Mayor Presents City Budget to Council

 

Mayor Dewey Bartlett presented the proposed City of Tulsa Fiscal Year 2013-2014 budget to the Tulsa City Council on April 30.

View the entire budget here (7.53 MB)

View the mayor's budget speech here

View the budget transmittal letter here

Watch the televised budget presentation here

Door-to-Door Solicitation Rules

 

It's spring in Tulsa and with the warmer weather comes more knocks on the door from solicitors. The City Council passed an ordinance last March to give citizens more tools to protect themselves and their property from unwanted solicitation:

1. Solicitors may only come to your door between the hours of 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.

2. Solicitors are now required by law to obey signs such as "No Soliciting" or "No Trespassing"

3. If you direct a solicitor to leave your property, he or she must do so by law

If solicitors in your neighborhood break any of these rules, call the police.

The maximum penalty for breaking the ordinance is a fine up to $1,200 and six months in jail.

Follow this link and click on District 9 to hear Councilor Bynum talk more about the issue in the April edition of "Council District Focus".

Capital Improvements Program Taking Shape

 

The City Council is working on the development of a new infrastructure funding package. This will replace the previous 2008 Fix-Our-Streets program, which expires in 2014.

The 2008 package, which was funded by a 1.167 percent sales tax and general obligation bonds, went entirely toward fixing streets. The next package would not raise taxes, but extend these existing funding sources. It will also address high priority needs in other City departments.

"The needs we are reviewing are very basic, bread-and-butter city needs: fixing streets, buying police cars and fire trucks, replacing water lines, et cetera," Councilor G.T. Bynum said.

The Capital Improvements Program Task Force, which was established last July, is charged with developing the next program.

First, the task force will meet with each City department to learn about their prioritized needs. The City Council will then analyze and present these needs to the citizens of Tulsa in a series of town hall meetings. At these meetings, the City Council will solicit feedback from citizens about the program.

Next, the City Council and the mayor will draft a proposed capital improvements program, which incorporates resident feedback, and present it to citizens in a second series of town hall meetings.

Last, the program will be finalized and placed on a ballot for voter consideration in November.

"The Council has uniformly agreed that we want the assembly of this package to be very public and very thorough," Bynum said.  "We started a year in advance to accomplish this goal and look forward to hearing from the citizens of Tulsa about the kind of city we want to spend the next five years building."

See an overview of our infrastructure needs and potential funding sources here.

See the tentative schedule of the Council's Capital Improvement Program Task Force here.