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At-large barge runs aground; Murphy's sweet deal

The final report from Tulsa's Citizens' Commission on City Government is the topic of this week's column in Urban Tulsa Weekly. The commission, appointed by then-Mayor Bill LaFortune last December, finished on schedule, made some constructive recommendations, including a recommendation against adding at-large seats to the City Council.

You can find the full text of the Citizens' Commission on City Government report on the Tulsans Defending Democracy website.

Also in this week's UTW, Ginger Shepherd covers the new Tulsa Public Schools superintendent, downtown revitalization in Muskogee, the recently passed City of Tulsa budget, and the sweet no-bid contract Murphy Bros. got to continue to run the Tulsa State Fair midway.

The story quotes Jerry Murphy, owner of Murphy Bros.:

Murphy added, “why would you fire someone that is doing a good job?” and been doing it for a long time?

In fact, the midway has been a disappointment for a long time, and Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority (TCPFA -- the fair board) members owed it to the public to see if another operator couldn't bring better, more reliable rides for better prices, but instead they continued the Tulsa County practice of awarding contracts to insiders without competition. Jerry Murphy's wife, Loretta Murphy, contributed $5,000 to the mayoral campaign of County Commissioner Randi Miller, who is also a member of the TCPFA and voted to approve the contract with Murphy Bros.

Comments (1)

Jeff Shaw Author Profile Page:

The Fair rides are awful. My family had a safety incident last year, which I may have mentioned before. The fair midway needs to be updated. This type of thing is exactly why Tulsa does not excel as a city. People are satisfied with status quo. In fact, I believe our motto should be
Tulsa: sTatUs quo LiveS lArge.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on June 22, 2006 10:20 PM.

The previous post in this blog was I'm not that kind of Presbyterian.

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