Opinion/Editorial

The Featherbrained and the Feckless (Printable Version , E-mail to a Friend )
If so-called candidates profess they don’t like controversy, what they heck do they expect from public office?
by Michael D. Bates

My wife and I received a form letter the other day from John “Jack” Wing, candidate for City Council District 4. The letter asked for our support in the upcoming Democratic primary, even though both of us have always been registered Republicans.
That was amusing. What was annoying was how he launched his appeal for our votes:
“I have had it with the bickering at City Hall. 
“If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny. Here we are on the brink of moving Tulsa forward, we have passed Vision 2025, and yet a small number of people keep trying to hold the city back, leaving meetings, forcing recall elections, doing anything they can just to be divisive.”
It was a pitch-perfect recitation of the daily paper’s party line on the current City Council. It’s an indication that he hasn’t been paying attention to what’s going on at City Hall and doesn’t understand the important issues that have led to vigorous debates among the Councilors and between the Council and the Mayor’s office.
Either that, or he’s complicit in the effort of the city’s establishment to paint the Council’s racially diverse, bipartisan reform coalition--Henderson, Mautino, Medlock, and Turner--as nattering nabobs of negativism.
That so many City Council candidates are reciting the same chapter and verse is an indication of the inability of our core electorate to think for itself and outside the monopoly box-grip the daily still has, despite sliding circulation, to shape the public debate.
Let’s take Wing’s complaint point-by-point.
Bickering? That noise you’ve been hearing is from the tantrums thrown by special interests because they aren’t getting their way as they always have in the past. Politely worded and quietly spoken questions from the reformers elicited howls of torment from those who don’t appreciate public scrutiny.
Are the reformers trying to hold Tulsa back? Far from it. They are trying to keep the City of Tulsa from falling behind the suburbs, and they are trying to boost areas within the city limits that have been overlooked.
Leaving meetings? Three of the four, plus then-Councilor Sam Roop (who now works for the Mayor as CAO), stayed away from the first meeting of the term in a successful effort to thwart an attempted power grab by incoming chairman Randy Sullivan. (Turner hadn’t yet been sworn in.)
The move preserved the Council chairmanship’s traditional role of neutral facilitation.
Medlock and Mautino have walked out of other meetings only when they were required by law to recuse themselves from matters pertaining to the attempt to recall them from office.
Did they “forc[e] recall elections”? I suppose Medlock and Mautino “forced” the election by not resigning when recall was first threatened. Turner and Henderson tried to ensure that the recall would proceed only if there were sufficient valid signatures, verified in accordance with the clear language of the charter, but their efforts were overridden by Baker, Christiansen, Neal, and Sullivan, helped by a City Attorney who found a creative way to interpret the charter requirement for comparing petition signatures to voter registration signatures.
The reformers also led the effort to tighten recall requirements, so that recall would remain as a tool to deal with serious malfeasance, but not as a way to punish mere policy differences.
The fact that a charter amendment reforming the recall process is going to the voters at all is evidence against Wing’s assertion that the Council’s reform alliance has been “doing anything they can just to be divisive.”
With only four of nine votes, and those four divided between those who wanted to mend recall and those who wanted to end it, they had to put together a compromise, and they did. The resulting proposal was sent to the voters with the support of seven of the nine councilors.
Time and again, Council reformers brought an issue forward and found a compromise that could get majority support and the Mayor’s signature: funding a City of Tulsa-specific economic development plan, passing a City ethics ordinance (something the City Auditor had been seeking for 15 years), removing conflicts of interest from the Economic Development Commission, restoration of the zoning protest provision, a moratorium on the use of eminent domain for private economic development.
Then there’s Wing’s implication that these councilors pose a threat to Vision 2025. In fact, they’ve sought to make sure that the projects under the City of Tulsa’s aegis can be completed as promised for the maximum positive impact.
Although Medlock had concerns about oversight and accountability from the beginning, he kept mum before the Vision 2025 vote to avoid damaging the projects’ prospects at the polls.
A candidate who campaigns on “ending the bickering” or professes embarrassment at the City Council’s “antics” is either clueless or pandering.
If someone clueless is elected, he may yet have his eyes opened and turn out to be a decent councilor. But I’d rather see a Council made up of Tulsans who have been engaged in city issues, and who have demonstrated the backbone to stand up to the fierce blasts of special interests along with the willingness to compromise to get things done.
 
