City Council - Regular Meeting

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all right good evening and welcome to the 5 p.m. Tulsa City Council meeting we apologize for the delay but we it was beyond our control so you can view this meeting on our Facebook page our YouTube channel Cox channel 24 or at T gov online.org assisting the council tonight is Caroline Gara Wolf, Lori Doering, Secretary, and Bailey Rogers, Council Staff. If you wish to speak on an agenda item, please see Bailey to complete a request to speak card prior to that item being read. You will not be allowed to speak after the item has been read. Please join us in pledging allegiance to our flag of our country and remain standing for a moment of silence.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

and invisible when liberty and justice are all.

Thank you. You may be seated. all right it is my understanding I don't think they're here this evening are they are okay elementary students McKinley you want to come up tonight or come up to the microphone and tell us give us your name and why you're here what's going on at school even though you haven't started yet

Hello everyone, my name is Alyssa Perez and I go to McKinley. And I am here to discuss what I have done this year as a student council member. Good afternoon I am here to represent the fifth grade student council of the McKinley Elementary School here in Tulsa. I would like to share some projects and accomplishments I on my behalf and the student council members are proud of. One of our most important projects we did this year was the kindness counts initiative we encourage students to show kindness through their words and actions every day this initiative helped create a more welcoming and supportive school environment we help recognize students who demonstrated positive character traits and act of kindness Another thing I would like to, another project I would like to announce was listening to students' voice about bullying, because that was one of the problems that most Tulsa Public Schools struggles with, and me and the other members had discussed that was one of the main problems that we wanted to solve that year and this past year. We gathered feedback from students about how bullying affects our school community. We shared student perspectives with school leaders to help create a safer, more inclusive environment. This project taught us the importance of advocacy and standing up for others. Another project we did was our student-led morning announcements. We brought back engaging and informative student-led morning announcements. The announcements included school news, celebrations, reminders, and motivational messages for students and the staff of our school. Students had opportunities to practice public speaking and leadership skills. We as a team thought that it would be a great idea to help students learn about the traditions at our school and it really helped students wake up in the morning.

That simple.

We also really loved building cultural connections. We identified the importance of helping all students feel represented and included. We explored ways to celebrate the diverse cultures and backgrounds within our school community. We promoted respect, understanding, and appreciation for the experiences of others. Our goal was to help every student feel seen, valued, and connected. And we actually met with one of you guys. We welcomed city representatives and community leaders to our school and showed them around. These visits allowed us to learn more about civic leadership and community involvement. We proudly shared the accomplishments and strength of our school with visitors. We helped build stronger connections between our school and the larger community. As our student council, we held our monthly character assemblies. Student council members helped facilitate monthly character education assemblies. We highlighted important character traits such as respect, responsibility, kindness, integrity, and perseverance. We recognized students who demonstrated positive character throughout the month. These assemblies encourage students to be positive role models and we thought that it would really help the students with it coming from another student. We really, really loved this project, which was a community food drive partnership. Student Council organized a food drive in partnership with the Tulsa Day Center. Students, families, and staff worked together to collect donations for individuals and families in need. Throughout this project, we learned the value of service and compassion. We were proud to support our community through collective action. And as our student council and on our behalf, one of, not one of, the most important one was volunteering at the Eastern Oklahoma Food Bank. Student council members volunteered at the Eastern Oklahoma Food Bank. We learned about food insecurity, and how organizations help families throughout our region. Together, we help package more than 4,000 pounds of food for distribution within the community. This experience showed us how even young leaders can make a meaningful impact to our community.

That's awesome. Good job.

If you guys can give it up for her, her mom had to walk out with the baby, so she wasn't able to hear her. But as her former teacher, and it makes me sad to say that, I'm her former teacher and her former student council leader. I am extremely proud not only of her but of all of our members. It was very hard in the summer to get all the students together and I just wanted to make sure to give them an opportunity for you guys to see and the community to see that she will be great. no matter what I have no doubt in my mind she will be great and it was an absolute pleasure to teach her amongst the other students this year and in closing I just wanted to let the community know and our council members know that I was able to not only teach them in the classroom but to foster that leadership skill and show them that it's not just a title. It's about your service, your work, your responsibility, and actually helping others. Through kindness initiatives, our community service fundraising, student advocacy, and civic engagement, we all, my team and I, which was myself cloned about five different times, We worked hard to make positive differences in our school and we are looking forward to making the changes in the community. I and our student council member, she was our actual secretary because she interviewed with me for the part and said, I love to talk. So I said, I can use that. We are extremely grateful for this opportunity to not only serve our city, and hope that our work inspires future student leaders to continue making a lasting impact. Thank you so much for supporting us, Councilor Dutton, and the rest of the city council members, and our fifth grade student council, and actually believing in the power of student leadership. Thank you so much.

I just want to say thank you, Ms. Candy. I am so glad I got to tour the facility, meet with you, meet with student council. You are truly amazing, as were the other council members. And I'm excited to see you go forth at the Tulsa Honor Academy, correct? you're going to Carver good for you good for you well I look forward to more participation from you in the future with City Council and municipal events I also look forward to meeting again now that the new school year is about to start and getting to know the council members that will be representing McKinley I'm grateful for you and McKinley to be in my district. This is so exciting. We didn't have student council when I was in elementary school. So this is phenomenal to give them a leg up and get going. So I want to present to you these challenge coins. I know that we had given some in the past. But I also have another one I want to bring to the school that you can pass out to the other kids, the other students that have gone on now. So anyway, congratulations, and thank you so much. And I'm so proud of you. Carver is going to benefit greatly from having you there. Thank you, Miss Candy. And just so you guys know, one last thing.

