TCRC 2005: The Mayor defends himself
The highlight of the morning session was a 35 minute speech by Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune. It was a defense of his record as a reformer and a strong mayor. The recurring catchphrase was, "You should know the facts." Throughout LaFortune referred to himself in the third person as "your mayor." You can download audio of the whole speech from this page.
I'm sure we'll be going over the speech in detail on KFAQ Monday morning. The Mayor defended his trip to Israel, defended his record of action to clean up the airport, defended his appointments to boards dealing with land use (planning commission and Board of Adjustment), reaffirmed his opposition to recall, spoke about positive economic developments, talked up his reactivation of the Economic Development Commission, talked about plans for the river, and laid out the stats showing that Tulsa is on track to be at the ideal number of police officers in a year.
The Mayor said that recall gives the city a black eye, and went on to say that recall "will deter and halt progress worse than any statement or any vote by any city councilor." Someone told me that as he spoke those words, Councilor Susan Neal nodded her head in agreement. I will look forward to Councilor Neal's vote to put off the recall vote on Tuesday, and I will look forward to her public statement in opposition to recall. Councilor Neal stuck around long enough to be introduced with the other elected officials just before lunch, then she skedaddled. I'll give her credit -- Councilors Bill Christiansen and Randy Sullivan didn't even bother showing up.
The Mayor also announced that he will be appointing Mike Bernard, a Vice President of Oral Roberts University, to replace Joe Westervelt on the TMAPC. The Mayor said that Bernard was over the management of ORU's CityPlex Towers (the old City of Faith), which means that we have yet another planning commissioner who is professionally involved in real estate. Where's the balance?
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I am of the opinion that you can measure the credibility of a person by comparing what he says to what he does. It’s really easy, most of the time, and it usually doesn’t take very long to make the comparison.
If the Mayor was intent on reforming and growing our city, then why was there a dilution the decision making balance of the duly elected City Council through the appointment of Mr. Roop? The council is very close to becoming, once again, a rubber stamp for the old money in this town. As for the ORU appointment, besides the obvious property development implications, could it also be an attempt to again dilute any possible discontent from a potentially large constituency base? I can’t remember a time when anyone at City Government has engaged any person at ORU. I also know ORU students and alumni are very loyal to each other (as they should be, nothing wrong with that). I could be easily persuaded otherwise on this point, but it all smells very “maintain status quo” to me. If you’ve never smelled status quo in Tulsa, go down and stand on the banks of the Arkansas River in August. All that said, I might also add that the Mayor appears to have a brilliant sense of timing.
To indicate anything from the mayor has a "brilliant sense of timing" is giving him much more credit than he deserves! I am sure the timing is part of strategy that comes from the mayor's "team of comrades", who are striving to maintain the status quo. Seems like the atmosphere at the Tulsa County Republican Convention held last Saturday should show everyone that we are NOT PLEASED WITH THE MAYOR and his comrades!! Maybe they should all go on a skiing trip next time, with Sullivan...
How many times do we citizens have to say "Mr. Mayor, don't waste your time in running for office again!!"
[qoute]The Mayor also announced that he will be appointing Mike Bernard, a Vice President of Oral Roberts University, to replace Joe Westervelt on the TMAPC. The Mayor said that Bernard was over the management of ORU's CityPlex Towers (the old City of Faith)[qoute/]
ORU must be looking to expand on their own terms. Building permits? We don't need no stinking building permits!