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"It's an Absolute New Day" — County Commission Welcomes Mayor G.T. Bynum

Matt Trotter
/
KWGS

Tulsa County commissioners gave a warm welcome to G.T. Bynum on Monday as he attended their meeting for the first time as mayor.

They presented him with a sculpture of a handshake, and Chair Karen Keith said the board of county commissioners is optimistic about working with Bynum.

"This new administration just has a whole different attitude about working with their other government partners throughout the county and the region," Keith said. "It's just an absolute new day. We are very excited."

Bynum said going forward, the two governments will have a collaborative relationship.

"For us to be a nationally competitive city, we have to set aside the divides that are here locally so we can pull together and compete with our real competition that's all around the country, not here at home," Bynum said.

Bynum said there will be a lot of cooperation between Tulsa’s city and county governments.

"That is something that we're going to be visiting about moving forward, is doing a top-to-bottom analysis of everything that the city and the county do, all the services that each of us provides, and seeing who does it make sense in the 21st Century to be providing these services," Bynum said.

Bynum said his team has already been working on a win-win proposal to put to bed a long-running dispute over what the city pays the county to use the jail.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.