She's not only a leader in the community,

They were a leader in Tulsa Public Schools District. We had the highest test scores in the district for fifth grade. So she's not only a champion in the community, she's a champion in the classroom as well.

Oh, I'm so grateful to you.

So grateful. I feel good.

And the story is because Jackie's nodding. I know. Well, here, come into the, come into the picture.

Do you want to be in the picture?

Yes, yes, yes. Come on. Do you want to be in the picture? Come on.

Come on.

one more one two three here we go thank you

Nice job. Give me five. Good job.

All right, announcements. People wishing to speak on an agenda item are limited to five minutes total per meeting. Public input is a time for members of the public to provide insight on the agenda item due to meeting format. Public input is not a time for question and answer period. All comments should be relevant to the agenda item and directed to the council. We do have an electronic timing system. front of the speakers at the microphone there is a timer that will count down the time used a green light will indicate your time is going yellow will caution you that you have 30 seconds remaining and a blinking red light will let you know that your time has concluded we ask that you stay within your time limits so everyone wishing to speak is given equal time please keep the podium area railings aisles free from recording devices and tripods Recording equipment and accessories including tripods must be set up in the media center. As posted on tonight's agenda, certain items are subject to consideration and possible approval, adoption, denial, amendment, or revision. I call this meeting to order. Lori, please call the roll.

Councilor Hall-Harper? Here. Councilor Archie? Here. Councilor Dutton? Here. Councilor Belis? Here. Councilor Gilbert? Here. Councilor Bengel? Here. Councilor Decker-Wright? Here. Councilor Lakin? Here. Councilor Bush?

Yes, here. All right. One, receipt of filing of minutes. There are no items this week. Two, appointments and reappointments. A, Athena Law's appointment to the Sales Tax Overview Committee. B, Amari Jemerson appointment to the Parks and Recreation Board, Gilcrease Board of Trustees. C, Morgan Jones appointment to the HUD Community Development Committee. I don't need to know who she's replacing. All right. Do we have any speakers?

actually Athena is here to speak about her appointment good evening I just wanted to come back and say thank you to my community thank you to the councilman that meet me last week and voted for me to take this opportunity and I wanted to thank miss Shirley Williams in my neighborhood she invited me encouraged me to get a part of my city and be a part of the Neighborhood Academy she was pushing me to do that so I graduated from that and when I graduated from that council Harper Hall Harper invited us to apply and I'm here so I just wanted to say thank you to Everyone in the community and I look forward to serving and doing my very best. Thank you.

Thank you Any other are there any other speakers?

Yes, we have Mr. John Huffines for items 2A, B, and C.

Yes, I'm glad to be with you on this fifth day of August in this beautiful city of love, Tulsa, in this beautiful nation under God, the USA, in the year of our living Lord Jesus Christ, 2026. Appointments and reappointments. Yes, Athena Laws, Omari Jimerson, and Morgan Jones. May we continue to be grateful for these volunteers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Effines. Next speaker, please.

Our next speaker is James Taylor for item 2B.

I was in student council in fifth grade too. This is what it turns into. Today you're being asked to approve another appointment to the Tulsa Parks Board. Before doing that, I ask you to first examine the standards of accountability for the board itself. The Tulsa Parks Board are appointed stewards of taxpayer-owned parks and public land, yet today they operate with no publicly available governing policies, no meaningful attendance expectations, no observable term limits, questionable conflict of interest safeguards, and increasingly limited opportunities for the public to participate. and decisions affecting property the taxpayers already own. Let's start with attendance. Shane Fernandez was allowed to miss 12 of his last 13 meetings. The only meeting he attended during that period was the special meeting where he seconded the chair's motion to abandon Rodden Park. Chair Susan Savage's own text message to city admin and mayoral designee parks board member Mike Miller states that the same criteria used to abandon those seven acres in North Tulsa were used to justify abandoning another two and a half acres in New Block Park. Mr. Miller also serves as the supervisor of parks director Ana America, whose recommendations come before the very board on which he votes. Whether or not an actual conflict exists, the appearance alone demands public scrutiny. the people of Tulsa should never have to question whether decisions about their parks are being made independently and in the public's best interest. Back to attendance, Tulsa City Code recognizes that attendance matters by allowing appointed board members to be removed for repeatedly missing meetings, yet the Parks Board is specifically exempted from those attendance standards. Why should the board entrusted with some of Tulsa's most valuable public assets be held to a lower standard than every other city board? The same lack of accountability exists with board tenure. Teresa Burkett has served since June 9th, 2011. That's over 15 years. There are no observable term limits. Public boards benefit from fresh perspectives, independent oversight, and regular opportunities for newly appointed citizens to serve. The public's ability to participate is also being diminished. I understand there have been discussions about further limiting public comment on agenda items. Public parks belong to the people, and the public should never have fewer opportunities to speak about decisions affecting land they already own. Perhaps most concerning, the board cannot produce the policies that supposedly govern its own actions. The parks board is operating without publicly adopted governing policies. Until recently, the city's website published a policy and procedure manual that was never approved by the parks board or the council. No one could tell me who wrote it or explain how it became the city's published guidance. I was then told those policies are now being presented back to the board one section at a time as to not overwhelm the board by reviewing them all at once. Over the last two Park Board meetings, I have repeatedly requested one simple act of accountability to produce every policy governing the board's decisions and actions. They have failed to produce even a single document. To quote a board approved rules and reg document from 1994, a policy manual is valuable in eliminating potential problems that may arise when new board members are becoming acquainted with the department and with their duties as board members. A board responsible for overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars in public assets should welcome accountability, not avoid it. It should have enforceable attendance standards, reasonable term limits, publicly adopted policies, clear conflict of interest protections, and robust public participation. Approving another appointment without first strengthening the structure of accountability does not solve any problems. It simply adds another person to a system that lacks meaningful oversight. I respectfully ask this council to delay this appointment until the public can be assured that the Tulsa Parks Board will be governed by the same principles of transparency, accountability, and public trust that you would expect from every other board serving the people of Tulsa. We can't appoint our way out of a governance problem. And until this board has enforceable standards, another appointment isn't leadership. It's simply an endorsement of a system that asks for public trust while refusing public accountability. The people of Tulsa deserve a parks board that is accountable to the public, not simply appointed by the government. Before I leave, I will serve a notice of statutory noncompliance documenting the Parks Board's failure to maintain and produce the governing policies required by Oklahoma law. Every member of this council will receive it, so will City Legal, the City Clerk, the media, and the Oklahoma Attorney General's Open Government Unit. The public record now reflects that these concerns have been formally noticed. Thank you.

