City Hall report
BY KEVIN CANFIELD & ZACK STOYCOFF World Staff Writers
Sunday, January 27, 2013
1/27/13 at 2:57 AM
Read all of the week’s stories
from City Hall.
Quotable
"The overriding vision for me is making the city a place our kids and grandkids choose to come back to."
- Former Mayor Kathy Taylor, announcing her intention to run for mayor again this year.
"I wonder and I worry that we don't put enough effort into incentivizing tourism."
- City Councilor Blake Ewing, asking state legislators Thursday to consider tax incentives to promote tourism.
Week in review
Taylor to run: Former Mayor Kathy Taylor said last week that she intends to run for office again this year.
Taylor was mayor from 2006 to 2009.
"I feel passionately that this is the right place for me to hopefully - if the voters agree - use my talents," Taylor told the Tulsa World on Tuesday.
Taylor, 57, chose not to run for re-election after serving one term, citing the need to focus on the operations of the city during the Great Recession instead of on campaigning.
Taylor, a Democrat, is the second announced candidate for mayor. Former City Councilor Bill Christiansen announced his candidacy last year.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett said Tuesday that he is not yet ready to announce whether he will run for re-election. However, like Taylor and Christiansen, he has filed the initial paperwork required of candidates.
Bartlett and Christiansen are Republicans.
Taylor's announcement sets in motion a sprint to the mayor's office. Since leaving office, Taylor has served as an education adviser in former Gov. Brad Henry's administration, completed a fellowship at Harvard University, practiced law and worked with the foundation she and her husband established.
Taylor said she will formally announce her candidacy in the next month or so.
The filing dates for municipal candidates is April 8-10.
Energy task force: A task force charged with finding ways to attract energy companies to Tulsa has recommended branding the city as part of a more aggressive marketing and outreach effort.
The Energy Industry Task Force is floating three nicknames for the city: America's Most Livable City, the Energy Education Capital of the World and the Philanthropy Capital of the World. Any of them would represent a "brand" that would make Tulsa more attractive to energy companies, the group says.
"When philanthropy and education come together, the possibilities are endless," task force Chairman Ted Jacobs recently told the City Council. "We feel that these titles are easy for us to claim and hard for others to dispute."
The brand would work in concert with the group's other marketing recommendations to influence perceptions of Tulsa in the energy industry - perhaps to reclaim some of the clout it once had as the Oil Capital of the World, Jacobs said.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett has called for discussion this year on branding the city but has left the door open for what aspect of Tulsa should be promoted - culture, industry or natural beauty.
A new city brand would establish a marketing theme, Jacobs said.
His five-member task force, which has met since September, recommends advertising Tulsa as a management hub for the regional operations of large energy companies and as an attractive site for their nonprofit foundations. The city has a better chance of attracting such companies' regional divisions than their corporate headquarters, Jacobs said.
The group also suggests creating a nationwide collegiate "philanthropy challenge," where colleges could compete against each other by organizing events such as blood and donation drives.
Looking ahead
Pearl District form-based code: The city will host a public meeting to receive input on the latest proposal for the expansion of the form-based code within the Pearl District. The meeting is 6 p.m. Tuesday in the conference room of Family & Children's Services, 650 S. Peoria Ave.
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