Vote for Preston Doerflinger
Tulsa’s city government needs more accountability.
During Mayor Kathy Taylor’s administration, two former managers in the Public Works Department were indicted for bribery for city contracts.
State officials accused firefighters and paramedics of falsifying training records.
Tulsa Transit’s finances were so bad that the director was put on leave until the problems could be identified.
Someone needs to be watching how the city does its financial business.
Republican Preston Doerflinger is the man for the job.
A successful businessman, Doerflinger has the right business background to keep an eye on the affairs of the city.
This is particularly crucial as Tulsa’s sales tax revenues dip and the country’s recession deepens with rising unemployment.
Doerflinger could make more money simply running the successful businesses he has founded. But like the Founding Fathers, Doerflinger is willing to sacrifice his time and resources to make Tulsa a better place.
Ever since Taylor took office, she has denied public cries for external audits and performance audits of parts of city government. These departments have developed into “kingdoms” with department heads protected from firing by civil service rules.
City Auditor Phil Wood, a Democrat who has been in office more than 20 years, has served more as a caretaker than auditor.
The Tulsa Beacon endorses Preston Doerflinger for City Auditor. Please vote for him Nov. 10.
Propositions on Nov. 10 ballot
On Nov. 10, Tulsa voters will decide the fate of three propositions for changes in city government.
The first would require that anyone running for city auditor be a certified public accountant or a certified internal auditor.
Although these credentials might be beneficial, the two key qualities for an auditor are honesty and competency.
There was an attempt to have a ballot question that would change the city auditor from an elected post to a job appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council. That’s a bad idea. It just gives more power to an already powerful mayor and decreases the independence of the auditor.
Proposition 2 would expand the term for councilors from two years to three years and stagger the terms so the city doesn’t vote on all nine districts in one cycle.
Again, this is a bad idea because it takes one more year to get rid of a bad councilor through the election process. Political forces have made it impossible to recall a councilor short of a major scandal and voters should have a two-year window to approve good councilors and dispatch bad ones.
Proposition 3 requires that any lawsuit settlement greater than $1 million must be approved by both the mayor and the Council. At present, the mayor can settle lawsuits with sinking fund money in any amount.
This is how Mayor Kathy Taylor gave Bank of Oklahoma more than $7 million for a defaulted loan in the Great Plains Airlines scandal.
Voters should turn back Propositions 1 and 2 and pass Proposition 3.
Supreme Court gets an earful
Six of the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are Catholic and they got a clear message at the annual Red Mass, which is on the Sunday before the fall term begins.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo spoke at the mass. The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said DiNardo referred to the Catholic justices when he said that people represented by attorneys are “more than clients - in some cases the clients are voiceless for they lack influence; in others they are literally voiceless, not yet with tongues and even without names, and require our most careful attention and radical support.”
“He was speaking to the justices about justice,” Pavone said, “which means concern for the vulnerable, all the vulnerable, including the smallest of the small, the children in the womb.”
DiNardo’s audience included Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., and Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Samuel Alito Jr., Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia. Justice Stephen Breyer, who is Jewish, also attended.
How can you be a Catholic and be pro-abortion? Several prominent Catholic office holders seem to think that you can be a good Catholic and still approve the death of unborn children in their mother’s womb.
Thankfully, leaders in the Catholic Church are willing to confront this sin and call it what it is.
If all of the justices on the court operated under the beliefs espoused by their faith, abortion would be ended in this country.
Unfortunately, it looks like that is not the case.