Bailey, is that the last speaker?

There are no more speakers.

All right. Is there council discussion? Oh, chair. Yep.

I just wanted to clarify real quick for folks that – sorry, I pulled up the charter just real quick related to the Parks Board, which is a recommending and advisory body. And just to add a layer of clarification, and people, of course, can – review materials and do follow up questions. But basically, the Parks Department, as part of our strong mayor government, is governed and administered by the mayor's office. And so that includes for the parks board may recommend something or modify certain plans for a construction or improvement, but that still has to pen is pending mayoral approval. And then for anything related to dollars being allocated, fees being changed, any recommendation related to a city asset park playground, et cetera, has to go through the city council. And so there is those key oversight layers of our governing bodies. So I did just wanna clarify that to everybody.

Okay, thank you.

Other council discussion? I move to approve items 2A through C. Second.

Please call the roll.

Councillor Dutton? Yes. Councillor Bellis? Yes. Councillor Gilbert? Yes. Councillor Bengel? Yes. Councillor Dr. Wright? Yes. Councillor Lakin? Yes. Councillor Bush? Yes. Councillor Hall-Harper? Yes. Councillor Archie?

Yes.

Okay. Items 2A through 2C are approved. Any other appointees here tonight? right would you like to say anything else after your approval no okay all right just wanted to give you the opportunity so all right moving on item number three public hearings 3a public hearing to receive comments from citizens regarding a proposed ordinance closing a certain portion of an alley In vertical airspace located at 316 East 2nd Street, Tulsa Original Town. Is there a motion to enter public hearing?

I move to enter public hearings. Second.

Please call the roll.

Councillor Dutton? Yes.

Councillor Bellows? Yes. Councillor Gilbert? Yes. Councillor Bengel? Yes. Councillor Dr. Wright? Yes. Councillor Lakin? Yes. Councillor Bush? Yes. Councillor Hall-Harper? Yes. Councillor Archie? Yes. Do we have any speakers?

We have one speaker, Chris Armstrong, for item 3A.

Hello. My name is Chris Armstrong, and my wife, Jo, and I own Arnie's Bar, the Blue Dome, 325 South Elgin, 202 South Elgin, and 318 East 2nd Street. The alley that is being addressed is, we don't really know much information. It just has partial closing of that alley. Um, H and M pipe bending has been there for over a hundred years. There are neighbors. They have a loading dock in that alley as well as we do on our new building at two or two South Elgin. I say new, it's been there for two and a half years now, two years, but, um, and it's also access to our property. Um, I don't know much about what they're wanting to close. I just know it's going to create a hardship for the neighboring businesses as well as American parking because American parking has access to that alley. That's how people get into their parking lot. We were not received any information about this other than to show up at this meeting to make a comment. So that's why we're here. Um, most of the buildings that we have have been over there for over a hundred years and I just don't understand why a new building, the use of a new building, uh, constitutes a new addition to closing a public space, which is taxpayer dollars. So, um, that's my only comment, but just would like some more information, but we have not received any. So thank you for your room.

Absolutely. Thank you. Councillor Bellis.

Yeah, I can. I'm glad you came to ask. I can definitely see why when you read the language, it can cause alarm about closing an alley that so many folks use. Um, to clarify, and we were discussing this and committee earlier, um, in downtown, a lot of the buildings of course are older. I know Arnie's included. Um, and the doors swing outward, which is against code. They're supposed to swing inward, but to not force people to do costly repairs. What we do, in situations where the doors swing outward by design, is vacate where the door will swing outward to, which obviously that's just an impermanent situation. So this is just permitting that to go on. I know I will flag, and this may be a question for engineering, that they were going to put something at a certain height that wouldn't be blocking the alley, but I don't know if that would affect the clearance. I'm just mentioning that to my colleagues. You all remember that from the discussion where maybe it was an awning or something? I'm trying to remember what it was. I thought they said no awnings. No, so it was no awnings. Okay. But they just protected space above it. Right. Okay. Yeah, nothing should be actually directly blocking the alley. And I can try to find and follow up and send you all that there are policies about, like, you can't just have the door open in perpetuity, right? Like, someone can't just keep it blocking the alley. This doesn't create that. So you all should still have regular use of it. And totally fair that the language may have made you concerned. Yeah. No, absolutely. This shouldn't prohibit that.

Yeah. Right.

Yeah.

All right. Bailey, any other speakers?

There are no more speakers.

All right. Without objection, we will exit public hearings for mayor's items for a report from the mayor or his designee on community events, briefing on city activities, city efforts, and new business.

Good evening, counselors. Good evening. Carrie Fothergill, public advocate, mayor's office, city of Tulsa. I didn't forget my report tonight. Sorry about that. I will always be embarrassed forever about that. I'm just going to read to you. I think our student probably does a better job speaking in public than me, so I took some notes and I'm gonna try to do better, okay? She was so excellent.

Yeah, she was very good.

