im4osu, Broken Arrow (7/21/2009 4:25:38 PM)

Wow, Tulsa is a great city, but its leaders sure do show there rear end every 15 minutes...

Matt in BA, Broken Arrow (7/21/2009 4:30:22 PM)

City of Tulsa customer service at its finest. Pass the buck, the problem might go away, I am surprised the couple didn't hire an attorney, but I guess they probably know if it took this long to get resolved, the City could stonewall them alot longer with the courts.

burgerman, Tulsa (7/21/2009 4:40:22 PM)

wasn't the city smart enough to look at the meter to see if it was moving, I guess not....

irwindale, Tulsa (7/21/2009 4:41:49 PM)

Your appointed (by Kaiser, Lorton etc.) leaders at work. True colors are shinning through...

Stratolifter, (7/21/2009 4:41:49 PM)

WHAT??? Yeah whatever - a very similar thing happened to us - and we probably got the exact same rubber stamped lawyer letter about tort claims from the city lawyers that they did.

The SO CALLED Mayor's "ACTION" center was worthless.

The water company kept INSISTING it was on OUR SIDE! We hired a plumber and they said it was on the CITY SIDE!

It was a freakin' nightmare.

After getting that "official" looking letter from the city lawyer's office we thought - WHY THE HECK FIGHT CITY HALL!! That letter we felt like was nothing more than a "scare" tactic to get us to go away and pay for the repair ourselves.

We even asked the bill be credited on the next bill too! All to no avail!

Not only that - our water leak problem started AFTER THE CITY had done some work on the lines in the area. For some reason brown dirty water came into our home lines which they claimed was impossible to happen and "it ain't our fault".

I just wonder HOW MANY TIMES something like this has happened to other people!!!!! Imagine the money they are saving to tell people - "it ain't our fault" and back it up with some official sounding legalese from the city lawyers.

As you can see, many months later we are still extremely angry about the way our issue was handled!! Or should we say NOT handled.

xx123, (7/21/2009 4:45:14 PM)

We live in this neighborhood and also just experienced a water leak. I thank this couple greatly because it is probably due to their actions that the city came to fix the leak. I did notice the water was dirty afterwards, but hopefully everything is ok.

Mar, Tulsa (7/21/2009 5:20:20 PM)

I think Charles Hardt needs to be replaced. There seems to have been a lot of problems over the years with him at the helm.

In all fairness, These people started having the problem in the summer of 2008, though it doesn't state when they were told they had to get it repaired, why did they not get the work done until December 2008?

Daniel Day Simpson, Edmond (7/21/2009 5:28:33 PM)

We had a situation the other way with the Okla City water department. Our water bill at work was consistently $300 per month. We don't water our postage stamp sized lawn and we only have 2 bathrooms. We were using like 20,000 gallons per month. Neither of the toilets ran between flushes. I suggested to the boss that he investigate an old decommissioned bathroom in a unsued office suite. We owned the suite but did not use it. The boss insisted it was not that bathroom because nobody had been in there and he had the only key. He called out the water department several times. I even opened the loose meter cover and could see the leak needle move round and round. So the water department showed him. After 6 months of high water bills, the boss finally opened up the old suite. It was like Jeraldo. We went into the musky old room and what did you hear? A toilet running at full blast.
So boss messes up once again. So much for his insestant pride!

Thunder196, Tulsa (7/21/2009 5:35:12 PM)

Must be election time, they are stumbling over each other to do the right thing.

yankeefan, Tulsa (7/21/2009 5:45:44 PM)

glad this couple dug their heels in, their perseverance paid off.

thanks but no thanks, (7/21/2009 6:00:55 PM)

The punishment is quite severe for "doing the right thing" as a City employee. In an environment of budget cuts, cronyism, favoritism and hostility any employee that might attempt to "do the right thing" and advocate for the couple would be immediately punished with a bullseye on the back of the uniform and the elimination of the position in the next round of budget cuts!

tfromtulsa, Tulsa (7/21/2009 6:03:11 PM)

Can you believe Kitty is so stingy when it comes to using taxpayer's money to pay a legitimate $401.20 bill, but then she has no problem handing over $7.1 million of our money to Bank of Kaiser for the convoluted Great Plains loan?

