And “the cat” is the existence of $135.2 million dollars in unspent tax revenues collected over the past 20 to 30 years through various sales tax initiatives.

Tax revenues on which the City of Tulsa has apparently been “sitting” while the city’s infrastructure crumbles.

Tulsa City Councilor Bill Martinson observed, “We have funds that date back 17 years that haven’t been expended, and we have streets that are falling apart before our very eyes.”

Tulsa City Councilor John Eagleton upon learning of these old and unspent tax revenues said what may well be going through the minds of a lot of Tulsa residents preparing to vote on two ballot initiatives that will increase their taxes.

Eagleton said, “We’re getting ready to ask (voters) for about $500 million to fix the roads, and we’re sitting on $136 million for capital projects?” and that is a question that not only deserves an answer but gives rise to additional questions.

Questions such as:

In what bank(s) are these surplus funds deposited?

Are the taxpayers of Tulsa earning a reasonable interest on these surplus tax revenues, some of which have apparently been “laying around” since the 1970’s?

Who has ultimate control of this $135 million “slush fund”?

And most importantly, why when this much surplus tax revenue was available have Tulsans been asked time and again to approve new and additional tax increases for a variety of purposes?

At the City Council meeting where counselors learned of the “slush fund”, Budget Director Pat Connelly admitted that the city has some funds on its books dating to the early 1980s and even to the 1970s.

The existence of a $135 million dollar “slush fund” does nothing to build a sense of confidence in Tulsa taxpayers asked to reach into the wallets and purses to fund infrastructure repairs which could have, at least in part, been completed years ago with tax revenues paid many years ago.

Someone has A LOT of explaining to do between now and election day…

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ronald White for the second time ruled Stipe mentally incompetent to stand trial on a four-count federal indictment that accuses him of continued political corruption and bribery.

Judge White said, “It would be an understatement to describe this case as unusual”.

White also stated that he had seen no evidence from the government of improvement in Stipe’s mental condition.

Gene Stipe spent four months in the federal prison medical facility in Missouri where his mental condition was evaluated by mental health professionals, two of whom testified offering differing views of Stipe’s mental condition.

Judge White refused to consider as evidence 246 recorded phone calls that Stipe made in prison over his recent four month evaluation. This in spite of U.S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling insisting that the calls do not give an indication of dementia but instead show Stipe to be mentally competent to handle his business, family and personal affairs.

Judge White indicated that he would not allow the calls to be played in court without listening to them first and stated that he was not going to take time to do that. White pointed out that he became aware of the recordings only on Monday morning and that the government could have sought a continuance but did not.

With Judge White’s refusal to listen to the government’s evidence and the government’s decision not to seek a continuance that would give him time to do so, is it any surprise that the judge has not seen (or heard) evidence from the government about improvement in Gene Stipe’s mental condition?

With this, a second defeat in trying to get Stipe declared competent to stand trial it appears that Sheldon Sperling is on the verge of simply giving up.

With Sperling’s decision not to seek a continuance to give the judge time to review the 246 recordings one might wonder if “giving up” is not what Sperling wishes to do.

Meantime Gene Stipe sits at home under house arrest in McAlester.

At least until January.

That is when his five-year probation on a 2004 conviction for campaign violations and perjury expires.

At that time Gene Stipe is totally free of federal control…

It used to be that City Hall was very easy to find.

It was located in what is called the Civic Center, a place where one also finds the Tulsa County Court House, the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, elected officials of Tulsa County, the majority of Tulsa County offices, the Tulsa Police Department, the Tulsa Municipal Court, the Tulsa City-County Library central branch and the Tulsa Convention Center.

Adjacent to the Civic Center complex are the Oklahoma State Office Building, Oklahoma DHS, the Federal Courthouse and the downtown post office. Tulsa’s former City Hall fit right in with this one-stop area for the vast majority of federal, state, county and city government offices and functions.

But not anymore.

Recently Tulsa City Hall ceased to exist and the functions of city hall were moved to a building on the east side of downtown, a building called One Technology Center.

One Technology Center is a 15-story glass box resembling the “Borg Cube” and it is called that by some of its detractors. It’s also called “Taylor Tower” by other detractors. This in honor of Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor who managed to stampede Tulsa City Counselors into voting to purchase the building for $76 million dollars last year, even while the City of Tulsa can not afford to fix its streets or fund its police and fire departments properly.

At some point in time during the rush to purchase One Technology Center (hereafter called “OTC”) the elected officials of Tulsa realized that (1) even if all city departments/offices moved into OTC there would still be lots of empty space left in the building that would have to be rented out to anyone willing to pay a premium price for office space and (2) that the City of Tulsa should not be in the office rental business in competition with private companies trying to rent out office space in downtown Tulsa. It was at this point that a decision was made that would result in city hall becoming “lost”.

Tulsa’s elected officials decided to enter into a master lease agreement with Bank of Oklahoma (BOK) which would take over leasing operations at OTC. Since two private tenants, Level 3 Communications and Deloitte & Touche, were already in the building, BOK guaranteed for 10 years the rent revenue from these two tenants. This apparently to assure Tulsa taxpayers that if nothing else, some income from the lease of private space was a sure thing for 10 years.