Who’s Best – The UTW Picks
 
That’s why I heartily endorse the renomination of the three reformers who are seeking re-election: Jack Henderson in the District 1 Democratic primary, Roscoe Turner in the District 3 Democratic primary, and Jim Mautino in the District 6 Republican primary. All three have not only looked diligently after the interests of their districts, but they’ve defended the interests of all Tulsans. They have weathered blistering criticism with grace and courage.
Rick Westcott led the campaign against recall with determination but without rancor, resisting calls to turn the weapon of recall on the Mayor and other councilors. He has gained valuable experience with city finances through his service on the Sales Tax Overview Committee and the committee that evaluates Community Development Block Grant requests. Tulsa would be much better to have Rick Westcott as District 2’s next councilor.
Maria Barnes is the most qualified choice in the District 4 Democratic primary. For more than a decade she has been a constructive contributor to the revival of the Kendall-Whittier neighborhood, has worked closely with neighborhood representatives from across the district, knows the ins and outs of the zoning code, and has a good working relationship with urban development planners and code enforcement inspectors, so important to this diverse redeveloping district.
A graduate of the Citizens Police Academy, her knowledge of the Police Department through her work on the department’s Community Relations Committee and the Oversight Committee is valuable preparation for service on the Council.
The District 4 Republican primary--the only one I can vote in--is a tough call. Rick Brinkley is a skilled communicator and knows the small business community through his work on the Better Business Bureau. But Kent Morlan has deeper roots in the district.
Morlan owns both a residence and a business in downtown and served in the City Attorney’s office. Morlan has expressed in writing his thoughts on downtown revitalization and was an early advocate for making UCAT a campus of OSU. I’m still making up my mind on this one, but by virtue of being in the arena on city issues, Morlan has the edge at this point.
In the District 5 Democratic primary, Air Force veteran Al Nichols offers years of diligent neighborhood service and an excellent working knowledge of the city’s zoning and planning process. He has a demonstrated ability to work across party lines and with citizens from throughout the city.
In the District 5 Republican primary, while I’ve been disappointed by Bill Martinson’s votes on many issues, I don’t feel I know enough about Greg Madden to endorse him. Points for responding to the survey, but Madden’s admiration of Randy Sullivan is incomprehensible.
District 7 Republicans have an easy choice on primary day. John Eagleton is possessed of a generous spirit and affable nature, but he is at the same time uncompromising on principle, a social and fiscal conservative. It’s his desire to get the most value from Tulsa’s tax dollars that has led him to run for Council. He’d be a great addition.
District 8 is overdue for a change. The turmoil over the incumbent’s business interests at Jones Riverside airport has put Tulsa’s federal airport funding in jeopardy and cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. If District 8 Republicans elect Cliff Magee, the council would retain the perspective of the aviation industry, without the baggage of potential conflicts of interest. His focus on prioritizing police protection would be welcome, too.
The District 9 Republican primary is another tough call, in the absence of a neighborhood advocate in the race. Cason Carter loses points for referring to bickering--he was probably following some bad advice--but gains more points back for his thoughtful response to the UTW questionnaire.
In the next issue, we’ll take a closer look at the Mayor’s race, but my pick in the Republican primary won’t come as any surprise. I’ve worked for each of the candidates in one campaign or another, and I’ve observed up close how they make decisions and deal with adversity.
There’s one Republican candidate who has shown perseverance in the face of personal attacks, adherence to principle, but a willingness to compromise to advance his principles incrementally.
Tulsa needs a mayor who will look after Tulsa’s interests first, who will make crimefighting his top priority, who believes that government business should be open and transparent, not transacted behind closed doors, and who is more interested in doing the right thing than making sure that everyone likes him.
Chris Medlock is the only Republican candidate who has consistently demonstrated that kind of character and commitment.
But more on this next week.