The Tulsa Global Alliance won the Best Overall Program Award at the Sister Cities 2026 Annual Award in Washington, DC. I think that's great. It's the fourth time Tulsa has taken home this award in this 50th anniversary year for the program. We compete with hundreds of programs from around the world, and the Tulsa Global Alliance represents us tremendously on the global stage. See, I told you she does better at speaking than I do. That's great news. I used to work on this program 15 years ago. I'm so glad it's still going and it's getting better. So this is so great to see. We should be so honored here in Tulsa. We have two new official Main Street programs. Councillor Bellis, I've seen this announced through the city and through the council. We've got the Sobo District, which I think is South Boston, is what that stands for, and Pearl Main Street. The official designation capitalizes on all of the investment poured into these neighborhoods to connect them with more resources to strengthen historic commercial districts. This brings I think a total of six for the City of Tulsa. So great programs and so happy to see we got two new ones. August is clear the shelters month for our animal services and adoption fees will be waived by animal services here in Tulsa throughout August. so every animal will still go home with the high level of care and preparation typical of tulsa experience including spaying neutering vaccinations microchips and heartworm prevention we encourage tulsans to visit our shelters take advantage of the fee waivers and bring home a new family member this month so go get that get that brand new pet I've adopted Barry from Animal Services, and I just don't know what I would do without him. And I'm not sure anybody else would have the patience for him. He's a character. Love him dearly. Finally, we have some terrific community events coming up at the end of the week on Friday at 9.30 AM. We will have a short program followed by a summer celebration at Fred Johnson Park in Council District 9. That's going to be at 61st and Riverside. There'll be refreshments and activities for all ages. Construction is beginning this summer to include an all-new walking trail, several courts, a splash pad, playground, dog park, skate features and more. So that's exciting as well. And this one's near and dear to my heart. On Friday, August 7th, this coming Friday, we're gonna have a, there's a street honorary sign ceremony Pine and Peoria at 2 45 for Dwayne Majette so if you guys are available please join us the family has sent out information about that city we haven't posted info but that's coming we should get that out probably well we'll get that out by tomorrow But Friday 2 45 pine impure. Yeah, we're gonna be on this Southwest corner. You'll see everybody if you can make it please join us so we can honor Dwayne We miss him dearly here at the city. So All right. You guys have a lovely night. I'll see you here in a few minutes with mr. Atatoula Yes, ma'am

So I have a question pertaining to the last presentation, the mayor's items that you presented two weeks ago. Yeah. Has there been any further discussion about cooling stations as we are getting right back into triple digits? And I think with all the great things going on in the city, I think this is a consideration that has to be taken seriously as well. And I haven't heard anything further. And it's great, all of these things that you just announced. But I think it would also be great and benefit the community if we could have more cooling stations.

Sure. So I think it's the same cooling stations. Those will be posted on our website.

And they're all downtown.

These are donations. These are private organizations opening their doors for this. So if you know organizations that would love to collaborate with us, please let us know. And we can work with them, especially in the other districts, right? To your point of, you know, we would love that to be spread out through the city. So I'm sure the mayor's staff would love to hear from anybody who would like to collaborate, and we can add to the list. And then, of course, just a reminder, the libraries are public spaces. Those are open, and we would encourage people to utilize that space as well.

And don't we fund the day center?

Councilor, I don't want to provide any wrong information, but if you want to get me specific questions, I'll get you some answers.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I have concerns, too, especially as we know there's at least 11 apartment complexes in our community that are not providing adequate air conditioning we're getting different complaints so they definitely need to be around the city i understand the donation part and so i think what i'm hearing is if we know of community partners to go ahead and connect them to who in the mayor's office

That would be the mayor's senior aides. Emily Hall, specifically, I think could be really great. But any of us. You connect us, we'll get that collaboration going.

Could you also inquire about the city-owned facilities, like the parks department?

The community centers and the rec centers?

Yeah, sure. Because Hicks Park is definitely closer to our community than downtown.

Yeah.

and again as I voiced last time if I'm a senior citizen or somebody with a young family living in southeast Tulsa my first instinct is not to go to the day center because I don't have adequate air conditioning but if that's who's volunteered then certainly we can look to our faith community partners but I do think there are some park facilities outside of downtown that probably should be made available if they're already Absolutely. That was weird. My mic cut.

That's my special powers.

I realize you're just the messenger, Ms. Fothergill. But I think the purpose of you coming to report on 4A is to do wrap-backs to the things that we bring up. Yeah, sure. Unfortunately, you're in the seat that gets to do that. But I see our staff also taking notes. So hopefully we get... some more clarity on that before another week goes by. I'll follow up by email as well. Thanks. You got it. You got it. OK. Thank you.

OK, hold on. Counselor Bangle, you brought up animal welfare.

No, I'm forced to share this. I think folks might remember that I adopted, or not adopted, my goodness. Yeah, let me take that back. Thank you for adopting. I fostered a family of kittens, the mother and five babies. And we kept two of them, JJ and Meatball. And they're very much named appropriately. So Meatball is a terrorist. He's into everything. He's so adorable, though. And then JJ has been sick his entire life. Uh, he's got a cold right now. And so my wife, um, has is just in love with this cat because she's just had to take care of it since it's, uh, since we've had it. And so when, uh, Carrie was talking about clear the shelters and the waiver of fees, um, uh, I think there were some numbers shared recently on people taking advantage of that. And there were, they were very significant, the number of cats and the number of dogs that were rescued, uh, the shelter. Again, uh, just by this experience alone, I would recommend if you have room and you have, you know, kids with energy, great things to kind of, uh, direct their energy to. So, um, if you can support the shelter, please do.

I concur. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Do we have any speakers on this mayor's report?

There are no speakers.

