Mayor 2013: Negative ad campaigns

[Townsend]

  The harmonica quip makes me wonder if this is a big joke or not.

Campaigns do that for me.

[sgrizzle]

Great, now the pro-harmonica lobby is going to come out in force.

[patric]

Apparently it won't be enough for her to defeat him. She wants to humiliate him.
Maybe she's privy to some shenanigans he is doing or sees polls that scare her. Whatever, it looks like an attempt to spend campaign dollars.

And if you "forget" to donate now, you can always make a ring-kissing donation once she is back on the throne.

Here's a blast from the past, courtesy TulsaNow:

The people who donated did so because it got them a seat at the profitable table of stadium district development. They paid for control. And they're still getting that control, albeit less than they originally hoped for.  It's quite possible that this is the only reason Mayor Taylor was able to make $30 million appear out of thin air.

And you ask, why not? Why shouldn't they control it?

Because of what happened to Will Wilkins and Novus. This set of control freaks intends to push out the little guy. They've made clear there is no room for the kind of entrepreneur who has been the ONLY ONE keeping Tulsa's core alive. These "philanthropists" are crashing the downtown party and taking it over.  At least we'll have a nice ballpark.

Here is the equivalent for those of you who aren't grasping Wrinkle's point. Remember Global Development Partners, who wanted to build a similar development in the East End using the Nordam site? What if they had come to the city saying, "Hello city. We're going to create this beautiful development and control how it looks, but all the other property owners in downtown have to pay half."  We might think about their offer--we might even make it happen--but at least we'd see it for what it was, which would be a subsidized business arrangement.

Now granted, in this case it won't be the Trust itself that profits. But the builders and developers they choose to create this Stadium District surely will. And we are handing control over to this Trust, thereby reducing accountability for the use of public funds.  In this project, to donate is to gain control.  To gain control is to gain benefit. Pay to play. Quid pro quo.

I want a stadium downtown as much as anyone and made more noise about it on this forum than anyone. But that's not blinding me to the flawed manner in which Mayor Taylor and the donors have decided to make it happen.
http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=11300.msg101791#msg101791

[swake]

And if you "forget" to donate now, you can always make a ring-kissing donation once she is back on the throne.

Here's a blast from the past, courtesy TulsaNow:

The people who donated did so because it got them a seat at the profitable table of stadium district development. They paid for control. And they're still getting that control, albeit less than they originally hoped for.  It's quite possible that this is the only reason Mayor Taylor was able to make $30 million appear out of thin air.

And you ask, why not? Why shouldn't they control it?

Because of what happened to Will Wilkins and Novus. This set of control freaks intends to push out the little guy. They've made clear there is no room for the kind of entrepreneur who has been the ONLY ONE keeping Tulsa's core alive. These "philanthropists" are crashing the downtown party and taking it over.  At least we'll have a nice ballpark.

Here is the equivalent for those of you who aren't grasping Wrinkle's point. Remember Global Development Partners, who wanted to build a similar development in the East End using the Nordam site? What if they had come to the city saying, "Hello city. We're going to create this beautiful development and control how it looks, but all the other property owners in downtown have to pay half."  We might think about their offer--we might even make it happen--but at least we'd see it for what it was, which would be a subsidized business arrangement.

Now granted, in this case it won't be the Trust itself that profits. But the builders and developers they choose to create this Stadium District surely will. And we are handing control over to this Trust, thereby reducing accountability for the use of public funds.  In this project, to donate is to gain control.  To gain control is to gain benefit. Pay to play. Quid pro quo.

I want a stadium downtown as much as anyone and made more noise about it on this forum than anyone. But that's not blinding me to the flawed manner in which Mayor Taylor and the donors have decided to make it happen.
http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=11300.msg101791#msg101791

By now hasn't this been proven to be wrong? The donations went to things like the art centers and park. The ballpark is a big success and only now is the surrounding property being sold off and Wilkins himself was a winning bidder.

[Gaspar]

Beware the remoras.   

One thing you can say about Dewey is that he doesn't drop enough scraps to be attractive to most of them.

[RecycleMichael]

Interesting take on the race from conservative Dan Keating...

http://tulsabeacon.com/nonpartisan-means-nonpartisan/

Tulsa voters approved changing municipal elections from partisan to nonpartisan. Unfortunately, Mayor Dewey Bartlett is doing his best to convince voters that next month's election is still a Democrat and Republican affair. He needs Republicans to vote for the label and not spend their time reviewing his record.  The mayor has made little effort in cultivating former Councilor Bill Christiansen supporters, who are pivotal to winning re-election.

