Blue ribbon jeer
This week's column is about the demise of the late, unlamented petition pushing for at-large members of the Tulsa City Council, and Bill LaFortune's new "Citizens' Commission," which appears to be intended to push the same agenda by other means.
Elsewhere in the current Urban Tulsa Weekly:
Have you wondered about the huge clouds of birds that swirl around and roost at sunset this time of year? The birds that are incredibly noisy and seem to love Bradford ornamental pear trees? Emily Berman has the scoop.
G. W. Schulz has a story about city employee unionization, with extensive quotes from City Councilors Martinson, Mautino, and Medlock on their reasons for their votes on the issue (Mautino voted yes, Medlock and Martinson voted no), from national and local representatives of AFSCME, the public sector employee union, and from one of the other Michael Bateses in town, Michael S. Bates, the city human resources director.
Apparently, I've been "allowed to hijack" the UTW op/ed page, or so says a letter writer named Joe Gaudet. Sir, if I could hijack an op/ed page, I'd have it fly me some place warm.
Links updated, October 28, 2017. Also, that letters page has a sharp note from Brandon Dutcher, who points out that "liberals often use the fig leaves of political activism to assuage their guilty consciences," citing Bill Clinton, Betty Friedan, Teddy Kennedy,
and, the most recent example, Brad Henry funding treatment for compulsive gamblers whom he enabled with his support for the lottery and Indian casinos.
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So far, no women have been named to the panel. Neither has anyone involved with Tulsans Defending Democracy.
yesterday i heard that someone was reading the list of names in the tulsa world, and saw that there were a couple of women on the list.
is the list available, publicly, anywhere?
As of when I filed the story, this press release was the only official list of members, and there were no female members. I have since heard that there's a new list, and that it includes some women, but that new list is not yet available in the collection of press releases on the City of Tulsa website.
I still haven't heard of anyone associated with Tulsans Defending Democracy being named to the commission, while two members of Tulsans for Better Government (the group backing the at-large council idea) have been.
Oddly, the press release I linked above is now listed as having been issued on December 13, but it seems to be unchanged from the previous week.