Tulsa City Council Questions Group Studying City/County Parks Consolidation

The Tulsa City Council wants a lot more information before deciding whether to consolidate the City and County parks departments.

Several councilors wanted to put the brakes on the plan so they could get involved, but the private backers behind it said all that's happened is a study that says it could be a good idea that would help bring outside money into the parks system.

Tulsa's parks have suffered from years of budget cuts; and with no big change in sight, a private effort has begun to possibly consolidate County and City parks and go after outside dollars to make improvements.

“Everybody who is involved realizes there could be better maintenance, better programming, more staffing, more attention to the parks,” said John O’Connor with the Tulsa Leadership Vision.

O'Connor and Howard Barnett brought the results of their privately financed study to the city council, hoping for the blessing to move from two phases of quick studies to a full-blown study in phase three.

The council pushed back.

City Councilor Anna America said, “Okay, so phase three is awesome, but you need to catch everybody up on phase two.”

Several councilors worried they didn't have input so far, but the private group said they'll have plenty of input going forward.

The council wants the work to stop until they can get up to speed on what the group has done so far.

They told the council that parks could flourish under a new master plan and - like Gilcrease and the Tulsa Zoo - could attract new dollars.

"You have the opportunity to go out and get grants and public support in a way they might do for the city and the county," Barnett said.

The plan is to take the study forward once the council reviews it.

The private group said their only goal is to do more with parks.

O'Connor said, “We know that we have scarce resources, and we know every year they're going to get more scarce unless we do something.”

So far the study hasn't cost the city or county anything - private donors are paying for it.