Mike Neal can get over himself.
I hope the V2 planners are at least skimming our thread on this. Here's why they failed and what they need to do:
-Tulsans aren't going to fall for another slush fund style tax package which, just like the failed river tax in '07, had no clear definition and was simply a grab bag of ideas of where they could spend several hundred million dollars.
-Quit treating average citizens as a bunch of morons whose opinion and suggestions don't matter as much as those who are wealthy, well-connected, or in power.
-There was a huge flaw in the package in attempting to throw money at AA hoping they will stay in Tulsa. Blake Ewing made a really good point in his blog that tenants at the airport complex get sweetheart rent deals and it's up to the tenant to keep the properties in good repair. If tenants are not keeping up the property like they should in their lease agreement and are cutting jobs as a normal course of business, why reward such behavior? Blake Ewing did a great job of outlining this:
Our facilities at the airport are in disrepair. They’re outdated and in need of some major overhauls. I don’t question that at all and am an advocate for taking some very real steps to improve our facilities. With the unknown situation at American Airlines, I think it’s much more appropriate that we wait to see what happens. There is simply no good reason why we’re voting on this now except that the people who put it together wanted to capitalize on the community concern for job loss and the timing of the presidential election, with the emphasis being on the latter.
They stated repeatedly in the two meetings I was in that the consultant said the best chance of passing something like this is in a large election. The reason being, a well-funded campaign over a short period of time can beat unfunded and disorganized opposition if you can pound the lightly informed masses with media in the weeks leading up to the vote. We rushed this whole thing so it could be on the November ballot. Nobody at the airport was pressing for this timeframe. That came straight from The Chamber. We’re talking about locking in a tax for airport improvements, primarily for a company who has a very uncertain future. I’m not worried about them coming out of bankruptcy. I’m sure they will. I’m worried that we have no idea what their future looks like, but we’re talking about investing a quarter of a billion dollars out there just in case. It should wait until we can have an educated conversation with some mutual commitments and joint goals. I don’t like it being done this way….it’s a big limb to go out on.
People keep saying that those are our buildings out there and that we’ve failed to maintain them. I want something to be really clear. Our leases with those companies are very light…What I mean is, they either pay almost nothing or very little. In exchange for that sweetheart deal, they are responsible for maintaining the facilities. Moving forward, I’d like to see us employ a strategy that facilitates better maintenance of those properties and holds tenants to some standards. I’m okay with the low rent rate in exchange for maintenance, as long as that’s the deal we all honor.
Regardless, these are things that should be worked out after the bankruptcy and with plenty of time to structure the right proposal…not like this…in the dark and in a hurry and with 99% of Tulsans asked to just take The Chamber’s word for it.
Spirit and Navistar didn’t even ask for the upgrades. The Chamber asked them to make a list of their needs so that we weren’t just putting American Airlines improvements on a list. While there are some needs at those two plants, they were not considered to be pressing. With all of the things in our community that we could be doing to promote and encourage job growth, investing in facilities for employers who weren’t even asking for it to provide PR cover seems…
http://blakeewing.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/vision/-We are truly blessed with some great philanthropists in this city and some great visionaries, but ratchet down the ego enough to see that there are also others who have equally great, if not better, visions for the future of Tulsa and Tulsa County. Listen to your citizens, not your high-priced out of state consultants.
-Revisit the issue within a year of V-2025 coming to an end and have a very clear and concise project list assembled, not something which resembles an agenda hastily written on the back of a cocktail napkin over a happy hour.
-Take the time to get input into what really matters in terms of improvements to all the citizens of Tulsa County and act on it, don't ignore it. That can be done via a series of town hall meetings in each community. I'd envision something like the PlaniTulsa process.
-Our leaders apparently still don't get why V-2025 passed. There was something for every demographic in every community and it appeared to be much more carefully laid out.
