The airport investigation: unanswered questions
A number of readers have contacted me over the last few days with questions about the City Council's investigation of the Tulsa Airport Authority (TAA) and the Tulsa Airport Improvements Trust (TAIT). These are questions that should have been answered a long time ago, but for some reason the Council's investigator, Wilson Busby, failed to produce answers for the committee. Key documents that ought to exist haven't yet surfaced. Even if there were no concerns about Busby's connections with pro-recall political consultant Jim Burdge and Councilor (and alleged beneficiary of allegedly discriminatory decisions by the TAA) Bill Christiansen, there would still be a question of his competence, given the lack of tangible progress.
Here are some of the questions that need answering and soon:
- Where is the shareholders' agreement for Great Plains Airlines? The shareholders' agreement would define the distinction between preferred and common stock, and it would establish which shareholders would have had the most to gain if the scheme had succeeded. That should have been included in the Phase I report back in November. Why wasn't it?
- Where is the complete accounting of the $30 million in taxpayers' money that subsidized Great Plains?
- Information from the Department of Transportation Inspector General's investigation of TAA and TAIT was provided to the Mayor and the Tulsa Police Department. There were indications that fraud may have occurred. Why have there been no prosecutions for fraud?
- At one point, when the Council was considering its own investigation, Mayor Bill LaFortune spoke of having his own ongoing investigation of the airports. Who did this investigation? What was discovered? How much did this investigation cost?
- Why didn't the City collect on TAA attorney J. Richard Studenny's "errors and omissions" insurance when his error on a contract cost the City over $300,000?
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3 & 4 did fall of the radar... Good questions.
Maybe someone can ask the Mayor Saturday morning.