new gang of five?

[RecycleMichael]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=16&articleid=20100311_11_0_Tulsas782201

'Gang of Five' back, city councilors declare Council majority votes down budget-cuts amendment

By BRIAN BARBER World Staff Writer

Tulsa's City Council has a new "Gang of Five," declared Councilors Rick Westcott and G.T. Bynum, who angrily vented after a Thursday night meeting during which a council majority voted down the budget amendment that would have finalized the mayor's budget cuts.

The amendment was rejected by a 4-3 vote, with Councilors Bill Christiansen, Jack Henderson, Maria Barnes and Roscoe Turner voting against it and Westcott, Bynum and Jim Mautino in favor. Two councilors, Chris Trail and John Eagleton, were absent.

A unanimous vote of seven then immediately brought the amendment back to life for reconsideration at a 10 a.m. Monday meeting. Both Christiansen and Henderson said their intention is to go through it "line by line" and possibly make changes.
Westcott, who serves as chairman, named Christiansen, Henderson, Barnes, Turner and Trail as the gang's members when he talked to the Tulsa World after the meeting.

"It's clear there's a new Gang of Five in Tulsa," he said. "They are not united by common political ideology. They are united by a common desire to frustrate Mayor (Dewey) Bartlett, his administration and their attempts to move this city forward.
"These councilors get together behind closed doors before our meetings, decide how everything is going to go down and write their little script. They are harming the citizens of Tulsa."

The moniker "Gang of Five" was one the Tulsa World's editorial board gave to a group of five councilors who controlled the council about five years ago. The gang was led by Chris Medlock and included Mautino, Henderson and Turner. Medlock and Mautino fended off recall attempts as a result. Bynum said, "Tulsa was put on notice tonight that the gamesmanship and the antics of the Gang of Five are back with different players—and it's disgusting."

After the meeting, Henderson said that once the council passes the amendment, the $10 million in general fund cuts, including police layoffs and park community center closures, among others, will stand. Even though the cost-cutting actions already have been taken by the mayor, "some councilors still have a lot of concerns," he said. "I want us to go through what each one of the budget items are and what they mean for the city," Henderson said. "For anyone to say our intentions are anything other than that is completely wrong." Christiansen said he's concerned about public safety.

A total of 124 police officers were laid off effective Feb. 1, with 35 of them hired back with federal grant money this month.
Christiansen said he wants to hear about the impact having fewer officers has had and what the impact will be in the future.
"We just want to make sure we are doing the right thing here," he said. "I take my role in this very seriously." Bynum said finance officials already have gone through the amendment with the council thoroughly and that councilors have participated in meetings on the budget for weeks. The amendment was on Tuesday's council committee meeting agenda, and no one brought up any problems with it, he said.

"This was all done as a stunt and to get media attention," Bynum said.

Bartlett, reached by phone, said he was stunned by the development. "Of course, the majority has the right to do what they did," he said. "However, this late in the game, it's extremely unfortunate. What they did certainly could have been discussed any time in the past few weeks." Bartlett said he and his staff met with four councilors, including Henderson, on Thursday afternoon and that Henderson didn't bring up any issues he had with the amendment. "In fact, I made a point at that meeting of telling them that we need to approach governing this city as a team," he said, "that we could accomplish so much by working together and avoiding confrontation."

The proposed budget amendment is to reduce appropriations in the city's general fund by $7.5 million.

The difference between that amount and the $10 million less in revenue that the general fund will see this fiscal year is being made up with $2.5 million from the city's reserve to help the Fire Department's budget. Tapping into the reserve was part of the 17-month deal reached with the firefighters union. The vote on the amendment already had been delayed a week by Christiansen, who wanted answers from the mayor's administration about whether federal grant money could have been used to help laid-off officers sooner.

Meanwhile, the council delayed a vote to accept $400,000 from the George Kaiser Family Foundation and private donors through the Tulsa Community Foundation to pay for an independent strategic review of the city's government. The delay was pursued by Trail, who left the meeting before the later budget amendment vote. Trail said he supports the review but that he wants to make sure its findings won't appear "flawed or biased."

Turner said he doesn't understand why the review already began this week when the council hasn't yet accepted the money to pay for it. The review by KPMG, a national auditing and consulting firm, includes the 20 city departments overseen by the mayor. The process is expected to take 16 weeks.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=16&articleid=20100311_11_0_Tulsas782201


These kind of stories sure make our city look bad.

[TulsaSooner]

Unbeleivable.  All of the Council members have been in numerous meetings discussing these cuts to death.  I think the Gang of Five and reference to the Medlock days are spot on.

The second thing that makes me angry is the hand-wringing over the donation to pay for the audit.  They've been whining about a City-wide performance audit, now they have one FOR FREE, and they're still dragging their feet.  Same thing happened with the river development and baseball stadium donors to the point where one of these days, these people are going to stop being so generous with their money.  It's like the Council tries to make it look like the donors are doing something shady or trying to profit from the donation somewhow when really they're donating huge sums of money for the betterment of the City.

I just don't get it. 

[Conan71]

Westcott is a blow-hard.  Everyone calm down and see what happens next week.

[RecycleMichael]

OK...now it is next week...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100315_11_0_rbRltd334951

Tulsa councilor objects to 'Gang of Five' name  
By BRIAN BARBER World Staff Writer

Councilor Jack Henderson objected Monday to being called a member of a new "Gang of Five" by fellow councilors, saying that's "a bunch of crap." Henderson said he's a 60-year- old black man and that he's avoided being called a gang member until now. Henderson was among a block of councilors who last week voted down the mayor's budget amendment that would have solidified $10 million in general fund cuts.

Council Chairman Rick Westcott, who was one of the councilors who said there had been a new "Gang of Five" created, apologized for calling Henderson out in the Tulsa World before first speaking to him privately. But Westcott maintained he spoke the truth, criticizing the council majority for its action when the amendment has been available for discussion for weeks.

The "Gang of Five" moniker was one given to a controversial council voting block about five years ago.

[TulsaSooner]

Next article:  Ways in which Westcott is a racist.

[TulsaSooner]

So I guess they passed the budget amendment for the cuts.  Can the Council even take action like that at this meeting or does it have to be at the Thursday meeting?  I was thinking there is some kind of 48 hour agenda posting that has to occur before they can take action and they only had one day, Friday, to post it.  I could be wrong though, I'm sure the Council attorney is WELL aware of all that.

[shadows]

So I guess they passed the budget amendment for the cuts.  Can the Council even take action like that at this meeting or does it have to be at the Thursday meeting?  I was thinking there is some kind of 48 hour agenda posting that has to occur before they can take action and they only had one day, Friday, to post it.  I could be wrong though, I'm sure the Council attorney is WELL aware of all that.

Well it is a certainty that Tulsa is blessed with gangs. 

There is the North side gang, the mayor's gang of 16 appointees, the attorney promoting the near $100 million dollars in Revenue bonds approved by the former commissioners to make improvements at the repair station at the airport (even telling them that part of the money could be used for improvements at Fort Worth), now everyone is upset because they are moving Tulsa jobs there, then the ball park gang that forced the donations on the down town owners for 30 years has one large developer rumored that he wants out of town, the IDL gang that lost the downtown area to the 71st corridor, the gang that increased ante fee to fill the mayor chair to a million dollars, the gang who wants to follow statute and revoke the city charter turning all city assets and operations over to the county, then the FOP gang and the TFD gang who want to control elections. 

Oh well there is no need to go on as the censurer of the forum will clip, clip, clip