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Power struggle roils Tulsa
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Shiron Davis, center, leaves Judge Nightingale's courtroom with family members in the Tulsa Co. courthouse after having his conviction was vacated Jan. 27, 2011, due to the police corruption scandals.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Mayor Dewey Bartlett speaks as Interim Police Chief Chuck Jordan listens at the COMPSTAT center at Tulsa police headquarters about Tulsa's police policy in the wake of alleged police corruption on on July 23, 2010.
Associated Press
TULSA, Okla.
Tulsa was built by oil barons in the early 1900s, and their stone, columned mansions still adorn the old historic districts. Lately, the city’s image has been less ostentatious — as a middle-American family town, with a modest cost of living, comfortable neighborhoods spread across a rolling landscape, and a regular place on the most-livable-cities lists.
But the city’s normally placid civic life has fallen into turmoil. At city hall, where council meetings once played out in quiet tones, the mayor and council members have been accusing each other of ethics violations and slapping each other with lawsuits. The police have been in court — but as defendants rather than witnesses. Veteran officers have been indicted for felonies and the department is enduring its worst corruption scandal in recent history.
The chaos has clouded the city’s effort to pull off a major urban revitalization, already lagging well behind other cities in the region.
The problems have opened wounds from the past. Most of the abuses in the police scandal occurred in the black community, which experienced one of the nation’s worst race riots 90 years ago and is still plagued by blight and violence.
Tulsa recently added a glitzy multipurpose arena and a minor league ballpark to the center city, and nighttime entertainment is flickering to life in an old industrial section pocked with empty lots. But the real fireworks have been at city hall.
The city council and Mayor Dewey Bartlett, an oilman and son of a former governor who took office in 2009, have been locked in a power struggle, each accusing the other of exceeding their legal authority on an assortment of city business. Investigations and lawsuits have ensued.
Some local leaders say the police abuses show a community that hasn’t addressed its problems. In neighborhoods where drug deals and shootings are common, officers reportedly planted drugs on suspects, stole money and fabricated evidence.
So far, five former and current officers have been indicted and the probe continues. Dozens of criminal convictions had to be tossed out or sentences reduced.
Bartlett acknowledged times have been “rocky.” However, he said the city will push ahead with improvements and update the city’s comprehensive plan for the first time in 30 years.
“We really are at just the beginning phase of what I think will be a serious renaissance of the city of Tulsa,” Bartlett said.