Confirming that Mayor Bartlett believes transparency has no place in City government, the Mayor now refuses to share revenue projection process with City Councilors or Tulsans. Comparatively, in Oklahoma City, a 5-year revenue projection paper is shared with councilors and Oklahoma City residents.

Lack of transparency has been a hallmark of the Bartlett "my way or the highway" administration. When councilors asked for information on the basis on which revenue projections were made so they could review Mayor Bartlett's budget, he sent his $125,000 a year, 31 year old chief of staff to say that they would "see what they could do" to get them the information. He predictably doubted they could get to it before the budget proposal was due to be voted on by the city council.

Worried councilors are justifiably concerned that Mayor Bartlett once again has over-projected revenues, as he did in 2013. Last year Bartlett presented to the councilthe largest budget ever presented to a city council and still went way over budget. His administration's lack of fiscal discipline has sent the City to once again into a financial tailspin.

The only thing in this administration that is transparent are the Mayor's priorities. He is now proposing drastic cuts to police, transit, parks and again refusing to give pay raises to the lowest paid city employees. Bartlett continues to take his salary of $105,000 while delegating his duties to City Manager Jim Twombly who now takes home $147,000 of city tax dollars. Despite the City's financial difficulties, the number of employees earning over $100,000 on Bartlett's team has swollen from 34 to 87 according to recent reports in the Tulsa world. In lieu of internal belt tightening, the Mayor has expanded his communications staff to record levels and gave a RAISE to the employee in charge of the infamous green waste debacle. The man certainly knows how to add insult to injury.

Mayor Bartlett continues to lay blame for budget woes on everyone but the person citizens elected to be responsible. ---Mayor Bartlett himself. He lays blame at the feet of police officers, firefighters and our city councilors. In 2013 many warned that if Bartlett refused to get the budget under control in a timely manner, the city would suffer for it. It seems those chickens are coming home to roost.

We urge all citizens to call Mayor Bartlett and ask him to release the information requested by the councilors so a proper evaluation can be made of revenue projections and post that information on line so all Tulsans can know how their tax dollars are being spent. Please call Dewey at (918) 596-2100 or write him at [email protected]