Governor Fallin Reacts To Tulsa City Councilor's Effort To Oust Mayor

Emory Bryan, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- A Tulsa City Councilor laid out his plan Thursday to get Mayor removed from office.

Councilor John Eagleton is leading the effort, which has at least some support from every other councilor.

Councilor Eagleton says what he's doing is the logical next step to get the Council's complaints in front of someone who can pass judgment and make it count, possibly kicking the mayor out of the office.

3/3/2011 Related Story: Tulsa City Councilor: Mayor Bartlett Has Failed

All nine councilors expressed at least some support of John Eagleton's effort to pursue a legal case against the Mayor for official misconduct. He's prepared a case involving 10 main allegations and backup material that he presented to the other councilors Thursday.

See Councilor Eagleton's presentation

See Councilor Eagleton's supporting documents

"Only when I became convinced that Mayor Bartlett was beyond hope did I bring this forward," Eagleton said.

Eagleton's petition to prosecute the Mayor is in the hands of Governor Mary Fallin.

"We'll I've looked at the documents from the standpoint that there's a big stack of them, but we'd like some time to review the documents he's sent over," she said.

The Councilors differences with Mayor Bartlett started over the budget, but has now evolved into personal conflicts on almost every imaginable level.

The mayor was out of town during the presentation and the most senior member of the administration there was council liaison Clay Bird. The mayor's private attorney was there too.

"This isn't an issue of ouster, this is really an issue of the council's animosity towards the mayor," Joel Wolhgemuth, Mayor Bartlett's attorney, said.

The most cautious response to the allegations came from Councilor GT Bynum.

"And the only fair thing for any of us to do is to wait and give Mayor Bartlett a chance to respond," he said.

Councilor Chris Trail says he didn't hear anything that wasn't true.

"A lot of that seemed to be exactly what happened and how it happened," he said.

"No one can deny that Mayor Bartlett did or said these things," Councilor Rick Westcott said.  "They're facts. They're documented."

Governor Fallin can order the investigation for misconduct or citizens can make it happen through a petition process.

Eagleton says he's pursuing the petition in case the Governor doesn't act.  He said citizens interested in supporting the ouster could go to JohnEagleton.com.

Mayor Bartlett was out of state, meeting with a member of Congress about transportation funding on Thursday.

Be sure and watch Councilor John Eagleton's interview on Six in the Morning Friday at 6:15 a.m.