Thursday, February 22, 2007

Glenpool: Can't Say These Folks Lack a Sense of Humor

The lengths to which the County Commission seem willing to go to prevent the City of Tulsa from annexing the Tulsa Fairgrounds is becoming down right funny.

The latest is an apparent offer by the City Council of Glenpool designed to entice the County Commission to move the Fairgrounds to property just outside of their fair township. I say “apparent offer” because part of me is sure they were snickering when they made it.

Obviously, Commissioner Randi Miller, whose commission district includes Glenpool, is hoping that the fear of losing the fairgrounds to a much smaller city might frighten a Tulsa city councilor or two into backing down on annexation. However, any councilor that takes this seriously is showing his or her self to be unworthy of their office. Here’s why.

The Commission would never move and leave all of those recently spent tax dollars generated from Vision 2025 and Four to Fix the County behind them. Glenpool is trying to shine everyone on that the move could be funded by the sale of all of those buildings, but who would by them? Even if they did buy them, what impact would it have on the big shows that are contracted for the coming years. Can’t happen and everyone knows it.

But even if it could, no commissioner would vote to move the fairgrounds for the simplest of political reasons; there are more voters in Tulsa than there are in Glenpool.

Making such a move at the city’s expense would pretty much end a commissioner’s career. That’s why they would never go for such a move.

As such, one has to wonder why the Tulsa World treated it as a serious story. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Bobby Lorton’s brother-in-law, Hal Salisbury (of The Channels fame) is an active leader with “Friends of the Fairgrounds.” Maybe the Lorton’s are trying to help their neighbor, Kathy Taylor out of a no win, political jam.

Either way, you have to admit it. The folks in Glenpool have a delicious sense of humor.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I knew there were more reasons to hate the Tulsa World. As if I didn't have enough already.

Anonymous said...

Obviuosly Chris Medlock is another one of those "tax and spend" politicians. Please justify to the citizens of Tulsa County the need for the City of Tulsa to annex the Tulsa County Fairgrounds. What does Tulsa bring to the table? Certainly more taxes but how will this benefit anyone other than themselves. The City of Tulsa already benefits temendously from the residual income it receives from area restaurants and hotel/motels everytime the fairgrounds hosts an event. This is pure greed on the part of Roscoe Turner and the Tulsa City Councilors that support the annexation. It's really a shame that Chris Medlock supports this travesty. He should spend more of his efforts critisizing Tulsa's power grab than Glenpool's willingness to offer Tulsa County an alternative to this ridiculous show of greed.

Chris Medlock said...

Welcome to my blog, Deputy Mayor Robinson. You'll be happy to know that I am working on a piece that will "justify to the citizens of Tulsa County the need for the City of Tulsa to Annex" the land upon which the Fairgrounds sits.

While I'm working on that, maybe you can tell me how you "tax" your citizens a full cent more in Glenpool that we do in Tulsa, and whether or not, as a "politician," you "spend" all that extra money?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Medlock,

I believe the title is Vice Mayor. We, as a city council, do not tax our citizens an extra penny sales tax above Tulsa's. As you should be aware, having served on the Tulsa City Council, the taxpayers themselves have taxed the "additional" penny by voting to do so. We are a city of limited revenues due to the fact that we are primarily a bedroom community at this time. With the upcoming addition of a new Wal*Mart Supercenter, new hotels and restaurants to name but a few, that situation will evolve. In the 13 years that I've been fortunate enough to serve Glenpool, I have positioned myself as a watchdog of the Citizen's tax dollars and have committed myself to the appropriate expenditure of these monies. We are very much financially solvent and still provide essential services to our residents. We do so without burdening other entities as the City of Tulsa will do if they annex the Tulsa Fairgrounds.

I very much look forward to seeing your side of the debate and how the City of Tulsa can justify another tax increase to the citizens of Tulsa County. Please reserve me the right to counter your arguments with the facts as I see them.

Respectfully,
Keith A. Robinson

Chris Medlock said...

Elected officials aren't usually so eager to associate themselves with "vice" but I'll fess up and declare my mistake in referring to you as "Deputy Mayor."

In the spirit of dialog instead of debate, I'll allow you some slack since you are representing a small and relatively new community, if you'll do the same, and recognize that Tulsa, because of its age and size, is faced with very different challenges that require very different solutions.

One size doesn't fit all.