Tulsa's New Mayor, City Council Get To Work

By Emory Bryan, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Tulsa's new mayor and new city council started work Tuesday at city hall.

The mayor has a full day of meetings with city department heads to talk about how he plans to run the city.

The mayor and his top two staff members, Jim Twombly and Terry Simonson, are in those meetings -- the first of the new administration. Mayor Bartlett has met most of these folks before, during the transition.

At the same time, the new city council had work sessions all morning. 

The council briefly met on Monday after the inauguration to elect a chair and vice chair.

The new councilors, Chris Trail, Maria Barnes, Jim Mautino and Roscoe Turner, were all there and all asking questions.

"I've said time after time when you don't have money, act like you don't have money, and we continue to spend money like we do and like we've always had it," said Roscoe Turner, Tulsa City Councilor.

Several of the new councilors were questioning a plan by the city to auction off surplus vehicles. The auction is Saturday, December 12 and they want changes in how the city is handling the auction because they believe the city might need to hang on to those vehicles, or at least make more of an effort to get the most from them at the auction.

12/7/2009  Related Story: Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett Sworn In