Mayor Dewey Bartlett offered a two ton olive branch the other day. He magnanimously offered not to file a defamation law suit if the city council would agree to arbitration under the guidance of two former judges.
This all started with a budget battle gone sour. Bartlett layed off 123 police officers in a budget cutting measure required by law. Oklahoma statutes require municipalities of over 2,000 population to have a balanced budget. The police force as well as all other city departments had to make expense reductions. The debate with the police was over how to fund the department without laying off cops. The mayor preferred the layoff as a form of re-organization. The police preferred to use federal grant money, potentially from multiple sources.
The mayor won, temporarily. Since that time, there has been grandstanding, threats, an investigation, and the hiring of lawyers. Both sides have dug in for the long haul like military officers in a bunker. On Tuesday, Councilor Christianson called out the mayor for low attendance at authority-board-commission meetings. Common sense tells you he has to ration his time among many responsiblities.
City government has not ground to a halt. But you do have to wonder what opportunities have been missed due to the council and mayor at odds with each other and spending time on political food fight that has no benefit to the citizens of Tulsa. The emporer Nero allowed Rome to burn for some reason. His name may have been history's first four letter word. Is the city leadership going to let Tulsa burn and put us all in a huge pile of another four letter word.
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