Mayor Bartlett presents State of the City address

9.6.2012
Almost 1,000 business and community leaders gathered today for the Tulsa Metro Chamber's State of the City event featuring The Honorable Dewey F. Bartlett Jr., mayor of Tulsa.

Bartlett began by thanking the City Council for its partnership and for gathering in January for a retreat to set 17 goals for a collective vision for the city. The goals range from promoting the underdeveloped areas of Tulsa and river development to completing the Gilcrease Expressway. 

The mayor also talked about continuing to increase citizen engagement, including the City Hall in Your Neighborhood town hall meetings.

“We are seeing people of all ages, including our TYPros group, become more engaged,” Bartlett said. “This is the type of involvement that the councilors and I are excited to see.”

Bartlett voiced his support of Vision2 and encouraged Tulsa County voters to continue the progress made with Vision 2025.

“We are not going to kick the can down the road and settle for more planning. It’s time for a solution,” Bartlett said, regarding the second question of the Vision2 ballot proposal. “We have laid the groundwork over several years. We have listened to the citizens. Now is the time to turn our plans into transformative projects and opportunities.”

Regarding Vision2’s first question, Barlett said the underlying purpose of Vision2 is to bring more jobs to Tulsa and keep them here, particularly at the airport.

Bartlett also discussed steps taken following the KPMG report recommendations, which he said have led to $3 million in savings over the past year and a half. Public safety and the city's growing manufacturing sector also received much attention in Bartlett's address.

“Our region is collaborating on economic development, the OneVoice legislative agenda, downtown efforts and many other areas,” said Becky J. Frank, 2012 chair of the Tulsa Metro Chamber and chairman and CEO of Schnake Turnbo Frank | PR. “The City of Tulsa and Mayor Bartlett are great partners in all of these efforts.”


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