Okay. So I'm going to read a couple of the items separately. Item 4B will be the first one. 4B resolution approving issuance of indebtedness in an amount not to exceed $2 million by the Tulsa Authority for Economic Opportunity by issuance of its promissory note and other evidence of indebtedness in connection with the authority's loan from the John D. Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for a program related investment loan regarding the Equitable Housing Demonstration Project. This carries the emergency clause. Do we have any speakers on this item?

There are no speakers.

Is there council discussion?

Move to approve items 4.

Just 4B.

Oh. Only 4B?

I only read 4B.

OK. Move to approve item 4B with the emergency clause.

Second.

Please call the roll. Councilor Dutton? Yes. Councilor Beallis? Yes. Councilor Gilbert? Yes. Councilor Bengel? Yes. Councilor Dr. Wright? Yes. Councilor Lakin? Yes. Councilor Bush? Yes. Councilor Hall-Harper? Yes. Councilor Archie? Yes.

Okay, item 4B is approved with the emergency clause. Next item will be 4L, donation from Anchor Stone Company to the City of Tulsa for 24 large boulders used on 4th Street between Denver Avenue and Cheyenne Avenue, now relocated to the Greenway site. Do we have any speakers on this item?

There are no speakers.

Council discussion? Yes.

I'll make a motion to deny accepting the donation as submitted.

Second.

OK. Please call the roll.

Councillor Dutton? Yes. Councillor Bellis? Yes. Councillor Gilbert? Yes. Councillor Bengel?

No.

Councillor Decker-Wright? Yes. Councillor Lakin? No. Councillor Bush? No.

Yes.

Yes.

Item is denied. Moving back, the remaining items.

Madam Chair, can I just, for those of you who don't know what just happened here, I would encourage you to look at the discussion we had earlier today on the Urban and Economic Development Committee as to why we denied acceptance and what that means. I don't want to belabor the point. We're already running over time now, but we did have a very robust discussion, and I think it's very clear, if you'll review it, why you just saw a 6-3 vote on a donation. It's no reflection on the Anchorstone Company. Thank you.

All right. Moving on. Items 4C through K will not be read aloud. However, public comments will be received on these items. Do we have any speakers?

We have three speakers. Our first speakers are James and Bernice Alexander for item 4D.

Good evening, Counselor.

Good evening.

And the audience. This is very interesting to me. Because in April 5th of 2019, I received a letter from Gary, I don't know how to pronounce his last name, so I'm going to spell it, R-H-Y-S. And in that, I'm going to read something from it. It claims that funding has no specific geographic area. That's a lie. Here it is. Second of all, it referred to the 1974 Community Development Act. And in that act, at that time by the president, I think it was President Ford, I'm not sure, he made the Community Development Block Grant stronger. He added more money. And one thing he did was to bring it back to the citizens. Because at the time, people were complaining that the government was overstepping its bounds and they couldn't get anything done, which is going on now with this government. It's supposed to be by the people. It comes from the bottom up, from the people to the government, not from the government to the people. And you are wrong. And also, it also stated that... Over the last 20 years, the use of this money has been changed. It was for the north part of Tulsa, but they changed it to all of Tulsa. That's wrong. So what's on the agenda tonight is completely wrong. If there's anything lying here about this, it's the federal government. I just spoke what they put it right. Any questions? I know you can't answer me, so I'm going to go on. This was put up by the city government, not by the people. There were people there, but it's nothing like the people that I know want to put a plan in to. There's a problem. We have a problem here. I always hear you talking about you wanted to be a world-class city. To be a world-class city, you can't be going along with every other city in the United States. That means you have to stand up on your own, be different. And when I see that from this city, I will stand up here for five minutes and tell you how good you have done.

Good evening, counselors. Uh, I want to speak on this item. D two. It has to do with, uh, HUD monies and uh, how those monies are being handled for the area that those monies are designated for. Now we know that her monies have been designated for north Tulsa area. And we know that the North Tulsa area has not been benefiting from these funds as they should have been. This has to stop because this is wrongful use of money that has been put in that area to strengthen their community. There seems to be a problem allowing black people in Tulsa to really share in the community of and the city of Tulsa. Now we know in 1921 white people, primarily white people, burned up a very prosperous black area. And it's just terrible how what what all happened with that situation. But now HUD came in and has been given this city monies to help develop their community and it's been a fight it's been a battle i mean not too long ago i had to file a complaint with the epa to get decent sewer and water systems over there because raw sewage was backing up in the park grounds and the schools and the homes why Why do we have to deal with things like that and have to write a formal federal complaint to get services? People, a lot of the homes over in the North Tulsa area, uh, I guess they're being considered for, uh, taken away from the people who own the homes or, um, forcing the people out of their homes. I don't understand what all the confusion is about the homes. when people own their homes. But I can talk about one home over there. My husband's father was a soldier, and he received a Purple Heart for his service in the military. He bought a home in that area to raise his two sons, my husband and his brother. My husband's parents have passed away, but the sons have inherited that property now because of a lot of the work that we have done on behalf of their community, that home has been targeted. Tried to put a lien on the property. You couldn't do that. Took all the utilities out of the house, shut off the phone service, all services boarded up the front door in the back door and left the windows open. Somebody has gone in there and stolen all the yard equipment. You sent, uh, uh, code enforcement over there to, uh, try to penalize my husband and his brother for the yard not being taken care of. And other things have been taken from there. Now we've been working in, uh, the North Tulsa community for a long time and we've been able to get things done. We've had to file federal complaints. to get things done, uh, and do and help each other. You know, we had people in our group, we formed a neighborhood association over there. Very active. It's, uh, bowed with the state of Oklahoma, but we had people that had, uh, bad situations with how they were being treated with local hospitals. Uh, Had the right to the senator. Senator Nichols' office was very helpful to help people get the medical care that they were supposed to receive. So I don't understand. I understand 1921, but it's never stopped. It's continuing over in the North Tulsa community. HUD funds, there are HUD funds that are designated for that area. Because people that live in that area need help. But you all don't want the people in the area to benefit from the funds. You want to use the funds for other things. You only want to consider what people's requests are for services. I mean, you let five major streets deteriorate over there. I had to write a federal complaint to get those streets redone. I don't understand the attack.

