Bubbaworld

Sally Bell has handed Tulsa County Commissioner Randi Miller an old fashion butt kickin’ in the Tulsa County District 2 County Commission Republican primary.

That Bell defeated Miller is no surprise although the margin of victory for Bell was pleasantly surprising.

Sally Bell received 81.4% of the vote to Miller’s 18.6%, leaving no doubt as to how displeased the voters of Tulsa County District 2 are with the scandal tainted Miller.

That Randi Miller brought about her own defeat with scandal after scandal is without question.

That Randi Miller was defeated by a member of the family that owned and operated Bell’s Amusement Park for 50 plus years is not only justice, it is Karma.

And Karma is something that Randi Miller simply does not understand…

Congratulations Sally Bell…

July 29th will be a big day for Woodward County Sheriff Leslie Morton, shown above, as it is primary election day and he is facing two opponents in the Democrat primary race for Sheriff of Woodward County.

Sheriff Morton may be a bit distracted on election day as that is also the scheduled date of his preliminary hearing on 20 counts of filing false, fictitious or fraudulent claims against the state and 9 counts of embezzlement.

Sheriff Morton’s problems date back to 2005 when it was alleged that he filed false or fraudulent travel reimbursement claims between 2003 and 2005.

Woodward County Commissioners at the time called on the sheriff to pay back nearly $17,000 in travel expenses.

His attorney, Mack Martin of Oklahoma City, says that back in 2005 that Sheriff Morton made a deal with special prosecutor Bret Burns under which Morton would reimburse the county $6,594.98 and in return criminal charges against Morton would be withdrawn and apparently they were.

That is until a grand jury indicted Sheriff Morton in March 2008 on 20 counts of filing false, fictitious or fraudulent claims and recommended that the Sheriff be removed from office.

The charges contained in the grand jury indictment of March 2008 were dismissed and refiled as criminal charges on the part of the Oklahoma Attorney General in June only in addition to the 20 charges alleging fraudulent travel claims the Attorney General’s office tossed in 9 additional charges alleging embezzlement.

And that’s where we are today.

Sheriff Morton’s attorney has filed a motion requesting the Woodward County court dismiss all charges against Sheriff Les Morton.

Mack Martin says that the charges against Morton are a “vindictive prosecution” and the prosecution’s timing in bringing charges against Morton nearly three years after irregularities were first noticed is questionable, because it could be perceived as an attempt to influence the race for sheriff.

Martin goes on to claim that the “deal” involving Morton, himself and Bret Burns concluded all issues involved with Morton’s travel claims between 2003 and 2005 and that the current charges against Morton violate Morton’s due-process rights and disregarded the 2005 agreement between Sheriff Morton and the state.

At the heart of the issue is the approximate $10,000 difference between what the state claims that Morton owed the county in reimbursement and the approximate $7,000 which Morton actually reimbursed the county.

Of course the Attorney General’s office maintains that Morton fraudulently claimed about $17,000 in fraudulent travel expense reimbursements.

Obviously the issue will have to be settled in court.

But this case is sure going to make for an interesting primary election if Sheriff Morton’s attorney can not get the charges dismissed before July 29th.

Woodward County Court records of charges arising both from the grand jury indictment and the Attorney General’s office are Available Here

Oklahoma Representative Paul Wesselhoft, R-Oklahoma City, who spent years trying to outlaw dogs he does not like while failing time and again has come up with another goofy idea - outlawing outlaw gangs.

Say what?

That’s right, Wesselhoft wants to outlaw criminal gangs, with a misdemeanor law which Wesselhoft admits would probably be unconstitutional on its face.

But unconstitutional has never stopped Wesselhoft before and there is little basis to suspect he is going to change his ways and cease catering to the lunatic fringe.

If Wesselhoft does manage to get his latest stunt enacted into law how many drug dealers, armed robbers and murderers do you think will be “scared straight” by the existence of a misdemeanor law that says they can not associate with fellow drug dealers, armed robbers and murderers all sharing a common goal?

About the only effect Wesselhoft’s proposed law will have on street gangs is to give gang members cause to fall down laughing, for at least a few minutes, before they get back to the pressing matters of daily life, drug dealing, robbing and of course killing each other off at a remarkable pace.

If Wesselhoft’s foolishness ended with nothing more than making hardened criminals laugh it would not be a big deal. The reality is however that if this foolishness gets enacted into law Oklahoma, will be forced to spend millions of dollars defending this it as it works its way through the federal courts to ultimately to be struck down as unconstitutional.

