Bartlett approved $7.1 million for BOK loan
Mayoral candidate Dewey Bartlett, Jr., voted with Mayor Kathy Taylor to give the Bank of Oklahoma $7.1 million settlement in a lawsuit over the bankrupt Great Plains Airlines.
Bartlett, who was appointed to the airport board by Taylor, voted yes on June 26, 2008, to endorse the payment of millions to the bank, which had loaned money to Great Plains Airlines with airport property as collateral. The meeting was in the mayor’s conference room at City Hall.
Taylor approved the payment, even though the city was not a party to the original suit. Taylor acted without the approval of city councilors and the money was paid from the city’s sinking fund, which comes from higher property taxes.
“I will point out that … the current city council and the current administration and the current airport authority were not involved when this whole matter came to a head,” Bartlett said at that meeting. “We are the ones picking up the pieces, I guess. We are cleaning up the mess and getting on with it.
“It’s something we need to do and I applaud the mayor and the Bank of Oklahoma for working out a deal… a lot of work went into this thing. It was a waste of energy. It’s a new day and that’s good news.”
This was not the only time when Bartlett, a Republican, worked closely with Taylor’s administration. Bartlett was the chairman of a Taylor committee to study Tulsa streets.
And until Taylor announced she was not running for office, she had a photo and quote from Bartlett on her re-election website praising her rule as mayor and endorsing her re-election.
After she withdrew, Bartlett was removed from that website.
Another member of the Tulsa Airport Industrial Trust, Mary Smith, voted for the payment to the Bank of Oklahoma. Smith is Bartlett’s campaign treasurer. Prior to being on the airport board, Smith was the marketing director for the Tulsa International Airport for several years. Smith replaced conservative Carl Clay on the board. Clay had been a vocal critic of any proposed settlement.
Early in his term, ex-mayor Bill LaFortune and TAIT pumped an additional $1.25 million into Great Plains Airlines even though it was about to fail. They did so in the hopes that the Oklahoma Transportation Authority would come to the rescue and bail GPA out. There was a serious of discussions between TAIT (Norma Eagleton) and OTA. The idea was to to make GPA’s finances look better and to show that the city of Tulsa were still committed to the airline.
Bartlett was a member of OTA at that time and was championing the OTA bailout within the authority.
The lawsuit was between the Tulsa Industrial Authority and the Tulsa Airport Improvements Trust, not between the City of Tulsa and the Bank of Oklahoma.
Bartlett could not be reached for comment.
In another twist, published accounts show that Taylor said she relied heavily on City Attorney Deidre Dexter and outside lawyer Robert Sartin to agree to the $7.1 million settlement. Before Dexter went to work for the city, she worked for the law firm that was representing the Bank of Oklahoma.
The city was not named in the original lawsuit. It was added later.
Federal Aviation Administration rules prohibit airports from financing private airline companies.
Great Plains Airlines, which was financed mostly by city and state tax dollars, was originally pitched as an answer to the need for non-stop flights from Tulsa to Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. The two jets it used didn’t have the range to make those flights and the business went bust.
The airport board had agreed that property it owned at the airport could be used as collateral for a loan for Great Plains Airlines. When the company went bankrupt, Bank of Oklahoma sued to recover its money.
Chris Medlock, who is running against Bartlett for mayor, was on the city council when the issue first arose. He said the council back then would not have approved a payment to the bank without a full-blown trial and public examination of the Great Plains Airlines scandal.
“That was the only way that the public was ever going to learn the truth,” Medlock said.
Carl Clay, a former member of the airport board that was replaced by Smith, said he opposed a settlement with the Bank of Oklahoma while sitting on the board.
“The taxpayers of Tulsa don’t owe that money,” Clay said.
Clay said it is “just wrong” for government to finance private ventures like Great Plains Airlines.
“Taxpayers should not take that risk,” Clay said.
Municipal Office Filings
Mayor
Democrats
Tom Adelson, Robert Gwin Jr., Paul Tay, Accountability Burns, Prophet Kelly Lamar Clark
Republicans
Dewey Bartlett Jr., Chris Medlock, Anna Falling, David O’Connor, Paul Roales, Michael Tomes, Norris Streetman, Kevin Boggs, John Todd, Nathaniel Booth, Michael Rush
Independents
Mark Perkins, Cleon Burrell, Lawrence Kirkpatrick.
City auditor
incumbent Phil Wood, Democrat, Preston Doerflinger and Lynn Ruemler, Republicans
Council District 1
Incumbent Jack Henderson, Democrat.
Council District 2
Incumbent Rick Westcott and Barton Rhoades, Republicans
Council District 3
Incumbent David Patrick, Independent; Roscoe Turner, Democrat; and Karl Hulcher, Republican
Council District 4
Incumbent Eric Gomez and Rocky Frisco, Republicans; and Maria Barnes and Elizabeth Wright, Democrats
Council District 5
Incumbent Bill Martinson and Chris Trail, Republicans
Council District 6
Incumbent Dennis Troyer and Mario Choice, Democrats; and Jim Mautino and Tadd Weese, Republicans.
Council District 7
Incumbent John Eagleton, Republican.
Council District 8
Incumbent Bill Christiansen, Phil Lakin Jr., and Scott Grizzle, Republicans.
Council District 9
Incumbent G.T. Bynum, Republican and Roger Lowry, Democrat.