Tulsa City Council Backs Off Call To Cut City's IT Department

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, OK -- The Tulsa City Council dropped a plan to ask the mayor for further and immediate cuts to the city's information technology department. Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett and his chief of staff Terry Simonson met with the city council and asked for time to study the matter.

While the city of Tulsa's IT Department has taken the same cuts as other departments, the council probed Mayor Dewey Bartlett about the need to take additional cuts from IT, where workers earn above average pay for city government work. 

Managers in the department generally earn more than $75,000 per year.

2/1/2010 Related story: City of Tulsa Is Back On Track To Balance Its Budget

The IT Department grew significantly under the previous mayor, Kathy Taylor, with the consolidation of computer services into one area. 

Until then, each department had it's own smaller IT Department, and because of the isolation of services, many of the city's computers were not compatible with other departments.

The IT Department now handles all information technology services ranging from water bills to 911 dispatching. 

The City Council was considering a resolution urging the mayor to trim the IT budget and redirect money to other city departments. 

The action on the resolution was stopped after the mayor assured councilors a thorough review of each department would begin soon.