Sorry, Ms. Bernice, your time has expired.

Let me finish my sentence. A very vicious attack is ongoing for that North Tulsa community because it's predominantly African American and every person.

Thank you, Miss Bernice.

And this city matters. Thank every person.

Thank you. Your time is up. Thank you. And I would like for you all to consider that. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Call the next speaker please.

Our next speaker is Mr. John Hutt Fiennes for items 4F, J, and K. I'll be ashamed of what you said, but you don't have any shame.

There'll never be another 1921 you talk about.

Thank you, councillors. Agenda item 4F mentions our police department, so I'm using this opportunity to express my gratefulness for our excellent Tulsa Police Department. Agenda item 4J. We Be Trees' donation of skilled tree work at beautiful Woodward Park is a blessing to Tulsa. Pruning away unnecessary material helps protect these nice cedars, encourages healthy growth, and creates a safer, more beautiful place for families, students, and visitors to enjoy. Thank you, counselors, for passing this, and I'm sure you will. and allowing we be trees to invest their time, talent, and generosity in one of Tulsa's treasured parks. This brings to mind master gardeners here in Tulsa who graciously shared their knowledge at the Brookside Neighborhood Association meeting on Monday evening. Their willingness to teach and serve reminds us that when people generously share their time, talents, and expertise, our neighborhoods, our parks, and our entire community flourishes. We are grateful for everyone who invests in the beauty and well-being of Tulsa. By the way, I still appreciate Councilor Bush's presentation when she came. As well prepared, she communicated beautifully and addressed the neighbors' questions. As I hear about pruning, I am reminded of the words of the Lord Jesus who taught that our Heavenly Father lovingly tends His garden so that it becomes even more fruitful. May His wisdom inspire each of us to continue to cultivate lives of kindness, service, and generosity. I'm grateful to Weeby Trees, our parks department, and everyone who shares their gifts to help Tulsa grow stronger, healthier, and more beautiful. May God continue to bless our city and all who serve. God Almighty, we invoke your guidance. Agenda Item 4K, a deed of dedication by Tulsa Habitat for Humanity, Inc., of property located at 2233 North Evanston Place, City View Addition, required for a lot split. Scripture tells us in Psalms, God inhabits the praises of his people, Israel, great nation. We know we can build places for humanity. This is great. And it's also interesting to know that his people can create a habitat for our Lord to dwell in by praising him. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Haffines. Is that the last speaker, Bailey?

There are no more speakers.

Okay. Is there council discussion?

Madam Chair, I will take a moment to comment on item J and just give a shout out to Weeby Trees, who is located in District 2, and just for their continued support of our community. So thank you, Weeby Trees.

All right. Any other council discussion?

Move to approve item 4C through 4K with the emergency clause on 4C. Second.

Second. Please call the roll. Councillor Dutton. Yes. Councillor Bellows. Yes. Councillor Gilbert. Yes. Councillor Bengel. Yes. Councillor Decker-Wright. Yes. Councillor Lakin. Yes. Councillor Bush. Yes. Councillor Hall-Harper. Yes. Councillor Archie. Yes.

All right, items 4C through K are approved with the emergency clause on 4C. Five, authorities, boards, and commission. 5A, monthly status report from the sales tax overview committee on current activities and efforts. Hello, Mr. Webb.

