Tulsa Has A City Manager

[Conan71]

How long before the Council smacks down Mayor Simonson Bartlet (sic) on this?


Emory Bryan, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Mayor Dewey Bartlett hired a City Manager Wednesday to work within his office, starting with the new budget year.

Bartlett named Jim Twombly to the position. Twombly, who is currently Bartlett's Director of Administration, will serve in the position as an "at-will" employee of the Mayor's office, but Bartlett said he would later consider making the position part of the civil service system.

See the new City of Tulsa Organizational Chart

It 's the first time a professional City Manager has had a hand in Tulsa's daily government operations.

"We don't need to change the City Charter to have a city manager" said Bartlett, who added he was opposed to changing the form of government to install a manager. He said taxpayers did not need to incur the cost of an election to make the change.

Read the news release from the City of Tulsa

Twombly previously served as the City Manager in Broken Arrow from 2004 until 2009.

http://www.newson6.com/story/14526399/tulsa-mayor-hires-city-manager

[Breadburner]

Gonna be fun watching all the current c.c. members get the boot.....

[Gaspar]

Twombly is sharp.  He's a non-politician type too. 

[pmcalk]

Wasn't Twombly fired as City Manager from BA?  Does anyone know the inside scope on that?  While I like that we have a manager, the fact that he was fired from a city 1/3 the size of Tulsa certainly gives me pause.

[sgrizzle]

Wasn't Twombly fired as City Manager from BA?  Does anyone know the inside scope on that?  While I like that we have a manager, the fact that he was fired from a city 1/3 the size of Tulsa certainly gives me pause.

He was bought out of his contract a week before it expired. Coin flip on whether he was fired or they were giving him some sort of bonus. Keep in mind this is also while there were stories about buddy-deal contracts and record storage warehouses being torched.

Either way, he has been basically acting as the city manager anyway.

[RecycleMichael]

Twombly is sharp.  He's a non-politician type too. 

+1

[Breadburner]

He was bought out of his contract a week before it expired. Coin flip on whether he was fired or they were giving him some sort of bonus. Keep in mind this is also while there were stories about buddy-deal contracts and record storage warehouses being torched.

Either way, he has been basically acting as the city manager anyway.

That had to do with BA schools......

[heironymouspasparagus]

He probably was not catering to the more recent people in charge in BA that are part of the whole "give $20,000" to a new bar and grill on Main.  When there is a new museum that is essentially empty and a farmers market that is very nice, but extremely elitist.  And zoning - geez, what a mess.  (QT at 61st and Aspen is probably the best idea in a long time, but they probably won't let that go through!!)

And got cross-wise with Rhema and First Baptist.

[Conan71]

Wasn't Twombly fired as City Manager from BA?  Does anyone know the inside scope on that?  While I like that we have a manager, the fact that he was fired from a city 1/3 the size of Tulsa certainly gives me pause.

From a link through the original story I posted:

"BROKEN ARROW, OK -- The City of Broken Arrow makes plans to part ways with City Manager Jim Twombly.

The city council will vote on Monday on a separation agreement.

Broken Arrow's mayor says Twombly did a great job, but the city is looking for a fresh direction.  Twombly has been city manager since 2004.

Broken Arrow says it could take the rest of the year to hire his replacement."


Here's a couple of mistakes I see the Mayor has made on this:

First he didn't bother to let the council in on what he was doing.  He says by the charter, he could already create this position.

This ambush does nothing but continue the adversarial relationship between the council and mayor's office.  At the very least I would have thought something like this could have been used as an attempt at a collaborative effort. 

Didn't the mayor hire a communications director for $70K or so last year?  According to an update on the story (same link from my OP), the city manager will improve communications with the council so the mayor and his chief of staff can concentrate on bigger issues.

"Bartlett says having a city manager will allow him to focus on larger issues instead of what he called the minutiae of city government."I feel that now is a good time to designate a person who is in charge of a lot of stuff, and gives others of us a chance to get involved with a higher level group of issues like economic development and river development, things such as that," he said.

Under the reorganization plan, the Mayor still has direct responsibility for Police, Fire and Economic Development.

The new city Manager will direct most other departments, including public works. The City Manager will report directly to the mayor.

One of Twombly's new jobs will be handling the flow of information to the City Council."Some of those responsibilities will be in the interactions with the council and keeping the council informed of what's going on operationally with the City," Twombly said. "I think we can make some inroads there too."

Twombly's job there, according to Bartlett, is to improve communication, not create a buffer with the council.

"I'm not ducking that responsibility," Bartlett said. "But I think they will have a more consistent person who represents the Mayor now, with Jim Twombly. Certainly if I need to be involved, I will be."

Either Bartlet (sic) is one of the most incompetent leaders ever or just stubbornly arrogant.  Maybe a little of both.  I can't possibly see him getting re-elected.  I fully understand a great leader delegates the various tasks at hand.  However, in his case, he's abdicated all responsibility to a bunch of Tulsa County GOP re-treads who either have term-limited out, failed to win re-election, or were terminated in other areas of government. 

I have a funny feeling he spends more time counting the money rolling in down at Keener than he spends on city business.

[heironymouspasparagus]

He is supremely incompetent for this job.  He may have some small glimmer of enlightenment of just how deep over his head he is and hired Twombly to do the job for him.

Or just be so lazy he couldn't be bothered to do the job any more.  (This one is my guess.)

[Conan71]

He is supremely incompetent for this job.  He may have some small glimmer of enlightenment of just how deep over his head he is and hired Twombly to do the job for him.

Or just be so lazy he couldn't be bothered to do the job any more.  (This one is my guess.)

Yeah, but Twombly has been in the administration for at least a year, as I recall.  Maybe longer.  All they did was slap a new title on them so the Mayor Simonson's sock puppet can say he converted Tulsa to a City Manager type government.

If we refuse to vote out every single sitting incumbent on the council and city hall in their next election, we deserve what we get.  Time to clean house and start over. 

[Hoss]

Yeah, but Twombly has been in the administration for at least a year, as I recall.  Maybe longer.  All they did was slap a new title on them so the Mayor Simonson's sock puppet can say he converted Tulsa to a City Manager type government.

If we refuse to vote out every single sitting incumbent on the council and city hall in their next election, we deserve what we get.  Time to clean house and start over. 

I still say, no matter what Mayor Droopy says, that we do need to look at changing our form of government.  Strong-Mayor is not working, and has been broken..in my opinion...for some time.   Not just the current administration, either.  It's just the antics of both the council and the Mayor have brought it more to the fore.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Conan,
EXACTLY!!!!

Vote out every incumbent.  Every time.  At every level.

Luckily, Tulsa administration can't do really bad things to us like state and federal can.  Even so, it can be a king size pain in the backside-orifice.


I remember when we voted in the strong mayor form a long time ago.  It was stupid then, and stupid now.  But hey, that's what we want. 

[nathanm]

Strong-Mayor is not working, and has been broken..in my opinion...for some time.

Government has a strong tendency to not work when it's run by people who truly believe that government cannot work. Go figure.

[TeeDub]

 (QT at 61st and Aspen is probably the best idea in a long time, but they probably won't let that go through!!)

There is a QT already at 58th and Aspen.   Where are they proposing it move to?