But, and it is a big BUT, as part of the master lease agreement the name of the building is to remain “One Technology Center” and the City of Tulsa is prohibited from erecting a sign on the building.

But. But… BUT!!!

Yeah, the taxpayers of Tulsa own the building but can not change its name to something logical like “City Hall” and can not erect a sign on the building that says, well, that says anything other than “One Technology Center”, the only signage permitted under the master least agreement.

Apparently someone is getting “heat” over the missing “City Hall” fiasco, and the city’s Legal Department has concluded that there is no provision in the master lease agreement that prohibits a temporary sign that says “City Hall” being placed over the public entrance to the building.

Tulsa City Counselors have been told that a “large banner” will be strung across the top of the public entrance to OTC to help identify the building and that additional banners and signs are to be hung from light poles in the area, this to direct the public to the building. The sight of several plastic banners flapping in the breeze and proclaiming “CITY HALL” really ought to polish Tulsa’s image, don’t you think?

Toss in a couple of worn out couches on the sidewalk near the entrance to the OTC, a rusting Camero on jack stands in the street and a pit bull tied to each end of the Camaro and Tulsa’s new “City Hall” will on the map…

Only in Oklahoma folks, only in Oklahoma…

Not that Officer Schones was going back to school.

He did however catch the school bus carrying about 30 students to Star Spencer High School in Oklahoma City and driven by this man, Anthony Dewitt Atchison, 25.

When Officer Schones caught the school bus driven by Atchison he arrested the bus driver on complaints of reckless driving, speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Allegedly the school bus was going 49 mph in a 25 mph zone, which sounds likely as Atchison reportedly also had an outstanding warrant for failure to pay a previous speeding ticket.

According to a school system spokesperson, the district checks the status of driver’s licenses several times a year, and Atchison’s was “current”.

How a check by the school system indicated Atchison’s license was “current” when a check by the arresting police officer indicated it had been “suspended” raises enough red flags to decorate a school bus.

Also, the school system might want from time to time check to determine if there are any outstanding arrest warrants for its employees. In the least, the employment status of any employee with an outstanding warrant should be reviewed.

And they might even check with the various jails in the area to see if any of their bus drivers are locked up, like Mr. Atchison who following his arrest was being held in the Midwest City jail in lieu of $1,576 bail…

The plea deal between the four former law officers and District Attorney Brett Burns calls for a six-month deferred sentence and requires each of them to surrender their law enforcement certifications for a period of at least five years, pay a $200 fine and court costs.

In addition, Kieran McMullen was required to resign as Sheriff of Grady County, which he did the day before entering the guilty plea.

Cacy and Barthelme had both recently resigned from the Grady County Sheriff’s Department and in conjunction with their resignations, McMullen authorized Barthelme and Cacy to receive almost $12,000 for compensatory time on claims by the two deputies that they were owed for more than 1000 hours.

The Express-Star reported that 13 other department employees had accumulated a total of only 1337 hours among them and that an analysis of the department’s timesheets, obtained from the county clerk’s office, showed that for the most recent year that Barthelme and Cacy accrued 36 hours, not the 1,033.25 hours for which they were paid.

In the wake of the plea deal and the Sheriff’s resignation, District Attorney Burns has requested state audits of the Grady County’s Sheriff’s Department and the Criminal Justice Authority.

McMullen’s plea and resignation came about three months before the end of his term in office.

McMullen received only about 25 percent of the vote in the July primary election and would have left office at the start of the new year.

Reportedly Undersheriff Larry Crabb has temporarily taken over the duties of the office from McMullen.

Crabb became Undersheriff during the summer of 2007 when then Undersheriff Irene Harvey resigned. In 2006 Harvey seriously wounded herself while she was cleaning her weapon. Harvey died of a gun shot wound at her home last month. Reportedly her death is being investigated as a possible suicide.

His “dishonor”, Judge Thompson achieved world-wide fame as The Masturbating Judge who a jury found guilty of indecent exposure on allegations that he sat through trials, including murder cases, merrily pumping away on his penis pump, shaving his testicles and masturbating.

In late June 2006 jurors found Thompson guilty of these criminal acts, acts which took place during both murder trials and a civil case. In the most shocking instance jurors found that Thompson had used a penis pump during the tear-filled testimony of a man whose grandchild had been murdered.

Thompson was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $40,000 for his crimes. Crimes which he never admitted or for which he has not to this day accepted responsibility.

What is so surprising is that it took so long for the Oklahoma Supreme Court to decide that disbarment was justified in Thompson’s case.

One might expect that a felony conviction on four counts of indecent exposure, four one-year prison sentences, 20 months served in state prison and registration as a sex offender are each in themselves pretty good cause for disbarment of an attorney in Oklahoma.

So why did the Oklahoma Supreme Court wait for a couple of years to act on the disbarment of The Masturbating Judge?

