City Hall Report
BY BRIAN BARBER & KEVIN CANFIELD World Staff Writers
Sunday, November 04, 2012
11/04/12 at 2:21 AM
Find all the stories from Staff
Writers Brian Barber and Kevin
Canfield about city government
in Tulsa.
Quotables
"It's a slap in the face. Most of our workers could get more money selling plasma." - Michael Rider, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1180 president, on the city of Tulsa's offer of a 2 percent stipend rather than a raise.
"The program produces results and sends a clear message: If you compete and win, there will be rewards for you." - Mayor Dewey Bartlett on employees receiving $43,514 as part of the city's gain-sharing program.
Week in review
Police raises: Tulsa's police union has reached a tentative agreement with city leaders for 3 percent raises for officers retroactive to July 1, with another 1 percent pay bump coming in January.
Meanwhile, the firefighters union does not have a deal and is expecting to go to arbitration, while the labor and trades union is frustrated over its offer of a one-time 2 percent stipend.
All of the unions have been operating under their old contracts since the start of the fiscal year in July.
Tulsa Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 93 President Phil Evans and City Manager Jim Twombly confirmed the deal.
The FOP membership will vote in early November, Evans said.
"I don't see it not passing," he said. "It's a good deal for us, and it's a good deal for the city. I'm certainly supporting it."
The lodge represents Tulsa's 782 sworn officers, including the 40 rookies now in the academy who are due to graduate in December.
Savings bonuses: Eight members of the City Hall maintenance and operations team received checks Thursday totalling $43,514 as part of the city's gain-sharing program.
The program lets employees bid against private contractors to provide services and receive part of the savings should they receive the contract and perform the duties for less than their bid amount.
The maintenance and operations team, which handles electrical, mechanical, plumbing and carpentry duties, won the contract last year.
In February, workers received $27,044 for the first six months of fiscal year 2012. The checks team members received Thursday were for the second half of the fiscal year, which ended June 30.
For the entire 2012 fiscal year, the team beat its bid by nearly $250,000.
Green waste: Tulsans may set out bags of green waste for curbside pickup without the special 50-cent stickers for the next three months.
During the months of November, December and January, the city's trash board is offering free collection so residents aren't penalized for doing fall cleanup around their homes.
Green waste, which includes plants, garden materials and grass clippings, still must be placed in clear plastic bags so haulers know it is to be taken to the city's green waste site.
The city has verified that clear bags may be purchased at area Ace Hardware stores, the Best Electric Hardware store, and Home Depot and Lowe's stores.
Sticks and branches must be tied in 4-foot-by-2-foot bundles.
The city will resume requiring the 50-cent green-waste collection stickers Feb. 1. They can be bought at QuikTrip locations.
There is no free collection for extra bags of trash.
Each refuse bag that cannot fit into a household's trash cart must have a 50-cent, orange refuse sticker affixed to it. Those stickers, too, can be purchased at QuikTrip stores.
Street closure: A portion of Peoria Avenue north of 61st Street will be closed for about two weeks as a new sanitary sewer line is installed.
Detours will be marked to guide motorists around the road closure.
The sewer work is part of an ongoing project to widen 61st Street between Riverside Parkway and Peoria Avenue, as well as the intersection at 61st and Peoria.
The city has contracted with Becco Contractors Inc. for this $11 million project, which is funded through the 2006 third-penny sales-tax program.
Completion is scheduled for March.
Looking ahead
Moratorium meeting: City Councilor Jeannie Cue will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Zarrow Regional Library, 2224 W. 51st St., about a possible moratorium on new apartment complexes in part of southwest Tulsa.
Cue told fellow councilors at a committee meeting that she has heard from residents who are concerned about the continued development of apartment complexes in the area.
The moratorium would apply to the 6-square-mile area covered by the city's West Highlands/Tulsa Hills small-area plan, and would remain in effect until the plan is completed in June or July of next year.
The area is mostly zoned agriculture with large single-family lots, but has seen a jump in commercial development, including the Tulsa Hills shopping center.
Pollutant collection: The Metropolitan Environmental Trust will continue its biannual pollutant collection event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Household hazardous waste will be accepted at Tulsa County Fairgrounds' Gate 7 at 15th Street and Sandusky Avenue.
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