Thank you, Chairwoman Gilbert. It's good to see everyone. My name is Ashley Webb. I chair the City of Tulsa's Sales Tax Oversight Committee. We oversee all sales, tax, and general obligation bond funded projects from parks, public safety, city architectural building services, transportation, vision, and vision extension. Previously, it also included stormwater and wastewater. So just wanted to highlight that. I do think that there is some value with our long-serving membership. Some of the institutional knowledge that our volunteers have learned I think is invaluable in helping us accomplish the goals of the Oversight Committee. So many of us have been appointed by multiple administrations or during multiple administrations by multiple city councilors. So I think there is some value there. I do want to thank Councilor Hall-Harper for her appointment of Ms. Athena Shanice Laws. We look forward to having Ms. Laws serve on our committee. Nice to meet you. And I do want to acknowledge and thank my friend Mario Johnson, who's in his seventh year serving on the Oversight Committee, and he is here to back me up today. So thank you for being here. The City Council is in receipt of our chair report. I won't necessarily belabor that information. I do want to highlight that our actual 2016 and 2023 sales tax program revenues have exceeded our adopted budget estimates of those programs. For the month of July, year over year, we were 2% above what that adopted budget was going to be. So that was at $200,000 above what we had estimated. For the year to date, we're approximately $4 million in revenues above what we had estimated. Awesome. Always good to see and hear that. A few projects I wanted to highlight. If you haven't been out, counselors, to check on the progress of the Gilcrease Museum Road expansion, I would encourage you to do so. It is moving rapidly, and I think that the one thing that I think is worth highlighting is the financial incentive that's been provided to Beco to complete this project within the allotted time seems to be a good incentive. I don't know how that translates to every other project that we have across the city but in the sense it would appear at least at this stage they will complete this project on time if not early. Regarding the museum construction, I would highlight that most of the art from the offsite storage facility was transferred back to the new museum location by the beginning of May. The offsite storage location should be listed this month for sale. Once that is sold, those proceeds will go back into some add alternates and some additional items that hope to be implemented for day one operations of the museum. So, and that looks to be, I think some of those items were a conversion of the old maintenance or horticulture building to a museum wood shop, actual garage doors for the large loading dock beneath the amphitheater or the, PERFORMANCE SPACE ON THE NORTHWEST SIDE, ACOUSTICAL PANELS FOR NOISE REDUCTIONS IN THE VISTA ROOM, WHICH I THINK IS ALSO GOING TO BE IMPORTANT, AND I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED TO SEE SOME USAGE FOR DAY ONE ADDITIONS TO THE LANDSCAPING. SO ADDITIONAL PROJECTS, I DO WANT TO HIGHLIGHT SOME PARKS PROJECTS. FRED JOHNSON PARK, AGAIN, THAT'S AN $8.125 MILLION PROJECT, GROUNDBREAKING, 9 A.M. ON FRIDAY. One thing that when this was presented in detail to the SDOC, one thing that we made specific inquiry about was the cost and the possible addition of water around the three dog park areas. Right now, at least the initial design only had water in one section of the park. It was about a $40,000 addition to put water kind of in the center of those three dog parks. There are approximately $700,000 in savings on this project, which are looking to add the kind of the bioswale add alternates, but could also be used to add water to those three dog parks. So just encourage everyone to potentially follow up on that. I don't know what the final determination was. Hill Park improvements, that's $2.75 million to improve the remaining four acres adjacent to the one acre site on which the community center sits and Coach Reed's foundation operates. Community engagement sessions have long been promised and are forthcoming. They were supposed to be in July. I'm hoping they're gonna be in August. I've not seen any announcements yet, so we'll see. Dream Keepers Park. Almost seven and a quarter million. At this point, just wanted to highlight some historical things and encourage the counselors to look closely at this one. There's, I think, a 78-page traffic study that governs, that is being utilized kind of to... to explain and probably justify the removal of the main street spur. So if you haven't looked at that study, please do so. That was completed and finalized a couple months ago. The plans that we've seen do call for that spur to be removed. Historically, one of our better improve our Tulsa street improvements was Main Street from 15th to 18th. So we have still a pretty brand new four lanes that will now go into a dead end at 18th and Main with the current Dreamkeeper design goes forward. And I'm not speaking to the appropriateness or any inappropriateness of that design, but what I am speaking to is I think currently we're looking at about $700,000 additional for a three-way stoplight, which is what is now being called for, if you remove that spur, and you would probably have to expand 18th Street to the west to accommodate the traffic then getting to Boulder. So just everyone kind of take a look at that, because those costs are not included in these costs for the park budget. So just some city architectural building services projects. Project PR25-18, that's the $18.9 million for the jail and the court's relocation. Still stands out as an anomaly, at least to me, in my 15 plus years. Normally we have a plan and then funding. Right now we have funding hanging out there and no plan. So Dewberry Architects is, I think, on the table to be brought in as a consultant. I assume that's to help further along this design and location identification. But just wanted to highlight that currently all we have is a budgetary line item. Lastly, the 815 South Riverside Drive, the Crybaby Hill project. That's $250,000 sunk cost already spent from the 2006 sales tax for the statue. Initially, we were told we were not going to be on the hook for the storage cost. Apparently, we're on the hook for the storage cost since January at $2,500 a month, so that's $20,000 through this month. We've had two geotech studies. that we know of, one up top where it was originally supposed to go, one down low at the current proposed location. The conditions at the bottom of the hill are different than the conditions at the top of the hill. We don't have a cost on those geotech studies. Last time I drove by over the weekend, I didn't see that we had started any construction. So I don't know what the costs are. above the $250,000 and the $20,000 for the storage. But this would continue to appear to be somewhat of an unforced error that has costs that we don't have a handle on. I think that's the limit of what I had to highlight.

Well, thank you very much for those highlights, Mr. Webb. Councillors, any questions for Mr. Webb? Yes, Councillor Villes.

Just two quick questions. One is going back to the Dream Keepers Park piece, because I believe the original plans were to vacate, like that area of road to create better connectivity with how there's that Veterans Memorial monument that's very hard for folks to access and it's separate from the rest of the park.

They're talking about moving that, potentially.

Oh, okay, so they're... So talking about physically moving it, but still also vacating the road?

Right, that would be, I don't know if you've seen the full design. I did not bring the renderings, but I can ask those to you. Probably not the latest version, okay. It's kind of a combination of the three renderings that maybe had been presented to the council previously. but it would still have an elevated feature to the park, you know, where that current monument is, and then connect into a public plaza. There would be at least some sort of a stage space that, if facing north, could accommodate as many as 6,000 people. facing the green space could accommodate supposedly as many as 15,000 people.

Oh, wow. So, just to clarify, you were saying that to actually do the necessary road construction isn't in the existing budget?

It's not in this budget, and based upon the cost that the STOC has been presented previously related to three-way stoplights, most recently I would point the council to the ones that were installed by Oasis Market on... North Peoria, those costs now continue to be estimated to us at around $700,000. And if you look at the width of 18th going then west towards Boulder, I would submit it probably is going to have to be expanded as well. So there will be costs with that.

Okay, that's helpful. And then as a quick note related to, and I'm not sure what's been presented to you all, and I don't want to talk about 815 Riverside Drive further, but at the same time, because if the other initial plan had gone forward, and just to clarify to my council colleagues, and things had been submitted to draw down the state funding and pair everything, and the SHARP development planned most recently had gone forward, they would have been taken care of the sculpture, and do we know if that would have included, was that ever presented to you all, if that included the installation as well? or would we have always been in a position, I guess, for restoring it?

