City Council Gets First Look At Tulsa's Fiscal Year 2010-2011 Budget

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, OK -- Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett will unveil his new city budget Thursday evening.

It's $230 million, but does not include any money to re-hire 89 police officers let go in February.  Mayor Bartlett says this budget is his first chance to outline his plans for the city and re-hiring police officers is not part of that plan.

Mayor Dewey Bartlett goes before the city council Thursday evening to reveal his $230 million budget.  He calls it a bare bones budget that's similar to what the city is using right now.

The mayor is asking for additional $2 million to pay for expenses at the new city hall.  But missing from the budget is money for police and fire academies or to re-hire 89 police officers who lost their jobs during the February layoffs.

"Well at this point we can't afford them," Mayor Bartlett said.  "Secondly, we do not have a contract negotiated with the police union and we hate to make a commitment without really knowing what our contract is going to allow for."

The FOP told the News On 6 they cannot comment on the mayor's budget because the union and the city are in the middle of negotiations.  In March, a spokeswoman said they were keeping their fingers crossed but didn't have high expectations.

"I'd love to say that we're going to be able to hire those officers and have an academy class, but right now that's not going to be possible," Kim Presley, Tulsa FOP, said on March 24th

The mayor says the restructured police department is working well now for the city.  The interim chief has cut the monthly overtime pay in half and crime from mid-March to mid-April is down 16-percent.

"In the last several months we've really seen a pretty good decrease in crime even though we had laid off a lot of police officers," Mayor Bartlett said.  "So, at least at this point, a rising crime rate that had been forecasted has not materialized so that's good news."

That meeting starts at 6 p.m. Thursday at Tulsa City Hall.