G.T. Bynum (incumbent)



Q&A

  1. A recent presentation by a city councilor showed Tulsa's overall police and fire budget has grown more than three times above the rate of inflation over the last 40 years without adding manpower in at least the last decade. It has been described as "unsustainable growth" with the city's current level of revenue. How would you propose to address this situation?
  2. Before we can address a solution, we need to have a better grasp of the problem. There is no doubt public safety budgets have skyrocketed over the last decade while the manpower hasn't increased. That being said, we don't know that our departments are run as efficiently as they can be, we don't know how many firefighters and stations we really need, and we don't know what a fair wage to pay might be. We rely on the public safety unions and dated studies for all of this information, but I believe we need to broaden our scope. That's why I support performance audits of both the police and fire departments - to tell us what we're doing right and what needs to be fixed.
  3. Over the last several years, controversy between the City Council and mayor's administration has triggered discussions about changing from the current strong mayor- council form of government to a city manager-council form of government and about having Tulsa's elected offices be non-partisan. Would you support either of these ideas? Why or why not?
  4. I do not agree with either of these proposals. Under our charter, the elected mayor has every right and ability to hire a city manager if they so choose. We don't need to change our government to bring in a city manager.

    The chief executive officer of the City of Tulsa needs to be directly accountable to the citizens by being elected.

    I believe non-partisan elections are a well-intentioned proposal that would be disastrous in reality. The purpose of political parties is to educate and engage voters. By eliminating political parties from the process you take that education and voter turnout off the table. You also aren't going to solve partisanship in city governance by having nonpartisan elections because those elected officials are still registered with their respective parties. Lastly, the reality of nonpartisan elections would be to help candidates hide their preferred political ideology from voters. I think we need more transparency in government - not less. If non-partisan elections are passed, you'll have low-turnout elections with uneducated voters and you'll still have partisanship in government.

    If Tulsans want to eliminate partisanship in governance, they need to elect officials with the courage to work across Party lines.
  5. Improving mass transit (i.e. additional bus service, rail lines, etc.) has been a major topic of discussion through the city's ongoing PlaniTulsa comprehensive planning process. Do you believe Tulsa's public transportation system needs improvement? Please explain.
  6. I agree that public transit needs improvement, but there needs to be a demonstrated desire on the part of citizens to use it and there needs to be an identified funding source.
  7. What would be your top three priorities if you are elected?
  8. Work to develop a comprehensive and strategic partnership between the City and Tulsa County.

    Implement performance audits for more City departments to help us improve efficiency and effectiveness.

    Work to create incentives for more economic development in Tulsa, particularly private development along the Arkansas River.