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Tulsa 2020 charter amendments

Five amendments to Tulsa's city charter -- our city's constitution -- will be on the August 25, 2020, ballot. As usual, the summaries you will see on the ballot paper only tell part of the story. For the TL;DR folks, here are my recommendations: Proposition No. 1: Yes Proposition No....

Posted by Michael Bates on August 10, 2020 11:51 PM

Illustrating Tulsa's new city election procedure

I'm hearing that minions of Mayor Bynum IV are putting the word out that voting for one of his conservative opponents in the August 25, 2020, election will help elect someone further to the Left than the left-of-center Bynum. The rumor is self-serving garbage, preying on ignorance of the confusing...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 3, 2020 9:06 PM

Tulsa special city charter election, Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Published November 9, 2017. Postdated to keep this at the top of the blog until the polls close. If you appreciate the hours of effort behind detailed analysis you can't find anywhere else, Hit the tip jar! The City of Tulsa is holding a special election this Tuesday, November 14,...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 14, 2017 6:54 PM

2017 Tulsa election: Proposition 7: Ineffective spending constraint

The seventh of the seven charter change propositions on the City of Tulsa November 14, 2017, ballot would add language to the City Charter with the intent of preventing the money from the public safety tax approved in April 2016 to be spent on any other purpose. Here are direct...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 9, 2017 9:05 AM

2017 Tulsa election: Proposition 6: City employees allowed to campaign

The sixth of the seven charter change propositions on the City of Tulsa November 14, 2017, ballot would change the rules regarding the political involvement of city employees protected under civil service and sworn public safety employees. A yes vote on Proposition No. 6 would allow civil service city employees...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 8, 2017 9:15 PM

2017 Tulsa election: Proposition 5: Mayor picks redistricting panel

The fifth of the seven charter change propositions on the City of Tulsa November 14, 2017, ballot would change the makeup and responsibilities of the Election District Commission, which redraws the City Council district lines after each Federal decennial census. A yes vote on Proposition No. 5 would expand the...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 8, 2017 8:18 PM

2017 Tulsa election: Proposition 4: Election in August

The fourth of the seven charter change propositions on the City of Tulsa November 14, 2017, ballot would once again scramble our city election process. A yes vote on Proposition No. 4 would modify three separate sections of Article VI (Election and Qualification of Officers), with the effect that the...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 7, 2017 11:54 PM

Tulsa city election process history

Here is a brief history of all the changes to the City of Tulsa Charter, Article VI, Elections. That link leads to the current text of Article VI and the text of each change, with the ballot language and election results of each. When Tulsa adopted a mayor-council form of...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 7, 2017 10:46 PM

2017 Tulsa election: Proposition 3: Emergency clause for resolutions

The third of the seven charter change propositions on the City of Tulsa November 14, 2017, ballot would permit councilors to approve resolutions with an emergency clause for immediate effect. A yes vote on Proposition No. 3 would modify Article II (City Council), Section 10 (Effective Date of Ordinances and...

Posted by Michael Bates on October 25, 2017 9:09 PM

2017 Tulsa election: Proposition 2: Electronic notice of Special Meeting

The second of the seven charter change propositions on the City of Tulsa November 14, 2017, ballot would permit City Councilors to be notified of special meetings electronically. A yes vote on Proposition No. 2 would modify Article II (City Council), Section 3.1 (Meetings). The mark-up below shows the how...

Posted by Michael Bates on October 25, 2017 8:12 PM

2017 Tulsa election: Proposition 1: Summary nuisance abatement

The first of the seven charter change propositions on the City of Tulsa November 14, 2017, ballot has to do with abatement of nuisances, specifically with repeat offenders. A yes vote on Proposition No. 1 would modify Article I (Corporate Powers), Section 3 (General Grant of Power), Paragraph O. The...

Posted by Michael Bates on October 25, 2017 7:07 PM

2017 Tulsa City Charter amendment election

Appreciate the hours of effort behind detailed analysis you can't find anywhere else? Hit the tip jar! It may come as some surprise to you that the City of Tulsa is holding a special election four weeks from today, Tuesday, November 14, 2017. There won't be any names on the...

Posted by Michael Bates on October 17, 2017 6:41 PM

Tulsa Election 2011: AGAINST all propositions

Only seven districts have Tulsa City Council races but voters in every district of the City of Tulsa can vote Tuesday, November 8, 2011, on the four charter amendment propositions on the general election ballot. On the left of the ballot (under a city council race, if you have one)...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 7, 2011 2:21 AM

Non-partisan elections: Can't tell the players

In this week's Urban Tulsa Weekly, Ray Pearcey deploys an apt analogy against the Save Our Tulsa non-partisan election proposition on Tulsa's general election ballot this Tuesday. If you are a baseball fan you've had time to recover from late night World Series games, so I want you to imagine...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 6, 2011 7:17 PM

Tulsa GOP opposes at-large, non-partisan charter amendments

Don't forget that every Tulsa voter has a reason to go to the polls, as charter amendments will be on the ballot even if you're in a district (1 or 5) which doesn't have a general election for city councilor. An email from Tulsa County Republican Party HQ reminds GOP...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 4, 2011 8:50 AM

Strong Mayor vs. City Manager debate, tonight

A special event coming up in just a couple of hours: There are only a few competitive council races remaining for November, but the ballot will also feature charter amendments affecting the basic form of government. TulsaNow has gathered the former mayors of Oklahoma's two largest cities to talk about...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 16, 2011 12:21 PM

Tulsa town hall meeting on city manager proposal tonight

The Tulsa City Council is hosting a special town hall meeting tonight, July 7, 2011, 6 p.m., at City Hall, 2nd and Cincinnati, to discuss a proposal to switch to a city manager/council form of municipal government. Under the proposal, a mayor, elected citywide, would sit on the City Council...

Posted by Michael Bates on July 7, 2011 1:29 AM

SOTs use non-Tulsan petition circulators, notaries

The Save Our Tulsa charter amendment petitions -- pushing to add four at-large members to the City Council (including the Mayor), to eliminate partisan labels from city election ballots, and to hold city elections on the same ballot as national and statewide elections -- were certified by City Clerk Mike...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 7, 2011 8:37 PM

Tulsa County Republicans oppose at-large council, 4-to-Fix renewal, river tax, chamber funding

Yesterday, the 2011 Tulsa County Republican Convention unanimously approved the recommendation of the convention's platform committee to be the Tulsa County Republican Party's official platform. The platform includes clear stands on several current city and county issues. Here is the local section of the platform in its entirety: LOCAL GOVERNMENT...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 27, 2011 4:43 AM

Rodger Randle on proposed Tulsa city charter changes

Rodger Randle, a Democrat, was the last Mayor of Tulsa under the old city commission form of government and the first under the mayor-council form of government. When he defeated incumbent Mayor Dick Crawford in 1988, a new city charter was a key plank in his platform. He has issued...

Posted by Michael Bates on February 15, 2011 10:45 PM