Whenever he can, Mayor Dewey Bartlett makes a point of reminding people that during his term in office, relations between the city and county have gone swimmingly.
It's a not-so-subtle swipe at his opponent in the Nov. 12 mayoral election, former Mayor Kathy Taylor.
Bartlett has a point: There have been fewer fights between the city and county since he took office in December 2009.
But there has been less to fight about, too.
Taylor was in office from 2006 to 2009, and as things would have it, she found herself on a few powder kegs - some of her own making, some not.
By the time Bartlett took office in December 2009, the fighting was over and the issues that had strained city/county relations had been resolved, for better or for worse: The city had annexed the fairgrounds; city voters had overwhelming agreed to capture the county's Four to Fix the County sales tax to help fund the city's 2008 Fix Our Streets package; and the city and county had a new jail agreement.
Taylor said last week that her administration worked with the county on numerous initiatives, including increasing funding for the BOK Center, participating in a gang task force and creating a veterans treatment court.
"We couldn't have done it had we not done it cooperatively," she said. "And that has always been my focus and spirit."
Bartlett pointed to road projects the city and county have worked on together since he took office, as well as the Collaborative Government Advisory Committee, which he created to come up with ways to eliminate duplication of work and cut costs.
Bartlett said his approach to the county is the same one he uses with everyone he deals with - to listen and to try to understand the other person's perspective.
"Try to get to know each other in a very personal, direct, friendly way," he said. "Be a good listener and certainly understand their respective views."
The move to annex the fairgrounds was championed by former City Councilor Roscoe Turner, who days before the annexation took effect on Jan. 1, 2009, said "Something needed to take place a long time ago."
Turner and other councilors argued that the city was losing sales-tax revenues from retail purchases made at the fairgrounds and that the city was providing a number of services to the facility without receiving proper compensation.
Taylor supported the annexation but did not sign it into law until she had worked with then-County Commissioner Randy Miller to push the effective date forward - from July 1, 2007, to Jan. 1, 2009 - to ensure that the increased sales tax rate it would bring would not jeopardize planned horse shows at the fairgrounds.
Not all councilors were thrilled with the compromise.
"This is an issue that just came up, and we've been running around here like chickens with our heads cut off all day, trying to figure out what was going to happen," Councilor Jack Henderson said in May 2007.
A lot has been made of the city's decision to capture the county's Four to Fix the County 0.167 sales tax when it expired in September 2011.
Taylor supported that proposition, as did city of Tulsa residents, who approved the funding source when they overwhelmingly passed the Fix Our Streets package.
Bartlett, a private resident then, never advocated publicly for capturing the county tax, but he never publicly opposed it.
He had the platform: He was co-chairman of Taylor's 22-member "Complete Our Streets" panel that was charged with studying the street issue and recommending, among other things, a way to pay for repairs.
The panel did not recommend capturing the Four to Fix tax, opting for other funding sources.
Eventually, capturing the county tax became part of the funding options adopted by the City Council.
Bartlett said Friday he did not recall any opposition by county officials at the time. But it existed.
"I'm glad to see city leaders finally taking steps to address their decades-old infrastructure problems," County Commissioner John Smaligo said at the time. "It's disappointing that they've chosen to hijack a county initiative to get it done."
Taylor said Friday that no government owns a tax.
"It's the taxpayers, they own it," she said, adding that the Fix Our Streets initiative was supported by more than 60 percent of voters.
"By the way, those streets are in Tulsa County," she said.
As for the jail dispute - which focused on whether, and how much, the city should pay to house its inmates in the Tulsa Jail - Taylor makes no apologies for the way her administration handled the matter, including a lawsuit that was filed at one point.
At the time, she had the support of the Republican-majority City Council.
"Just because it goes into a different checking account - the city versus the county - it's all taxpayer dollars," Taylor said.
"Whether or not we were in a recession, I watched every single penny and I wanted to be sure we were being charged appropriate amounts and that we were looking at every alternative to not increase the city's costs."
If history is any indication, disagreements between the city and county aren't likely to ever disappear, regardless of who is in office at City Hall - or at the County Commission.
The jail debate, for one, has been going on for decades.
In fact, for a few days earlier this year, the Sheriff's Office refused to accept city prisoners. And Sheriff Stanley Glanz and County Commissioner Karen Keith proposed a capital improvements tax for the jail that would have gone to voters on Nov. 12 - the same day Tulsans are scheduled to vote on a capital improvement package.
That was under Bartlett's watch.
Voters will decide who represents the city when it comes time to negotiate the next city/county jail agreement. The current one expires June 30, 2014.
Kevin Canfield 918-581-8313
kevin.canfield@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: City-county relations color campaign