SO glad this woman will soon be history.

Few Clothes, Austin, TX (7/21/2009 6:30:26 PM)

Strato, would you like cheese with that whine?

wk, (7/21/2009 6:47:24 PM)

It's absolutely ridiculous that the mayor would have anything to do with this decision, irrespective of whether it was right or wrong. Shouldn't she be trying to help employers, bring in new businesses, work on quality of air issues etc rather than dealing with water and sewer repair bills? Looks like someone's trying to micro-manage a little bit too much.

tfromtulsa, Tulsa (7/21/2009 8:02:27 PM)

Few Clothes - If I was Strato I would be furious, too.

How could even City employees be THIS inept? Calling them stupid is an insult to stupid people.

GoGreen, Mid-Town Tulsa (7/21/2009 10:41:11 PM)

The mayor does not decide these things, she is advised by others. People, citizens of Tulsa, try to get the city to pay for anything they can. The city once and they still may I haven't checked since last summer, but they give you a 50% credit on a leak that is either unheard or unseen meaning not a toilet or faucet leak. I believe up to 2 months of usage. The city puts your usage on every bill people need to pay attention to it. These claims take a while, it is too bad they had a bad experience, most of them are not like this. If you think customer service is not friendly you should try and deal with the people and complaints all day.

bearwolf, Tulsa (7/22/2009 2:05:41 AM)

How many times in recent months have we seen screw ups associated with the so called leadership of Charles Hardt? We are paying his $175,000 salary plus benefits which probably brings total city outlay for this guy in the neighborhood of $250,000 yearly. Tulsa can easily get a qualified Public Works Director for a whole lot less money.

We know a picture is worth a thousand words. Look at Hardt's picture associated with this column. Does he look like the kind of person who gives a hoot about a problem you might have?

Observer3, (7/22/2009 4:33:13 AM)

She's a lame duck, why should she care? As for Charles Hardt, it's long past time for him to go.....and his gigantic salary.

SweetAngel, (7/22/2009 6:32:30 AM)

You know, my grandfather was water commissioner from 1954 to 1956 and again from 1974 to 1980. And Jim Inhofe was mayor the second time my grandfather was in office. And let me tell you. The city didn't sluff of its responsability to the people that pay their saleries. They took care of the problems that were on the city side of anything. And the citizens of the city didn't have to go to this extreme to get anything done.

dTHREE, TULSA (7/22/2009 7:06:15 AM)

Picture of Hardtless is gone. I wonder why?

Rock Elm, (7/22/2009 11:59:08 AM)

Same thing happened to us, also in Maple Ridge. I like the city but the people running it should be run out of town.

bearwolf, Tulsa (7/22/2009 1:51:13 PM)

Hey TW, why did u remove the pic of Charles Hardt? People have a right to see the guy who is screwing us around. And you certainly appear to have captured the true Hardt in the pic.

Few Clothes, Austin, TX (7/22/2009 5:18:21 PM)

TfromT. I would have let it go but Strato began with sour grapes saying something like "Yeah, so what", and continued with poor pitiful me.

I call them as I see them.

Stratolifter, (7/23/2009 2:08:37 PM)

fewclothes - read the post - nobody said "Yeah, so what". If you had read it you would clearly see that I am on the side of the person who had the problem with Tulsa Water dept.

And since you are offering - I would love some Brie if you can afford it.

As to the comment regarding "It's not the Mayor's fault". We were referred to the Mayors so called "action" center. However, I don't doubt for a minute that the mayor is clueless about what is going on in the city.

go green: that is the whole point of the article - the city would NOT cooperate with these people and admit any wrong doing with their faulty equipment. They DID NOT offer to reimburse this family for their high water bills.

NOBODY from the city offered to reimburse us either.

When their equipment goes bad - AND IT DOES! We should NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!!!

More Brie please........

Stratolifter, (7/23/2009 2:21:30 PM)

Hey - I know someone who would be the plumbing director for half that $175,0000 salary - Well Kitty?