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.

The memo does not state how much each stipend was. However, Mr. Wilkie confirmed to Bill Roland verbally that each stipend was $2500.   That would be a total of $20,000 given out in bonuses.

About a month after these stipends were handed out, the mayor sent out an email to all city employees that read in part (emphasis mine):

We have a duty to keep the City’s finances on firm ground. And with the economy stalling and tax revenues falling, that necessarily  involves making some hard choices. Nothing would please me more than to avoid some of the choices that will likely confront us in balancing our FY09-10 budget. But in the current economy, the only wise course is to prepare for the worst. All Tulsans should be confident that we will watch the City’s economy and budget closely over the next few months and take whatever actions are necessary to ensure that we deliver a sustainable balanced budget.

From my management team, to supervisors to all employees we must work together to emphasize responsible fiscal management. Therefore, until further analysis of the City’s economic outlook can be determined and effective immediately, all departments must engage in practices that either cut expenses or are revenue neutral. This means:

1. Placing a hold on hiring and promotions, including temporary employees;
2. Requiring that all overtime be approved in advance by supervisors. It goes without question that Supervisors should use sound judgment and common sense in making such decisions, particularly if overtime is required to deal with an emergency or public safety situation;
3. Supervisors will evaluate existing purchase orders to reduce obligations;
4. Unless it is revenue neutral (both in terms of cost and resulting overtime), no new travel will be approved until further notice;
5.Within seven days, all supervisors will report status of previously stated fuel reduction goals. Fuel savings are subject to recapture and may not be used for other purposes.

It would appear that these bonuses, or “stipends” as they are called in the memo, were given out shortly before the real budget crunch started happening.  Then again….  it was becoming obvious several months before these bonuses were given out that the budget was going to be in trouble.

As stated in the previous post on this subject, the amount is quite small when compared to the entire budget of the City.  However, it is disconcerting that a select few, priveleged employees – apparently all from the same work group – received more money in the form of a stipend than what most city employees earn in one month.

meeciteewurkor Tulsa, politics