Sunday, March 20, 2011

Tulsa Bickering Prompts Citizen Backlash

The long-running battle between Mayor Dewey Bartlett and the Tulsa City Council continues unabated amid increasing signs that Tulsans are fed up.

Today's Tulsa World, for instance, includes two letters to the editor that slam the political hijinks being played out at City Hall.

Tulsa Lenice Stanford says it plainly: "I am tired of the bickering and wasting taxpayers' money for a 'fault-finding' venture that is sheer pettiness on steroids."

Another writer, L. D. Coats, names names: Councilors Jack Henderson, Roscoe Turner, Rick Westcott and John Eagleton. "Let's face it," Coats continues, "after 20 years the council has become addicted to its own power and wants more."

Coats also delivers a warning: "We can vote these pompous publicity hounds and political wannabes out of office this November."

We have no idea what Tulsa voters are likely to do in November, but we're quite sure we wouldn't want to face the voters with such a decidedly checkered record. 

There's plenty of blame to go around, of course, and this includes Mayor Bartlett and his staff. Meanwhile, Tulsa voters face the prospect of more bickering, none of it good for the city.

1 comment:

TedTheCat said...

This is the first comment on local politics by AT that I remember. Perhaps AT might give the issues in Tulsa government a second thought.

Dewey Bartlett lied to the citizens about the JAG grant. He lied to our face to manipulate the government and the citizens on the most important issue of the day.

A government that manipulates its citizens by deliberately lieing to them is unacceptable. A community which prides itself on being reality based should reject lies by the government whether they come at the national or local level.

Bartlett lied in an effort to break the police union and his lies caused the City to waste over $200,000.

Please read the interview with Bartlett about this in the Laflin Report at pages 10-11. Please, you owe it to yourself.

http://www.tulsacouncil.org/media/85275/un-redacted.pdf