City Of Tulsa Examining Costs Of Each City Service

By Emory Bryan, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- As the City of Tulsa searches for savings, it could find ways to do more, with less. 

Several cities found massive savings by first examining what each city service really costs. Now Tulsa is about to start that same kind of search.

Tulsa's mayor describes it as the most exhaustive review of how city hall works since Tulsa moved to a strong mayor government in 1990.

"There have been some changes, some performance reviews, some tweaking around the edges, but nothing substantial," said Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett.

Indianapolis is where the mayor is looking as the example of what change can mean. The city revamped how it evaluates what it does and how much it costs. The city hired accounting firm KPMG. Their recommendations saved the city $550 million over 13 years.

"That savings alone has allowed Indianapolis to embark on a renaissance of growth and development guided by a better operated city government. This is exactly what we want for the City of Tulsa," said Mayor Bartlett.

The review of Tulsa government will take four months, and while private donors are picking up the costs, the city and maybe the county will get the savings.

"Maybe even opportunities to work with other governments, perhaps even the county, to consolidate some of the services," said Bridget Anderson, KPMG.

While KPMG's best known success story came out of a consolidated city county government, and ultimately resulted in a combined police force, Mayor Bartlett says a true consolidation in Tulsa would be impossible. 

Instead he says Tulsa County and the City of Tulsa should determine what each does best and maybe consider trading services.

"It we're going down the same road together, there might be a way that makes sense for us to consolidate that particular service or provide it for the other government," said Mayor Bartlett.

The review is supposed to take 16 weeks, but if savings are found early they could be worked into next year's budget.

Read a case study from Indianapolis on what happened there.

Watch the WEB EXTRA video for a discussion from Mayor Bartlett of the reasons not to consolidate city and county government in Tulsa.