Taylor Administration holdovers
Mayor Dewey Bartlett deserves a period of time to show that he will run the city in a more conservative fashion.
Tulsa needs a break from the overspending, secretive and coercive practices of ex-mayor Kathy Taylor.
Bartlett’s initial choices don’t point toward change at City Hall.
In his new administration, Bartlett has named two carryovers from the Taylor regime. Former City Councilor Susan Neal, a “Republican in name only,” keeps her job as director of community development (whatever that means).
Neal, perhaps the most liberal Republican ever to serve on the council, is a family friend of Bartlett. She has no connection to the conservative Republican base that put Bartlett into office. She is tied to special interests – including the Metro Chamber of Commerce – and she seeks to reward friends and ignore enemies.
Another poor choice is Jim Twombly, the former city manager of Broken Arrow who left with a “separation agreement” with that city, which apparently means he wasn’t fired and didn’t quit.
Twombly has been a volunteer with the Taylor Administration, writing applications for stimulus grants and dealing with “other projects.”
His hiring is undoubtedly an effort to reach out to the suburbs who have been eating away at Tulsa’s sales tax base with retail development absent from Tulsa.
Airport Director Jeff Mulder will be part of Bartlett’s team. It is unclear how Mulder will handle both jobs at once.
Terry Simonson will be Bartlett’s chief of staff. Simonson was a proven conservative until his unabashedly supported increasing taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars with the failed River Tax in 2008.
Bartlett kept saying during the campaign that he was a “conservative.”
That description hasn’t been affirmed so far.
Pagan religion at the Tulsa Zoo
Amali the giraffe is dead. That’s a shame.
The giraffe was brought to the Tulsa Zoo and along the way suffered a bizarre neck injury. There was a distinct kink in her neck that at least appeared very painful.
The zoo brought in specialists and she died in the evaluation process.
Here’s something no one wants to discuss.
The Tulsa Zoo is a filled with pagan deities. The elephant exhibit has a six-foot statue of Ganesha, the principal god of the Hindus.
When it was placed there by the secularists who run Tulsa’s publicly funded zoo, they claimed it was a “cultural symbol” and had nothing to do with religion.
The Hindus felt otherwise. They were offended by the prospect of children touching their elephant-like god and persuaded the zoo to put a fence around it.
In the rain forrest exhibit, there are several examples of pagan deities. That has been true in other exhibits, including the one from Africa.
And, of course, the zoo continues to display an exhibit on the theory of evolution, even though its information is outdated by even the most secular standards.
Imagine if a Christian wanted to put up a cross at the zoo or a display of Noah’s Ark. The atheists and the humanists at All Souls Unitarian Church would have city fathers take it down immediately or they would file suit.
The Bible is full of examples of God reacting adversely to idol worship. Ganesha apparently wasn’t enough to protect Amali.
Tulsa shouldn’t have pagan idols at a publicly funded zoo. The zoo should be made private or the idols taken down.
Until that happens, Christians should boycott the zoo.
Suburbs smarter than Tulsa
City Councilor Bill Christiansen has a great idea.
Why not have the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce support retail sales in the city of Tulsa like the suburban chambers support their cities?
In Broken Arrow, Bixby, Owasso and other cities in Tulsa County, the local chamber of commerce organizes a Christmas raffle. Participating local merchants give customers a raffle ticket when they shop and right before Christmas, a drawing is held and the winner(s) get cash or prizes.
It generates a lot of local shopping interest.
The merchants like. The residents like it. The winners really like it.
Christiansen thought of the idea after getting a ticket at a restaurant in Bixby.
His good idea is going nowhere and here is why.
The all-powerful Tulsa chamber is the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce. Even though it is funded heavily by the City of Tulsa, it focuses on regional concerns, not on the specific economic development within the city limits of Tulsa.
The Metro Chamber couldn’t support a “buy in Tulsa” campaign because that would damage its delicate relations with the suburbs.
Sure, it would help pay for policemen and firemen and help stop unpaid furloughs for city employees. But the Metro Chamber is regional, not provincial. It does what is best for its powerful members, not what is best for the city.
Tulsa should stop subsidizing this private club run by third- and fourth-generation trust fund babies.
We are spending millions with nothing to show for it.