Tulsa Mayor, Public Safety Unions At Odds Over Budget Cuts

By Ashli Sims, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Tulsa's mayor and its police and fire unions are facing off in a budget showdown and the city council could get caught in the middle.

The two unions want the city to tap a multi-million dollar fund to avoid hundreds of layoffs.

The mayor doesn't want tom, but some city councilors could force the issue.

Tulsa police officers say digging the city out of a $10 million budget hole is not just a numbers game.

It's people's lives and the FOP and IAFF local have set up a web site to show the faces of those who could be affected by more layoffs.

12/30/2009 Related story: Tulsa's Police And Fire Unions Launch Layoff Impact Web Site

"We want the citizens to see that's what's going on here, we're potentially losing 2nd and 3rd generation police officers and firefighters," said Ryan Perkins, Fraternal Order of Police.

Tasked with trimming millions, all city departments will have to make cuts.

For TPD that could mean laying off more than 135 officers.

The Tulsa Fire Department could lose between 30 and 60 firefighters with another 60 forced to take demotions and pay cuts.

But the public safety unions say there's another way.

Tulsa Police chief Ron Palmer has suggested putting off buying new police cars and using that money to pay salaries.

An idea the mayor has rejected.

"Simply putting that off for another couple of years, how are we going to get the money to buy it then if we spent the money now on salaries? That doesn't work," Dewey Bartlett said.

The FOP says all of this could be avoided if the city would tap $11 million worth of trash to energy money.

"Certainly considering there's money out there that's available the police department has identified as a possibility, we sure would like to see the citizens given the opportunity to make a decision about where they'd like to go," Ryan Perkins said.

Mayor Bartlett says he is looking at some cost-cutting measures like selling one of the older police helicopters but he says shuffling dollars around will only postpone the inevitable.

"It's a short term fix but it's not a solution. It doesn't fix the problem. The problem is we have a lot of money that's being paid out in salaries," said Mayor Dewey Bartlett.

Despite Mayor Dewey Bartlett's reservations, the city council could vote next Tuesday to sell off equipment to pay salaries or transfer the trash to energy money.

But the mayor would still have the final say and layoffs could come as soon as January 15th.