We would be much better off, rather than wasting millions of dollars on Wesselhoft’s foolishness, if we spent the money staffing, equipping and supporting the cops on the street that have to deal with street gangs on a daily basis…

There was big news on the Stipe front this past week.

Francis Stipe, 77, bother of former state senator Gene Stipe, died on Monday.

Francis Stipe pleaded guilty in April to a four-count indictment involving a conspiracy aimed at gaining several hundred thousand dollars in taxpayer money for a McAlester dog food plant. Under the plea deal with prosecutors, Francis Stipe was sentenced to three years of probation, a $500,000 fine and six months home confinement.

Stipe had already paid the $500,000 fine and was serving his home confinement when he became ill and was rushed to a Tulsa hospital where he died.

According to U.S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling it is likely that the case against Francis Stipe will be vacated because Stipe died before he could be formerly sentenced. Sperling says that case law supports what appeals courts have deemed the “rule of abatement”. The U.S. Supreme Court established in a 1971 holding that if a convicted person dies before exhausting appeals, the entire criminal proceeding is abated.

This means that the family of Francis Stipe will likely recover the $500,000 fine and Stipes criminal record would be wiped clean.

Meanwhile the real Pittsburg County Courthouse is undergoing renovation. A temporary Pittsburg County Courthouse has been established in a local building reportedly owned by Premier Property Management Group which the court has leased for the tidy sum of $175,608 a year.

Just a couple weeks after the temporary courthouse was established in its new home, a stone marker was placed on the building.

That marker declares to the world that the building is in fact the “Gene and Agnes Stipe Building Complex”.

Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Steven Taylor, a McAlester resident and former Mayor of McAlester, has his knickers in a knot, saying “This is a matter of the administration of justice, and I feel strongly about this, and I am personally offended.”

Justice Taylor went on to say, “The courthouse is the sanctuary of justice for the community. It is the place where citizens enter expecting dignified and honorable proceedings. That building should not be named for a convicted felon.”

District Judge Thomas Bartheld, the presiding judge over the courts in Pittsburg and McIntosh counties, said “We leased the building. To have a sign placed on the building two weeks after we move in is wrong.”

Maybe, just maybe, while Gene Stipe was out of the federal prison for a few days to attend his brother’s funeral someone drove him by the “”Gene and Agnes Stipe Building Complex”, for a good chuckle at the taxpayers expense.

One can almost hear the giggling, all the way from Springfield, Missouri…

A Bubbaworld Editorial

The Tulsa School Board and “Dr. Z”, aka Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Zolkoski have agreed to what one might call an “amicable divorce”.

Maybe a “slow motion amicable divorce” would be a more accurate description of the breakup.

Unlike most scenarios where a high level manager departs an organization suddenly and rides a golden parachute gently into the sunset, Dr. Z’s departure is prolonged, a lot more prolonged with the golden parachute ride coming 90 days later.

Last Monday the Tulsa School Board and Superintendent Michael Zolkoski went through the motions of discussing and approving a “deal” that had been cooked up and apparently decided well before the executive session held for the benefit of us mere taxpayers.

Basically Zolkoski agreed to an offer from Tulsa Public Schools “buying out” his contract for $400,000 and in exchange Tulsa Public Schools gets to end the disaster that has been Zolkoski’s stint at the helm of the largest public school system in Oklahoma.

On the surface the deal sounds “reasonable”, in that Zolkoski’s salary was basically $200,000 per-year and he has two years left to run on his contract and the financial aspects of the deal coincide with the terms of the “termination without cause” (aka golden parachute) portion of Zolkoski’s employment contract.

What is grossly unreasonable about the TPS/Michael Zolkoski divorce settlement is permitting Zolkoski to remain at the helm of Tulsa Public Schools for another 90 days after the “divorce” is announced. This will take the ill-fated Zolkoski administration approximately two months into the 2008-2009 school year for Tulsa Public Schools.

Here we have a school board willing to pay a person TWO YEARS worth of salary NOT to work for them and yet they are going to let him hang around running the organization for three months!

Permitting Michael Zolkoski an additional 90 days to mismanage Tulsa Public Schools is not only a disgrace on the part of the school board, it is an insult to the taxpayers, parents and most of all students of Tulsa Public Schools who have had to endure “Dr. Z’s” management, or more accurately - mismanagement, for far too long already.

The last thing that the students of Tulsa Public Schools need is a lame-duck superintendent whose decisions, ideas and methods resulted in need for this “divorce” doing more of the same.

Now, what is it that saying about doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result???