Mayor Dewey Bartlett filed a request with the City Clerk’s Office yesterday calling for a special election regarding the FOP arbitration ruling.
In the request, Mayor Bartlett states, “By requesting the special election, I acknowledge the City is not in the financial position to support a permanent wage increase and invoking this process is in the best interest and welfare of the City-wide departmental operations and obligations, and especially in the best interest and welfare of our tax payers.” The letter also requested the Tulsa City Council place an agenda item for the passage of a resolution calling for a special election on its June 5, 6 p.m. regularly scheduled meeting.
The statement below can be attributed to Mayor Dewey Bartlett:
“Based on the arbitrator’s ruling to grant permanent salary increases in favor of the Fraternal Order of Police, I have filed a request with the City Clerk’s Office to hold a special election asking citizens to overturn this costly decision. The City of Tulsa cannot afford an ongoing expense of over $1 million in the midst of reducing the City’s budget by $17 million, eliminating 215 positions and impacting departments and service levels across the city.
I continue to appreciate and commend the hard work and dedication of our Tulsa police officers. However, we have to be realistic in our current financial situation. During negotiations with FOP bargaining team, the City of Tulsa negotiated in good faith and offered a one percent, one-time stipend to police officers. I urge the FOP leadership to continue to negotiate with the City of Tulsa, so we may come to an agreement that does not impact the financial integrity of the city and avoid taking a vote to the citizens of Tulsa.”