One can only wonder if the justices were themselves somehow distracted by things going on out of sight…

If so, they are in for a disappointment as Tulsa State Fair officials have canceled the $11,000 contract with the company, supposedly in part because of a flurry of complaints.

This according to Mark Andrus, interim president and CEO of Expo Square, who inherited the job when Tulsa County Commissioners tossed Rick Bjorklund under the bus back in July.

According to the Tulsa World, the complaints originated with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) which spearheaded an e-mail campaign protesting the display.

According to PETA:

In addition to public safety risks, such animal displays are nothing but misery for the animals who are subjected to grueling travel, intense confinement, extreme noise, and the stress of constant interaction with people.

If one subscribes to the view presented by PETA, Mr. Andrus and the other honchos at the Tulsa State Fair should also cancel the petting zoo, the wildlife displays and of course all the chicken, cow, horse, pig and sheep shows that are part of the fair, as each and everyone of these functions subjects the animals to the same conditions which PETA claims is imposed upon the “big cats”.

Of course don’t expect Mr. Andrus to actually show the same consideration for all those other animals that he supposedly has for the “big cats”, which are already in Tulsa with no where to go since their exhibit space has been reassigned, and other spots are full according to Andrus.

Yeah, sure.

The “big cats” find themselves in a position not unlike that of Bell’s Amusement Park.

Sadly it appears that the more things change the more they stay the same at the Tulsa Fairgrounds where one still can not trust administrators any further than they can toss them…

Update: 09/25/08 - Mark Andrus Reverses Himself

Evidently it got a little “hot” at the Tulsa Fairgrounds in the wake of the decision by interim president and CEO Mark Andrus to kick the “big cat” display from the Tulsa State Fair.

So “hot” that Andrus has now decided that surprise, surprise - there is room for the big cats, after all.

Apparently Andrus weighed the thought of many angry Tulsans against those of angry PETA fanatics writing e-mails and opted for the safer course of action, one of finding a place for the “big cats”.

Good move on Andrus’ part as the folks at PETA don’t have the power to toss Fairgrounds CEO’s under the bus, Tulsans do, by apply heat to the backsides of County Commissioners…

On Monday morning the shiny new BOK Center hosted the Get Motivated Seminar featuring among its speakers General Colin Powell, Zig Ziglar, and Joe Montana.

In some media reports the attendance was reported at 16,000 while in others it was reported as 18,000.

In any case it was way too many if you were trying to get to work or conduct business in downtown Tulsa.

How bad was it?

Reports at the time indicated it was taking up to an hour to move two blocks in the vicinity of the BOK Center which is also the vicinity of the Tulsa City Hall (at least for the next few days), the Tulsa County Courthouse and numerous “big name” business and banks located in downtown Tulsa.

Tulsa County District Court Clerk Sally Howe Smith said she has never had so much difficulty in getting jurors into the courthouse as she had on Monday. Others required to appear at court for trials were also “hung up” in the massive traffic jam and confounded by a lack of parking.

Many with business in downtown were forced to park great distances away from their destination and “hoof it” through the traffic jam and a whole lot of angry motorists.

For their part spokespersons for BOK Center, Tulsa Police and the City of Tulsa have tried to downplay the fiasco but apparently they did not discuss or plan much for this event beforehand and it shows.

Two of the three “park and ride” locations were downtown; one at the OSU-Tulsa campus and the other at Archer Street and Elgin Avenue.

These two locations where event attendees could park and ride a shuttle to the BOK Center required attendees to travel the Inner-Dispersal Loop into downtown and exit onto streets already jammed with traffic heading to the event.

Why bother fighting your way through traffic to the park and ride location when you are already stuck in traffic heading toward the event location? Sometimes its easier just to go along to get along and that is what happened with arguably the largest traffic jam in downtown Tulsa history.

This explains why the OSU-Tulsa parking lot was under-utilized. Many that might have wanted to park there and ride the shuttle could not get to there owing to the traffic jam which pretty much occupied the area inside the Inner-Dispersal Loop.

Tulsa’s first daytime event at the new BOK Center while frustrating for many will hopefully be a learning experience for those that failed so miserably on their first trip around the track.

The lessons are fairly simple:

Set up “park and ride” locations, several of them, all outside the downtown area.

For days before the event get the word out about the “park and ride” locations. The city putting out a press release announcing park and ride locations on a weekend for an event on Monday is not adequate notice. And for gosh sake, use clean buses.

Provide reserved parking in the Civic Center Parkade for those summoned to jury duty and those summoned to trials. How would you like to have a case heard by a jury that just sat in a traffic jam for an hour or so and then had to walk a mile or more through traffic to hear your case? The reserved parking could be handled via permits valid for the first day of jury service or trial and issued with the summons, subsequent permits could be issued by court personnel as needed for second and subsequent days.

Fortunately for Tulsa there are not many daytime events currently scheduled for the BOK Center. The next will be the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” scheduled for December 22 - 24. However with time it is likely that more and more day time events will be hosted there and unless some common sense changes are made before hand it is likely that each will be yet another fiasco…

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