Former Mayor Kathy Taylor may have said it best with "two-thirds of Tulsans voted to elect a new mayor. Between Councilor Christiansen and myself, two-thirds of Tulsans said we're not satisfied with what's happening today."

Well, what is happening today?  From my office window overlooking Boulder Avenue, the traffic is very light coming and going downtown. Some days, a car passes every five minutes or so. There are also no construction cranes in the air.  This all makes sense with practically no economic development taking place.  Even the coming $919 million capital improvement tax package doesn't include one dime for putting permanent water in the Arkansas River.

Wouldn't that be a game changer for Tulsa, a real economic uplift?  Yet, our "business gettingness" mayor lets the river slip by as he tries to take credit for the 7,000 jobs added in the metropolitan boundary over the last four years.  That makes it 146 jobs per month.  This column reported the state of Utah gaining 18,000 California jobs in just one month.  Why? Because they worked on it and called in California.  As the Utah governor's office reported they had "boots on the ground."

Mayor Bartlett must have been tending to his oil business.  He certainly wasn't attending the board meetings of statutory authorities of which he is a member. You may recall the audit of EMSA done by State Auditor Gary Jones.  The audit was critical of EMSA's management and the board for its oversight.  As reported by Fox23 News, "Some examples of extravagant spending included more than $30,000 spent on flower arrangements over a three-year period for office beautification and consolation gifts.  Noteworthy spending also included reimbursement for the longtime CEO Stephen Williamson including a $400 trip to a spa, $450 for an American Airlines Admirals Club membership, a $669 hotel bill not including the room charge, but composed of charges such as room service, a mini bar and data service, a $1,105 dinner with seven board and staff members; and two lifetime subscriptions to Satellite Radio Services for $800.  The audit report says Williamson's reimbursements comprised 50 percent of all reimbursements for EMSA employees:  more than $316,000. No wonder the full-figured Mr. Williamson is hinting at the need for another rate hike.

Another out of control authority that Mayor Bartlett sits on is Tulsa's TARE Board.  Tare is short for Tulsa Authority for the Recovery of Energy.  TARE as you may recall had worked itself out of a job, but since no bureaucracy ever lets itself simply vanish, the authority reworked Tulsa's trash collection system, borrowed millions of dollars and charged ahead.  Competent trash haulers were fired and new pricing policies implemented.  Most service billings doubled.  Green waste required special tags and clear trash bags.

But, it was worth it.  Right?  Wrong.

The green waste recovery equipment never worked.  So for a year, Mayor Bartlett's people postured, burned all the trash together and kept the money. The mayor's excuse was that he missed most of those board meetings. Do Tulsans really want a mayor who can't even pick up the trash?  A real absentee mayor with practically no vision for the future or plan for today?

When Mayor Bartlett looks west towards the river, he squints.  He doesn't see endless possibilities only an empty gash in the land.  We've given the mayor every opportunity to produce.  He doesn't own the job.  It's time for Dewey to return to Keener Oil.

[Hoss]

Interesting take on the race from conservative Dan Keating...

http://tulsabeacon.com/nonpartisan-means-nonpartisan/

Tulsa voters approved changing municipal elections from partisan to nonpartisan. Unfortunately, Mayor Dewey Bartlett is doing his best to convince voters that next month's election is still a Democrat and Republican affair. He needs Republicans to vote for the label and not spend their time reviewing his record.  The mayor has made little effort in cultivating former Councilor Bill Christiansen supporters, who are pivotal to winning re-election.

Former Mayor Kathy Taylor may have said it best with "two-thirds of Tulsans voted to elect a new mayor. Between Councilor Christiansen and myself, two-thirds of Tulsans said we're not satisfied with what's happening today."

Well, what is happening today?  From my office window overlooking Boulder Avenue, the traffic is very light coming and going downtown. Some days, a car passes every five minutes or so. There are also no construction cranes in the air.  This all makes sense with practically no economic development taking place.  Even the coming $919 million capital improvement tax package doesn't include one dime for putting permanent water in the Arkansas River.

Wouldn't that be a game changer for Tulsa, a real economic uplift?  Yet, our "business gettingness" mayor lets the river slip by as he tries to take credit for the 7,000 jobs added in the metropolitan boundary over the last four years.  That makes it 146 jobs per month.  This column reported the state of Utah gaining 18,000 California jobs in just one month.  Why? Because they worked on it and called in California.  As the Utah governor's office reported they had "boots on the ground."

