Yeah, that's why Tulsa has such a conservative mayor.
Well..., if Republicans had not picked such a crappy mayor before, there wouldn't have been such a backlash... LOL...
Hewgley: LaFortune is the ‘worst mayor’ in 50 years
By Charles Biggs
Of the Beacon Staff
A former street commissioner regrets that he helped talk Bill LaFortune into running for mayor four years ago because of the disruptive impact LaFortune has had on city government.
Jim Hewgley III, a Republican who served as street commissioner from 1978 to 1984, said he was one of five people who spoke to LaFortune in 2001 to convince him to run for mayor.
“I take some responsibility for the mayor,” Hewgley said. “I want to apologize to people for being so wrong. There is no question that during the past 50 years, Bill LaFortune is the worst mayor this city has had.
“Show me someone who was worse. I will not vote for him again – no matter who is in the race.”
LaFortune does not respond to interview requests from the Tulsa Beacon.
Hewgley has not decided to back any candidate for mayor. He has had conversations with City Councilor Chris Medlock, who is running for mayor, and Tulsa County Commissioner Randi Miller, who is contemplating a race. City Councilor Bill Christiansen, a registered Republican, has said he will not run for mayor. Hewgley said Christiansen would not return his phone calls.
Hewgley pointed to a poll sponsored by KOTV and the Tulsa World that asked likely GOP voters if the primary were held today, only 38.8 percent of those who responded would vote for LaFortune.
“Republicans may be waking up,” Hewgley said in response to the low percentage.
The low point in LaFortune’s term came during this year’s attempted recall of two city councilors, Medlock and Jim Mautino.
“I blame that mess on Bill LaFortune,” Hewgley said.
The recall showed the irrelevance of the mainstream media and the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce, particularly in the district elections, Hewgley said.
Hewgley said there was no just cause for the recall vote, which both councilors survived impressively. He said LaFortune publicly opposed the recall but supported it privately and failed to broker a compromise that would have spared the city a year of embarrassment over an unnecessary controversy.
“(Former Mayor) Susan Savage would have put a stop to the recall,” Hewgley said. “(Former Mayor) Jim Inhofe would have stopped it. That whole mess is on LaFortune’s shoulders.
“He has no credibility with me because I can’t believe a word he says. He thinks he can be a leader by saying yes to everybody. My theory is if you can’t say no, you can’t lead.”
When Hewgley was in office, there were some serious problems with Finance Commissioner Ron Young. Young met with then-Mayor Jim Inhofe and Young resigned, sparing the city a lot of turmoil.
Hewgley claims LaFortune has not been honest in many areas. LaFortune is not being truthful about the size of the downtown arena.
“They have downsized it,” Hewgley said. “And they keep saying they haven’t.”
Records show that the arena was supposed to have 18,000 fixed seats but it is estimated that number is 16,500, with only 17,500 seats for basketball – less than what is required to host an NCAA Regional.
“Economic development is not convention business,” Hewgley said. “Economic development means more people with good paying jobs. They can live in Broken Arrow but I want them to shop in Tulsa.
“Little towns around here are becoming little cities. At one point, 25 percent of the sales tax revenue for Tulsa came from Woodland Hills Mall. That’s not true now. These cities are siphoning off retail business from Tulsa.
“We have a long, tough road and it could get worse before it gets better.”
LaFortune made a promise to support a bridge across the Arkansas River and then changed his stance when he saw the level of opposition from South Tulsa homeowners, Hewgley said.
“(Tulsa County Commissioner) Bob Dick, as a leader, is sticking to his guns on the bridge,” Hewgley said. “Bill LaFortune is a flipflopper. All this is reflected in this poll.”
Hewgley is convinced that LaFortune is making a bad situation with the airport authority investigation worse. The Bank of Oklahoma is suing the airport trust after the bankruptcy of Great Plains Airlines. LaFortune wants the city to join the trust in defending the suit and therefore be liable to a judgment that could top $7.5 million.
“This is a bad deal,” Hewgley said. “The city had no business being involved in this deal. When Clay Bird and Randi Miller asked me about Great Plains arrangement, I told them that if things went bad, BOK would want its money, not the hangar.”
Should the City Council be foolish enough to join the lawsuit, Hewgley thinks the taxpayers of Tulsa could sue councilors individually for spending money illegally. The answer to the airport mess is a federal grand jury to clear the air, Hewgley said.
Tulsa has lost sight of the original purpose of the Third Penny Sales Tax, which will be up for a renewal vote in 2006. LaFortune wants to extend the tax from five years to six years and to continue to fund other budget items than just capital improvements.
Hewgley, who along with Inhofe and others crafted the original Third Penny proposal, said that tax originally was dedicated to developing roads, sewers, water lines and other infrastructure primarily in South and East Tulsa.
In 1966, Tulsa annexed huge areas in South and East Tulsa, effectively doubling the size of the city. The new areas needed improvements to catch up with the rest of the city. “The idea was to catch up in South and East Tulsa (with the Third Penny,)” Hewgley said. “Eventually, we would get to full urbanization. Then the Third Penny would be used for maintenance.
“The dirty little secret is that it has been cannibalized – only about 60 percent goes to capital improvements.”
Hewgley said he would support renewal of the Third Penny sales with two conditions:
• That the $70 million worth of unfinished projects from the 2001 vote be completed before new projects are started. That shortfall came from a poor estimate of sales tax growth.
• Whether it’s five or six years, we should take the conservative approach and plan on flat growth. That way if revenues improve, it’s a good situation and less impact if taxes decrease.
“We should take a conservative approach or we will have a big problem,” he said.
When Hewgley was in office, Tulsa had commissioners who were administrators and policy makers. Now Tulsa has nine city councilors who make policy and the mayor runs the city.
Tulsa has a strong-mayor form of government with a weak mayor, Hewgley said.
“I can’t remember Tulsa ever having a mayor who lived south of 51st Street,” Hewgley said.
He does not favor a change in government that would make three of the councilors at-large, as has been suggested by some, because that would just consolidate power downtown with the chamber. He would prefer to bring in a city manager, similar to the system used in Oklahoma City where the mayor is more ceremonial and the city manager runs the city. He also would favor non-partisan elections.
“Bill LaFortune is the prototype weak mayor,” Hewgley said. “He is better at promoting the city than running it.”
The more you see a mayor on TV, the less work he is probably doing, Hewgley said.
The recent divisiveness in city government is due to the segmenting of Tulsa, with downtown and midtown aligned against the rest of the city, Hewgley said.
“Downtown is not growing,” Hewgley said. “The rest of the city needs the Third Penny money, not downtown. This will be more pronounced as years go by.”
Tulsa has a legacy of mayors who set aside personal interest and influence and did what was right for the city, Hewgley said
“I served with a good mayor (Inhofe),” Hewgley said. “We accomplished a lot in those years.”
“I don’t dislike Bill LaFortune. But we are trending toward an ‘ends justify the means’ attitude in this city. We think $16,000 is too much to spend to investigate the airport but we are ready to sign over $7 million for a bank loan. That is nuts.”
Irrelevant. The fact is that my statement, viz. that Tulsa is not conservative, is true. No matter that there are conservatives in Tulsa, it's still a liberal city.