Fundraiser for Tim Coager

Tim Coager is running for State Senate District 34. District 34 is the seat that Randy Brogdon is vacating; as such, it is a race to which I'm paying close attention.

Tim is having a campaign fundraiser in the form of a $25 a plate spaghetti dinner/auction. I must say that I've never really been tempted to attend a $ per plate dinner before, honestly because they were too expensive and seemed out of my league. However, $25 bucks, plus a casual setting, plus a candidate that has captured my attention seems like a pretty good deal. So, I'll be there.


When: Feb 27th 6:00-8:00 pm
Where: Owasso Community Center - 301 S Cedar Owasso OK, 74055
What: $25 a plate casual spaghetti dinner with door prizes and an auction
RSVP: SEE the image below for those details (I didn't want to post the phone number in clear text)

The invitation said to RSVP by the 17th, but I since Tim just invited me last night, and because he seemed to appreciate my offer to put this on my blog, I assume that if you RSVP quickly you could still get a seat.

Union Public Schools Electioneering Update

Two weeks ago I reported that Union Public Schools was engaging in illegal election day electioneering, and that the response from the County Election board was less than impressive. I'm happy to report that I've now had favorable contact with officials at the Election Board, and with Union's Superintendent Dr. Cathy Burden.

When I spoke with Shelly Boggs from the election board she not only agreed with me that electioneering had indeed occurred, but she also agreed to reach out to Dr. Cathy Burden.

A few days later I had a great conversation with Dr. Burden. She thanked me for bringing this matter to her attention, and pledged that next year Union would do a better job converting the 5 polling places they have from centers for parental information into fully compliant polling places.

I'm very pleased with this outcome. Both Shelly Boggs and Dr. Burden were not only accessible, but very gracious in attending to my complaints. Stay tuned....for about a year; I expect to report zero electioneering violations and a clean school bond election.

Tulsa Street, Storm Water, and Sewer Project Delays

As a member of Tulsa's Sales Tax Overview Committee (STOC), I attend regular meetings with the project heads and staff members at Public Works to go over the various street, storm water, and sewer projects that are funded with sales tax or bond monies.

During a recent meeting, I kept hearing something very similar to "Project number 054171 - Because of utility conflicts we are going to push the advertise date back, ONG has a gas line that needs to be moved."  A utility conflict arises when a utility company needs to move one of their lines but can not do it in time to meet the project dead line.  This can be either because the utility company does not have the man power to perform their task on our schedule, or because a utility line turned out to be an unexpected and unplanned for surprise.  In this case construction had not even started, nor the contract awarded.  We knew about the line but OG&E would not be able to relocate it when we needed them to...thus project delay.

At the end of the meeting having heard something similar to the above statement at least three times, I asked, "So, is that three projects that are delayed because of ONG "  The answer was quite a shock to me; No about 60 projects are delayed because of  ONG utility conflicts. In ten of those projects the contract has already been awarded and/or construction has already started.  For those ten it was thought that OG&E would be able to get to the relocates in time...unfortunately...not.

There are two major forces at play that are causing this to happen.
1.  ONG only has three crews in Tulsa that can perform this work.  They used to have four crews, but due to cutbacks it is now three.

2.   There have been a flood of 2008 projects that require total street re-construction.  Were some of these projects just standard milling of the road bed and an overlay of asphalt, there would be no need to involve ONG . However, a lot of these projects call for a level of  work that will either run into a gas line, or will disturb the ground enough that the line would be damaged.  Some of these streets sit on top of 50-year-old lines that are not deep enough.  There is a potential that the street work could cause damage to those lines resulting in a leak that would the require the brand new street to be ripped up in order to repair it.

Unfortunately, this means that until ONG can get to some of these projects, they will sit on the shelf waiting to be started.

UPDATE
A previous version stated that that OG&E was the company involved.  I was mistaken. It was ONG.  I didn't read my notes correctly.  Sorry for the confusion.

Horatio Caine on the DC Blizzard

Horatio Caine Comments on Henderson's Tax Idea

Union Public Schools Electioneering...AGAIN!!!

Imagine that it's primary election day again. Imagine that you are headed to the polls to cast your vote for Medlock for Mayor, or perhaps for Bartlett.  As you walk up to the polling place you see this sign.

It wouldn't just be inappropriate, it would be electioneering and it would be illegal.  But that is exactly the sign that I found on the door of my polling place today as I prepared to cast a vote for Union's School Bond.  Instead of a picture of Medlock, there was a picture of one of the proposed projects and a reminder that passage would not raise taxes. This is the sign that I found on the the door of the polling place, not 6 feet from a sign that said No Electioneering, and less than 20 feet from a polling booth. 


 
While I'll admit that this message isn't overtly pro-school bond, I think most people would agree that it there is a subtle pro-school bond message here that crosses the line. This sign wasn't just informational it was designed to persuade people to vote for the bond.  Union did the same thing last year by putting pro-bond election material feet from the polling booth. Unlike last year, I decided to make a more official stink about this clear violation of Oklahoma Law.  Unfortunately what I found was a rather uninterested and lackadaisical attitude from the Tulsa County Election Board.  Before I called, I convinced an election official at the polling place to take the sign down.  On the phone, an Election Board official suggested that if I wanted to make the complaint official, that I should put the sign back up, and wait for a county sheriff to come and take the sign down.

When I asked what would happen to the sign, I was told it would go into the trash; no paper work, no documentation, no attempt to hold the offending party responsible.  I protested by asking what would happen were I to start trying to electioneer while I was on the the phone with her, she told me she would have me arrested. The official told me that talking was worse than a sign...that signs didn't talk to people, and that probably no one even looked at the sign.