Mayor Bartlett must have been tending to his oil business.  He certainly wasn't attending the board meetings of statutory authorities of which he is a member. You may recall the audit of EMSA done by State Auditor Gary Jones.  The audit was critical of EMSA's management and the board for its oversight.  As reported by Fox23 News, "Some examples of extravagant spending included more than $30,000 spent on flower arrangements over a three-year period for office beautification and consolation gifts.  Noteworthy spending also included reimbursement for the longtime CEO Stephen Williamson including a $400 trip to a spa, $450 for an American Airlines Admirals Club membership, a $669 hotel bill not including the room charge, but composed of charges such as room service, a mini bar and data service, a $1,105 dinner with seven board and staff members; and two lifetime subscriptions to Satellite Radio Services for $800.  The audit report says Williamson's reimbursements comprised 50 percent of all reimbursements for EMSA employees:  more than $316,000. No wonder the full-figured Mr. Williamson is hinting at the need for another rate hike.

Another out of control authority that Mayor Bartlett sits on is Tulsa's TARE Board.  Tare is short for Tulsa Authority for the Recovery of Energy.  TARE as you may recall had worked itself out of a job, but since no bureaucracy ever lets itself simply vanish, the authority reworked Tulsa's trash collection system, borrowed millions of dollars and charged ahead.  Competent trash haulers were fired and new pricing policies implemented.  Most service billings doubled.  Green waste required special tags and clear trash bags.

But, it was worth it.  Right?  Wrong.

The green waste recovery equipment never worked.  So for a year, Mayor Bartlett's people postured, burned all the trash together and kept the money. The mayor's excuse was that he missed most of those board meetings. Do Tulsans really want a mayor who can't even pick up the trash?  A real absentee mayor with practically no vision for the future or plan for today?

When Mayor Bartlett looks west towards the river, he squints.  He doesn't see endless possibilities only an empty gash in the land.  We've given the mayor every opportunity to produce.  He doesn't own the job.  It's time for Dewey to return to Keener Oil.

Most service billings doubled?  Wow, does this guy even do any research outside of asking his friends?

My bill went up about 90 cents.  My city bill has gone up two dollars or so, but the balance of that was water/sewer related, not refuse.

[RecycleMichael]

Most service billings doubled?  Wow, does this guy even do any research outside of asking his friends?

My bill went up about 90 cents.  My city bill has gone up two dollars or so, but the balance of that was water/sewer related, not refuse.

I agree with you. My bill went up eight cents.

But many people do the math different. If you charge one price for trash collection twice a week and then you charge about the same for once a week collection, you have doubled the price.

[swake]

Let's not forget Terry Simonson, and Dewey's wife. Or the stupid, and I can't stress this enough, stupid Airport tax vote.

And what ever happened to that KPMG audit, or Planit Tulsa?

Dewey Sucks.

[Hoss]

I agree with you. My bill went up eight cents.

But many people do the math different. If you charge one price for trash collection twice a week and then you charge about the same for once a week collection, you have doubled the price.

I actually like the once a week.  I like it that I just have to haul that trash out once a week.  Now, granted, I could have done the same with the old system, but I used smaller containers, so not likely I would have been able to do it that way.

I do like the City issuing the bins AND the recycling part of the plan.  Since it's started last October, I've seen more and more using the blue bins than I expected.  I understand people's frustration with the City's epic FAIL on the green waste system, but when you change the system as drastically as has been done here, that may be part of change process.  What I was really upset about though was the lack of transparency when it became apparent that the process to remove the bags for the green waste wouldn't work.

[sgrizzle]

How is it that people are not bringing up when the city council had to consider whether to bring up criminal charges against Dewey, the probe, and such gems as "do you smell something burning?" and "I gotta take a leak"

http://www.tulsacouncil.org/news/news-stories/2010/investigation_documents.aspx

[Gaspar]

How is it that people are not bringing up when the city council had to consider whether to bring up criminal charges against Dewey, the probe, and such gems as "do you smell something burning?" and "I gotta take a leak"

http://www.tulsacouncil.org/news/news-stories/2010/investigation_documents.aspx

[AquaMan]

I like Keatings frank, honest assessment of a lack of vision and oversight by this mayor. One could say, that was what the public seemed to want after a more activist Taylor stressed them with vision and action. I remember people saying we just want someone to run the city like a business and little drama. Well, we got that. But it was run like Office Depot, not Costco.

I really like that he pinpoints one of our key obstacles to progress here...authorities with little oversight, poor performance and huge authority. EMSA and TARE are prime examples.

[davideinstein]

I feel like there were more issues under Taylor, but in theory...I like her ideas more. Bartlett just seems like a safer bet.

[davideinstein]

PS - I'm an undecided voter.