meeciteewurkor

Bill Roland, president of the union that represents many city employees recently requested information from the City of Tulsa in the form of a Freedom of Information request.  The request inquired whether certain city employees received bonuses, and if so – when and why this happened.  The information request apparently was made because of the reduced budget situation that is facing the city of Tulsa.

Mr. Roland received his request in the form of a written memo dated Oct. 20, 2009 signed by the director of Human Resources, Jeff Wilkie.  This memo (see below) states that 8 employees received “stipends” in December of 2008 for “improvements found” and “acknowledgement of completion” of a certain city training program. Read more…

meeciteewurkor Tulsa, politics

I was at Walmart this morning getting some groceries.  I’ll usually grab a few frozen dinners for those nights I don’t feel like cooking.  While wandering down the aisle I noticed that Hungry Man was on sale for $2 each.  They’re usually more like $3 or more.  Shrugging my shoulders, I started looking at them seeing which flavor of fake meat I’d like to consume.

A young, male Walmart employee working on the same aisle noticed me looking at the dinners and started laughing with this annoying nose-snorting thing.  Quizzically, I check my fly to be sure it isn’t wide open.  When I see that it isn’t, I inquire, “Why are you laughing?”

With about three teeth in his head and spit escaping from his mouth while he talked/laughed, he blurts, “Those sat on the back dock all night and thawed out.”

“Are you serious?” I inquire.

“Yeah, I found them this morning and since they were still cold, they told me to put them back in the freezer.”

“Oh”.

Go Walmart Go.

meeciteewurkor random walmart

Bill Roland, president of AFSCME Local 1180, the union that represents many City of Tulsa employees, has filed a freedom of information act request to release city records in an attempt to find out when and why approximately 12 members of the city’s human resources department each received a $2,500 bonus.  This comes at a time when the city is crunching numbers in an attempt to counter severe general fund budget shortfalls. Read more…

meeciteewurkor Tulsa

Aaahhhh  yes…  but WHERE are those cuts going to happen?  That’s the 3 million dollar question!

The city is going to have to cut approximately $3 million more out of this year’s fiscal budget.  This is in addition to cuts already made, including furlough days, reduced wages, and hiring freezes.

Emory Bryan, in his report today on KOTV, made a good point that a lot of Tulsans do not know about (video).  It pertains to which departments should be getting cut this go-around (emphasis mine):

The cutbacks will impact basic city services like police, but not utility service because that’s self supporting.
The cuts will come in the city’s general fund. That pays for police, fire, streets and parks.

If you’ve ever wondered about your water or sewer service facing diminished service levels…  don’t worry, they’re completely safe.  These services are what’s called “Enterprise” fund departments.  What this means is this:  When you pay your utility bill, guess where that money goes?  Goes into a fund that is COMPLETELY SEPARATE from the city’s general fund which is funded by local sales tax. Public works is a utility, and you pay them with your monthly utility bill.  That’s how they maintain their service levels despite the fact that sales tax revenue is down.  It is really not much different than ONG or PSO.  You get billed by them and that is what they operate from.

Technically, the departments that might need to worry are police, fire, and parks.

Now, that said, I believe that we citeewurkors should all pull together to get through this tough time. I’m willing to take a few furlough days as a public works employee, even if it means the mayor will take money out of the Enterprise fund and somehow get it into the general fund.  (I’ve never understood how that is done legally, but I digress….)

However, there is one thing the mayor and I do agree on.  When she  gathered us all up to talk about the furlough plan, she mentioned one thing:  funding certain core city services through local sales tax is a bad idea.  She never offered alternatives, but I agreed nonetheless.  Perhaps diversifying funding for the general fund would be in order.  Ah heck.. what do I know….  I’ll just leave that to the creative accountants budget folks.

So… the next time you hear someone complaining about public works having whatever million dollars worth of overtime..  just remember where that money comes from.  Your utility bill.  Not your taxes.

Thank you, drive through.

meeciteewurkor Tulsa