Kaiser Foundation, other donors to fund Tulsa government review

[Patrick]

Link to Tulsa World article

Kaiser Foundation, other donors to fund Tulsa government review

By BRIAN BARBER World Staff Writer
Published: 2/12/2010  4:37 PM
Last Modified: 2/12/2010  4:44 PM

The George Kaiser Family Foundation and private donors through the Tulsa Community Foundation have agreed to pay for a more than $400,000 strategic review of the city's government, Mayor Dewey Bartlett said Friday.

The review by KPMG, a national management consulting and auditing firm, will take 16 weeks with the goal of incorporating some of its recommendations into the budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

"It is obvious that in this present economic environment our present government structure cannot be properly sustained," Bartlett said at an afternoon news conference.

"Nor can it provide the level of municipal services that the citizens expect and should receive. We must think about doing things in a different way."

The city can't control outside influences, such as the recession, but it can control what's going on internally, Bartlett said.

The review, which will begin this month, will include all 20 city departments under the mayor's responsibility.

It will not involve the airports, which are operated in conjunction with the Tulsa Airport Authority, Gilcrease Museum, which is managed through the University of Tulsa, or the City Council.

The objectives are to assess the city's services to identify strategic opportunities to reduce costs, enhance revenues, consolidate administrative functions and identify services that do not meet budget priorities, Bartlett said.

There is a PDF of the audit scope on the Tulsa World's website.  Tulsa is lucky to have such generous citizens.

[Townsend]

It's wonderful we have such generous donors to provide the audit.

Will it be implemented once the findings are presented?

[Breadburner]

Funny how this very thing was proposed on this board a few days ago....I'm all for it......

[Conan71]

How long until we hear: "Kaiser is just trying to buy Tulsa city gov't" or "Kaiser is trying to cover up the stadium scandal"

3....2.....1.....

I think this is a great gift. Thank you Mr. Kaiser

[swake]

Funny how this very thing was proposed on this board a few days ago....I'm all for it......

Does Kaiser read TulsaNow? Does he POST here?

[Hoss]

How long until we hear: "Kaiser is just trying to buy Tulsa city gov't" or "Kaiser is trying to cover up the stadium scandal"

3....2.....1.....

I think this is a great gift. Thank you Mr. Kaiser

Maybe if FB were still around.  I guess he takes his frustration out on the Whirled comment sections now.

[shadows]

Same old hen house
Same old fox at the door
Same people calling the shots
Same people that are picking the pockets of the citizens
Same people that are giving a small amount back
Same hidden addenda on out come
Same room where study will gather dust.
Same owner of the city government
The citizens should be most grateful to be able to sit back and
enjoy every decision made of for them
The study of PW transparency review should be noted as to the
outcome of the study.
Shame the city's $100,000 dollars + employees cannot see the
inequities existing.
Solution: find something we can add another tax on.

[swake]

Same old hen house
Same old fox at the door
Same people calling the shots
Same people that are picking the pockets of the citizens
Same people that are giving a small amount back
Same hidden addenda on out come
Same room where study will gather dust.
Same owner of the city government
The citizens should be most grateful to be able to sit back and
enjoy every decision made of for them
The study of PW transparency review should be noted as to the
outcome of the study.
Shame the city's $100,000 dollars + employees cannot see the
inequities existing.
Solution: find something we can add another tax on.

There you go little buddy, we knew you had it in you.

[sgrizzle]

Does Kaiser read TulsaNow? Does he POST here?

Kaiser is Shadows


Just kidding.


They've been putting this together for awhile. Note that the last major city they did this for, they combined city/county resources based on the audit findings.

Just be ready to here departments heads crying and claiming conspiracies more than anyone. The city has resisted even basic audits by the city's own auditors, this is going to be WAY more intense than anything Phil Wood offered up.

[waterboy]

I'm glad to see it happen. And for someone else to pay for it. It does concern me that people don't seem to realize that government is an employer in the marketplace as well. One of our largest.

If you make drastic cuts in government operations in an effort to make it more efficient, you are in effect adding to the downward spiral of a bad economy by increasing unemployment. That has a negative effect on purchasing, real estate values etc. That's where we get the money to run government. Tax revenues are then decreased, perhaps more than any efficiency savings. 

The net value then of your efforts may in fact be counter productive. I don't think that should stop efforts to streamline government. I only question the timing. You trim your bushes during the growing season or very near the end of summer. Not in the winter.

[Breadburner]

I'm glad to see it happen. And for someone else to pay for it. It does concern me that people don't seem to realize that government is an employer in the marketplace as well. One of our largest.

If you make drastic cuts in government operations in an effort to make it more efficient, you are in effect adding to the downward spiral of a bad economy by increasing unemployment. That has a negative effect on purchasing, real estate values etc. That's where we get the money to run government. Tax revenues are then decreased, perhaps more than any efficiency savings. 

The net value then of your efforts may in fact be counter productive. I don't think that should stop efforts to streamline government. I only question the timing. You trim your bushes during the growing season or very near the end of summer. Not in the winter.

Lol....

[waterboy]

Do you ever think in more than two or three words or letters?

[Red Arrow]

You trim your bushes during the growing season or very near the end of summer. Not in the winter.

The ice storm a few weeks ago trimmed some of my vegetation.   Fortunately, no where near as much as 2007.

[patric]

I will predict an assessment will show that we need to re-consider the arrangement where the city buys up AEP's excess overnight generating capacity (in the form of arbitrary streetlighting), which is in the millions of dollars.

I will also predict they recommend AEP begin aggressively encouraging the future use of overnight plug-in cars to compensate for the reduced load of streetlights, as streetlights become more energy efficient.
Once AEP stops looking at city street lighting as a major off-peak subsidy, we can finally get around to having streetlighting that is actually better designed for the purpose of lighting streets.

I know Kaiser has donated a lot of streetlights, but sofar what they have donated has ended up costing us more in energy costs to maintain, which in the long run hurts us.  The gift that keeps on taking.

[sgrizzle]

I will predict an assessment will show that we need to re-consider the arrangement where the city buys up AEP's excess overnight generating capacity (in the form of arbitrary streetlighting), which is in the millions of dollars.

I will also predict they recommend AEP begin aggressively encouraging the future use of overnight plug-in cars to compensate for the reduced load of streetlights, as streetlights become more energy efficient.
Once AEP stops looking at city street lighting as a major off-peak subsidy, we can finally get around to having streetlighting that is actually better designed for the purpose of lighting streets.

I know Kaiser has donated a lot of streetlights, but sofar what they have donated has ended up costing us more in energy costs to maintain, which in the long run hurts us.  The gift that keeps on taking.

Anyone know if the city is on variable-rate pricing? If so, overnight utility costs are much lower.