Interim City Attorney Calls Tulsa Councilor 'Half-Brained'

Emory Bryan, News on 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- A Tulsa City Councilor and the Interim City Attorney exchanged barbs during a contentious City Council meeting Thursday night.

Interim City Attorney David Pauling accused Councilor John Eagleton of making false accusations about him and his department. Eagleton had just spoken about his belief that City Legal assisted the parties behind a lawsuit against the City Council.

The evidence Eagleton cited was part of a motion filed last week in the case.

Read the motion John Eagleton cited.

Pauling told Eagleton in the meeting "I don't know what you think is there, but you've gone off "half-cocked and half-brained."

Council Chair Barnes cut off his comments and Pauling's microphone was muted. Barnes said "He's not going to come up here and call us names."

[Watch video clip of Barnes-Pauling exchange above]

Eagleton asked Barnes to let Pauling continue speaking. Pauling apologized for his outburst and asked Eagleton to come up to his office "to bury whatever we have to bury."

Councilor Eagleton told Pauling, "We have no confidence in you as the City Attorney. You have betrayed your trust to your client. I have no intentions of meeting you anywhere other than on camera."

Eagleton was seeking a resolution from the council that would waive attorney-client privilege for documents in the possible ouster case against Mayor Dewey Bartlett. Eagleton wants documents that are in the legal department to be available to Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

Eagleton is leading a petition driven application for an investigation of the mayor on charges of official misconduct. The resolution waiving privilege was approved by the Council on an 8-0 vote, with Councilor Rick Westcott absent.