Mayor G.T. Bynum: Tulsa Must Grow To Be Successful

Tulsa's new mayor begins his second full week in office Monday, and he's got a lot on his schedule already. Mayor G.T. Bynum spoke with 6 In The Morning about how his administration will be different than those in the past.

"I have relationships with individual city councilors, and that's going to be crucial for us to work together rather than what you've seen historically, which has been typically fighting between the mayor and the council over who is in charge," Bynum said.

"We aren't going to have those fights; we are going to work together to put Tulsa in the best position it can be to be successful."

Bynum and city council members will meet this week to set goals and discuss strategy.

He told News On 6 one of his first priorities is to get Tulsa growing again. Population has been pretty flat over the last 15 years, and a business that can't grow its customer base won't keep its doors open for long, he said.

Bynum said the same thing is true for the city. The cost of providing services is going up, and the population needs to increase as well, he said.

Tulsa needs to improve some areas to attract that added population, he said.

"Focusing on helping our schools develop a world-class education system, reorienting our economic development efforts to the national and international level, these are the types of things that we think will allow Tulsa to start growing again, and that's going to be the primary focus of my administration," Bynum said.