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Tulsa election 2018: Campaign finance reports online, but most are delinquent
The City Clerk's office of the City of Tulsa has at long last begun publishing campaign contribution reports for City of Tulsa candidates on their website. In years past it was necessary to visit the City Clerk's office for physical copies of the reports; more recently they began providing them...
Luke Sherman for Tulsa County Sheriff
UPDATE for the primary for the full-four year term: Luke Sherman has been endorsed by four of the other candidates in the special election primary, and he continues to have my support. The race to fill the unexpired term of former Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz has been a strange...
Tulsa County Sheriff special election ethics filings
Many thanks to the Tulsa County Election Board for providing scans of the campaign contribution filings for the candidates in the special election for Tulsa County Sheriff. (For a brief shining moment, campaign reports for candidates and committees in the state's largest counties were filed electronically with the Oklahoma Ethics...
Old, rich Republican lawyers and developers for Ken Brune
Democrat Ken Brune sent out a mailer to Republican voters in Tulsa District 4 with a list of 74 "Republicans for Ken Brune (1 MB PDF)." Ken Brune seems to be liked only by an elite and elderly class of Republicans. A BatesLine analysis of the 74 names, using voter...
Tulsa District 4 Democratic primary: For Maria Barnes
Tulsa City Council District 4 is unique in having two seriously contested primaries. In the Democratic primary, I'm pleased to endorse my friend Maria Barnes. I've known Maria Barnes for over a decade, through her role as Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood Association president and fellow board member of the Midtown Coalition of...
Tulsa District 3 Democratic primary: For Roscoe Turner
This is the ninth rematch between current District 3 Councilor Roscoe Turner and former Councilor David Patrick. The series is tied 4-4, with Patrick winning in 1996, 1998, 2002, and 2008, and Turner winning in 2000, 2004, 2006, 2009. (Turner also won the 1998 special election, beating Patrick's sister Synna.)...
Tulsa District 5: For Sam Roop
District 5 is a three-way race: Incumbent and first-term Councilor Chris Trail, former District 5 Councilor Sam Roop, and school district employee and PTA leader Karen Gilbert. No Democrats filed, so Tuesday's primary winner takes the seat. Because of her conflicts of interest, because she is the consensus choice of...
Simonson says
UTW has an interesting cover story this week about Terry Simonson, chief of staff to Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr, written by Mike Easterling with photos by Michael Cooper. The story begins with Simonson filing for mayor just before the deadline in 1998. I was there when it happened. I...
Eric Gomez on TMAPC? Seriously?
"He is either totally clueless or absolutely in your face, one of the two." "I guess he wants everybody mad at him." "He's appointing a councilor that threatened to sue one of his constituents over a planning issue to the planning commission?" Those were the instantaneous reactions of my lovely...
PLANiTULSA TMAPC hearing reaction
I wasn't able to attend the March 23, 2010, TMAPC hearing in person, but I watched the last hour or so of the hearing on TGOVonline.org. The on-demand version should be posted in a couple of days. I submitted an email comment in response to an impassioned speech that seemed...
Blast from the past: A truly rude TMAPC commissioner
In February 2004, leaders of neighborhood associations and homeowners' associations showed up by the dozens for a 1:30 p.m. hearing before the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (TMAPC) on zoning protest petitions. Many of those present had to make special arrangements to be at a City Hall meeting in the...
City Council contribution reports
Here is a summary of the pre-primary Form C-1 ethics reports filed with the Tulsa City Clerk's office by 5 p.m. today, the deadline for the pre-primary filing for next Tuesday's Tulsa City Council races: DISTRICT 1 DEMOCRAT: Jack R. Henderson: Carryover = $7,029.69 Contributions = $2,879.00 Expenditures = $2,532.38...
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...
Big Council meeting tonight
There are a lot of important issues on tonight's Tulsa City Council agenda. The Mayor has nominated a replacement for planning commission member Dell Coutant (the only member that has respect for the Comprehensive Plan). His name is Owen Ard, and I understand that he lives in Maple Ridge neighborhood...
TMAPC tries sleight of hand
Homeowners for Fair Zoning is continuing to keep an eye on the situation with the planned F&M Bank branch at 71st & Harvard. The lawsuit over the improper handling of the neighborhood's protest petition is still pending, but in the meantime F&M Bank is making preparations to build -- and...
It's (hardly) a conspiracy!
A goofy notion of recent vintage is that the Reform Alliance majority on the Tulsa City Council is part of a conspiracy to obstruct the implementation of Vision 2025, and that in particular the Council's unwillingness to proceed to condemn two properties on the arena site is all about obstruction...
Council group meets secretly to discuss development issues
There was an amazing revelation in last Thursday's Tulsa City Council meeting, during the debate over the Council consensus affirming the zoning protest petition process, the deadline prior to the Council meeting, and the supermajority requirement. A Council committee is discussing important issues of public policy in closed meetings which...
Council to act on zoning protest process tonight
I sent this out to a neighborhood mailing list and thought you all would be interested in it too: Tonight at their regular 6:00 pm meeting, the Tulsa City Council will again take up a Council Consensus expressing support for retaining and strengthening the protest provisions of the zoning code. Under Title 42, Section 1703(E), a supermajority of seven yes votes is required for a zoning change if the owners of 50% of the land within 300 feet of the affected area, or 20% of the affected area itself. These provisions are an important protection for property owners against arbitrary zoning changes, such as a blanket upzoning or commercial and industrial encroachment into our neighborhoods. This supermajority requirement has been part of state law since the 1920s, and part of Tulsa's zoning code for over 30 years. This is one little bit of leverage that homeowners have, and certain forces are working hard to take even that away from us. (More about that below.) It is important that we get the City Council on record in support of this protection before next Tuesday's election. If a councilor is unwilling to express support for this protection before the election, he certainly won't push for it once the political pressure is gone. We need to know, before we go to the polls on Tuesday, whether these councilors support keeping this protection in place or sweeping it away. We have some leverage right now that will disappear after next Tuesday. I urge you to attend tonight's meeting, or at least contact councilors and urge their support. Read the whole entry for more information, and an answer to the excuses that some councilors are using to avoid the issue.
Notes from the candidate forum
I was one of about 30 people that assembled Monday night at Fellowship Congregational Church to hear 10 of the 12 candidates at a League of Women Voters forum. If you had been there, you would have gained some insights into the candidates, and it grieved me to think that...
Randy Sullivan files late
So I'm in Midtown running some errands, and I decide to stop by the City Clerk's office to pick up the handful of C-1 ethics filings that weren't filed on time before the City Council primary. It takes a while, because nearly everyone in the office is sick -- they're...
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