Former CEO Fingers County Commissioner
Rick Bjorklund, until recently the President and CEO of Expo Square, aka “Tulsa Fairgrounds” has fingered Tulsa County Commissioner Randi Miller as the person behind his actions or more appropriately inactions involving the failure of Big Splash Water Park to pay its rent on time.
Bjorklund has told the Tulsa World that then fair board chairwoman, Tulsa County Commissioner Randi Miller, speaking in regard to Big Splash told him “Ease up on them and get it off the radar.”“.
Commissioner Miller has of course said that is a lie.
Bjorklund also told the Tulsa World that during the executive session of the Fair Board that resulted in his firing that “I turned to Randi and I said: ‘You had given me instructions, Randi, to get it off the radar screen, and we did that.’ ”
Commissioner Miller has of course also said that is a lie, although elected officials such as Miller are prohibited from revealing anything that did or did not take place or which was or was not discussed in an executive session .
Bjorklund also told the Tulsa World that shortly after he was hired in 2006 that he was told by then-board Chairman Wilbert Collins that Big Splash’s 2006 rent would be late.
Collins has denied any such conversation took place calling Bjorklund’s claim “a damn lie”.
As to why Bjorklund is now speaking out, the Tulsa World quoted Bjorklund as stating, that the “impression was that I, or we, did something wrong. We did not — I followed the direction of the chairman.”
It is obvious that someone involved in this scandal is lying. It is possible that everyone involved in the scandal is lying.
There are so many twists, turns and possibilities involved in this scandal that the only hope, if any, of ever getting to the bottom of this mess and determining who is truthful, who is lying, who is honest and who is a crook is for a grand jury to conduct a full investigation of all parties involved and for the State Auditor and Inspector to conduct a full audit of the Tulsa Fairgrounds finances for at least the past five years.
Of course the possibility of either a grand jury investigation or a state audit is likely to send a cold chill down the spines of both current and former Tulsa County officials but it is time that the voters and taxpayers of Tulsa County determine whether their elected and appointed officials are outright crooks or are simply asleep at the wheel of county government.
