act. The exercise by such port authority of the powers conferred upon it shall be deemed to be essential governmental functions of the State of Oklahoma, but no port authority shall be immune from liability by reason thereof.

(b) Any municipal corporation or county creating or participating in the creation of a port authority in accordance with this act may expend funds not otherwise appropriated to defray the expense of surveys and examinations incidental to the purposes of the port authority so created and may appropriate to the authority any available funds not otherwise appropriated for expenditure by the authority for any purpose authorized by this act.

(c) Subject to making due provisions for payment and performance of its obligations, a port authority may be dissolved by the subdivision or subdivisions creating it, and in such event the properties of the port authority shall be transferred to the subdivision creating it, or, if created by more than one subdivision, to the subdivisions creating it in such manner as may be agreed upon between such subdivisions. Obligations of the authority shall not be obligations of the State of Oklahoma, nor of any city, town, or county which creates said authority, unless said obligations are specifically accepted by a majority vote of the ad valorem taxpaying registered voters of such city, town, or county voting on the issue. Notice of such election shall be published at least once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, the first publication thereof to be at least ten (10) days prior to said election. The notice of said election shall set forth clearly and concisely the issue on which the vote is being taken.

Added by Laws 1959, p. 391, § 2, emerg. eff. July 15, 1959. Amended by Laws 1963, c. 305, § 2.