I guess that means that it is up to me to rectify this situation.  Instead of having a sheriff throw the sign in the trash, I decided to take it with me.  I plan to meet with Superintendent Dr. Cathy Burden, as well as get a statement from both local and State election officials. I'll keep you posted.

Tulsa County GOP Straw Poll

On Sat Feb 6th, the Tulsa County GOP held a rally at the Tulsa Technology Center.  A straw poll was conducted, the following question was asked concerning the below listed races:

"If the election were held today, who would you vote for...."

U.S. Congress District 1

John Sullivan             52.9%

Nathan Dahm            26.6

Fran Moghaddam        1.5

Undecided                 13.3

Not My District            5.7

Governor

Randy Brodgon         68.4%

Mary Fallin                23.6

Robert Hubbard          0.8

Undecided                 7.2

Lt Governor

John Wright              35.7%

Todd Lamb                22.4

Undecided                 41.8

Attorney General

Ryan Leonard            25.9%

Clark Jolley                 7.6

Undecided                 66.5

State Treasurer

Owen Laughlin           18.3%

Ken Miller                  15.6

Undecided                  66.2

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Janet Barresi             36.9%

Shawn Hime                6.1

Undecided                  57.0

Commissioner of Labor

Tad Jones               18.6%

Jason Reese           11.4

Mark Costello           9.5

Mark Mullin              0.4

Undecided              60.1

State Senate District 34

Tim Coager             16.0%

Rick Brinkley           13.3

Undecided               17.1

Not My District         53.6

State Representative District 68

Howard Pidcock      11.4%

Glen Mulready           8.7

Undecided               20.5

Not My District         59.3

State Representative District 75

Dan Kirby                 9.1%

Dennis Adkins          3.0

Undecided              20.9

Not My District        66.9

Tulsa Co. Commissioner District 3

Fred Perry              17.9%

Michael Masters     10.6

Undecided              24.3

Not My District       47.1

Union Bond Vote Tomorrow

If you live in the Union Public School District, you need to vote on whether or not to pass the latest bond issue. This year it is a 22.5 million dollar bond, a bit more than last year...(I see a re-occurring theme)...

Here are the last several bond amounts.
2009: $20,000,000
2008: $19,400,000
2007: $17,000,000
2006: $15,200,000
2005: $13,000,000*
2004: $17,000,000*
2003: $16,000,000*
*Remember that Union school bonds are on a 5 year cycle. The new one coming on with the oldest one dropping off.


Here is the list of things the money is being used for this year.

UCA High School Wing - Phase 1**	12,000,000
Grove Remodel - Phase 2**	4,500,000
Textbooks/Media Books**	810,000
Site Allocations**	730,000
8th Grade Cooling Tower**	150,000
Tuttle Field - Remove Crown $ Returf**	1,200,000
Fine Arts Instruments/Equipment**	180,000
Athletics/Epirit Equipment/Uniforms/Pool Upgrade**	200,000
Technology Hardware/Software/Cameras**	820,000
Maintenance/Operations Equipment**	165,000
Buses/Transportation Equipment ***	945,000
Contingency and Fees**	800,000
Total	$22,500,000

**Proposition 1
***Proposition 2

The only thing in this list that gave me pause is the $1.2 mill for the football field. It seemed a little exsisve to me so I called Superintendent Dr. Cathy Burden to get more information.

She told me that Tuttle Field had two problems that they were looking to solve with this item.

1. The turf is in bad shape. I asked why it couldn't just be repaired to which she replied that it had been in fact repaired, many times. Dr Burden told me that there were over 300 "holes" in the field where there the turf had been patched. It is Union's opinion that the field has been repaired as much as it can be and that it's time for it to be replaced entirely.

2. The field has a crown or dome...aka it is not a flat field. When the field was built the district was talked into the crown on the promise that it would ease draining problems. Unfortunately, according to Dr. Burden, the crown actually causes draining problems. Also I'm told that the field cannot be used for soccer.  I guess you need a flat field for soccer. Trying to kick the ball in a straight line on a field with a crown is difficult I guess.

The idea behind this item is to kill two birds with one stone. Dr. Burden also pointed out that Tuttle Field is in use at least 300 days out of the year, and with this change it could get even more use(I'm guessing that means they will be able to play soccer after this?)

I have to admit that I still think $1.2 million seems excessive, but at least I understand the reason behind the item.  I would have preferred that the returf be placed in it's own proposition, nevertheless tomorrow I'll be voting yes on both proposition. 

I should have pointed out somewhere in this post but never did...until just now...that the passage of this bond will not cause a net change in any one persons taxes.  As it is a sunset tax that is being renewed, technically this is an increase in tax but that is only if you are being really strict.  If this passes no one's property tax will be higher as a result. 

Democrat Kathy Taylor 4 Anna America

I was just forwarded this interesting note from the Tulsa Chamber. If you read it without any subtext it seems harmless enough...
"Hey, Tulsa Chamber here...if you haven't donated to the candidate for your choice for TPS school board, now is the time."

But if you read it the way I read it it's a little more interesting...
"Hey Tulsa Chamber here. We don't like to endorse candidates but...Kathy Taylor is backing Anna America for TPS school board. You should to, in fact why don't you go ahead and donate to her so that we can get Anna on the board so she can do KT's good work....ohh yeah, you can donate to Bobbie Gray too...I guess."

I know some of you have written checks to the candidates for the Tulsa School Board. But if you have just forgotten to do so, there is still time. We got a call this morning from former Mayor Kathy Taylor, who is trying to secure final funds for Anna America. I know they are trying to get their last direct mail piece out. The election is Tuesday, February 9, so haste is important.