Opposing recall efforts target divided Tulsa City Council

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The split on the City Council began with the first meeting more than a year ago. Now, six of nine council members are targets of opposing <b><a class="headlinelink" href="http://www.kotv.com/main/home/searchKOTV.asp?mainSearch=recall">recall</a></b>

Friday, July 8th 2005, 1:37 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The split on the City Council began with the first meeting more than a year ago. Now, six of nine council members are targets of opposing recall efforts, with both sides claiming the other is doing Tulsa's economy harm.

Chris Medlock, one of two GOP councilmen facing a recall election Tuesday, paints the division as a battle of "folks versus the power structure." But his opponents say he's the ringleader of an antigrowth voting bloc that has hurt Tulsa's ability to recruit business.

"A cancer growing in the community," former Tulsa Metro Chamber Chairman Bob Poe has called the alliance.

The turmoil comes as Oklahoma's second-largest city struggles to recover from an economic slump that cost it 32,000 jobs in 2003, or 7.8 percent of the regional work force.

It began when four members of the new council boycotted the first meeting last year and met instead at a downtown Arby's to consider ousting the council chairman, whose leadership they opposed. A fifth councilor later joined the bipartisan bloc, forming what Tulsa World editorial writers dubbed the "Gang of Five."

Medlock's opponents call him a radical who has manipulated others into going along with him. But Medlock said the division comes down to a difference in philosophy over whether Tulsa should focus on regional growth or on existing urban needs.

He believes he and the other councilors upset the city's traditional power brokers by voting against annexing land north of Tulsa and questioning the construction of a water line to the suburb of Owasso. He also challenged volunteer appointments to city boards because he said home builders, real estate groups and others seeking to profit from suburban growth had gained too much power there.

"We've done nothing illegal. We've done nothing immoral," Medlock said. "They just don't like our votes."

Jim Mautino, the other councilor up for recall Tuesday, said he found it hard to support a suburban water line when development in his east Tulsa district is stymied by a lack of access to water and sewer services.

"I don't want Tulsa to be the hole in the doughnut, and that's what's happening to us," Mautino said.

The Coalition for Responsible Government 2004, a group made up largely of development, real estate and business interests, gathered more than 750 voter signatures in Medlock's district and more than 500 in Mautino's district to bring the recall vote.

The coalition's chairman, Jon Davidson, accuses the two councilors of being argumentative, asking questions that lacked foundation and alienating the suburbs that helped pass a regional economic development initiative in 2003.

"A lot of energy went into building those bridges to those communities," he said.

Citizens for Fair and Clean Government countered with its own recall drive targeting Mayor Bill LaFortune and four councilors who often share a minority vote. The grass-roots group is circulating petitions that allege the four councilors are controlled by special interests and "deserving the same treatment" as Medlock and Mautino.

"This is about people tired of having their vote thrown back in their face," said David O'Conner, a truck driver from Mautino's district who is heading the ongoing signature drive.

The five-member voting bloc was broken in February when councilman Sam Roop took a job in the mayor's cabinet. But Poe said the damage had already been done.

He cannot name specific business recruits lost because of the division, but "clearly, it's not hard to figure out that we're (the city) not focused and moving forward in the best way possible," he said.

Council member Jack Henderson, one of two Democratic councilors who joined the bloc but isn't targeted for recall, said he was never trying to stop progress.

"I have not been led by anybody," he said. "It's not good ol' boy wins anymore. It's councilors looking at what they feel is best for the city as a whole. It happened to be an unpopular stand."

The League of Women Voters, several state lawmakers and the mayor have spoken against Tuesday's recall vote.

If either of the two city councilors is ousted, the remaining councilors will choose replacements to serve until next April's election.