We're still trying to drill down on exactly the costs of what we're looking at. So, my understanding was that $250,000 necessarily went to the the artist contract, but I have not looked at that contract in a long time. I don't know where, but what we're trying to identify is just what have we spent and what are we spending to date. The geotech studies may be pursuant to an existing city contract, but we haven't gotten those numbers yet. And initially we were also under the impression that we were not going to be on the hook for storage costs because that's why we were leaving the statue or the sculpture in Florida for the time being. But now it appears that's changed.

Thank you for your legitimate citizen oversight. It's very appreciated.

All right.

I have Councillor Dutton, then Councillor Dexter Wright, and Councillor Archie.

Yeah, so thank you for your questions, Councillor Bellis. I was also concerned about the timeframe and the storage fees that we're going to continue to incur. Is there anything that we can kind of cling to that puts some of this to rest and saves our taxpayers some money here?

think we need to put it up as quickly as possible yeah and I would feel better if Mary Beth Babcock were involved because apparently she can put these up very quickly yeah I think we need to be careful because that the issue of that statue isn't on the agenda as a separate item so I hesitate to have a full discussion about it okay well thank you very much for leaving that to the end and this is something that we can all cry on our pillows tonight when we get home

So it would be nice if we could at least have it up at that location by next year's Tulsa time.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Thank you. So for clarification, Caroline said this was part of his report. Can they not ask questions about the crying baby?

I think you could ask some clarifying questions, but I was getting the sense that a full-blown discussion was starting.

Yeah. OK. All right. Fair enough. Councillor Dichter, right?

Thank you, Mr. Webb, for your continued leadership. astounded at the amount of information that you all receive that the council right now is not receiving and so I appreciate your transparency all the committee work and everything, but I Have a growing concern that we're getting the most transparency when you all come before us. So I also just want to say Today we had a discussion about the powers of the council. I think we need to look further into some of the things that we're hearing here, especially as we talk about fiduciary responsibility and cost containment. I will just re-amplify my comments from earlier today. We are the art, culture, and humanities capital of the state. We hold ourselves out that way. We market ourselves out that way. Things like this that the citizens vote for to help spur economic development. And so when we have ongoing issues like this couched around public art, whether it's boulders that were really never for an art project or an actual art project that now has turned into ongoing costs and bigger questions, I think we have to be really careful about What we're doing and how we're doing it. And so I do think we as the council should not just receive reports from the sales tax overview committee, which I greatly appreciate because I know how often you guys meet and you have the subcommittee work. You guys go out in the field and visit and lay eyes on things and are in places and spaces where we can't be, which is why it's so important to have dedicated volunteers. Providing oversight and that's an ongoing conversation that we continue to have about the other investments we make with city dollars so I just um Maybe we need to when do you all meet when do you guys have your meetings? I the fourth tuesday of every month at 8 a.m 8 a.m on the 10th floor on the 10th floor and those aren't live streamed right right so they're open to the public they are open to the public i'm going to suggest that our chair and vice chair and the rest of us start figuring out who's going to these meetings because we can't wait for mr webb to come to us and as long as we continue to not get this information directly while i appreciate a monthly status report I think we're going to have to start moving a little more quickly on some of these areas of concern because all you can do is present it to us and then we ask a question and then a month goes by. So thank you for your continued diligence and Ms. Jenkins and Mr. Johnson and all the folks who come here all the time and all your committee and we each have two representatives from our district. I love how the sales tax overview committee is structured. It is something that some of us have proposed need to exist in other oversight entities. And I just think we as counselors are probably gonna have to divide and conquer an 8 a.m. Tuesday meeting so that we can start getting this information sooner and then go ask our questions. Because all they can do is just present it to us. We actually have the authority to investigate. We also have the authority to ask our staff to go get more information. that maybe even you all would benefit from. So thank you. I appreciate that.

And, Councilor, I want to say a special thanks to Steve Lastman in the Parks Department. He's been an excellent liaison in his new role in the last year, but he had arranged for us to have a specific presentation at our last general meeting here on the 10th floor regarding Dream Keepers Park, and we will forward that information that we received to the City Council.

Thank you. All right, I have Councilor. Don't leave yet? I have Councillor Archie and Bangle. Yes.

Thank you so much. I'm very concerned about the storage because I thought they were going to cover it and now they're not. I wonder if we can get the money back. But Johnson Park. Yes. We're very excited about it. The centralized water fountains that you're talking about, are those for humans or for dogs?

The centralized water services were going to be near that splash pad, so kind of in the center of the park at the west end of the existing parking lot. But it's a large park, and so everyone would need to come, leave where they are to come to that location to get the water.

So yeah, we need more for sure. But were they... You spoke about them like they were dog water fountains?

So I don't know if it was going to be a full water fountain with one of the smaller ones for the dog, but that was going to be the sole source of water if you needed it for thirst or for your animals. And there was not going to be any water at the three dog park location.

Okay. All right.

But they indicated that it would be about a $40,000 addition to bring that, to include that. And then there were other savings that were... that are being realized that potentially are going to that kind of bioswale feature, which would be immediately to the west of the dog park location.

Thank you so much.

All right, Councillor Bangle.

Yeah, actually, thank you. Um, it's interesting to learn some of the information that you shared tonight and Athena, uh, obviously as a new STOC member, obviously I think it's relevant that you see exactly why this is important to us and that we have citizen oversight. And so I think when we talked about, um, you know, sir, citizens serving on ABCs, it's important that they see how important they even are to us as a, legislative body the only question that I really have Ashley is on the gill crease do you does everything for that specific project outside the The street widening, does the rest of the project seem to be on pace to be completed when we anticipate it?

I think they're on site now, beginning the installation of the fabricated exhibits. That was the last and one of the largest pieces to be funded. It was about, I think, 18 to 20 million. So they're in the process of... putting the pieces together for what you and I will see when they open in 2027. So I'm excited about that. There was a temporary road on the east side of Gilchrist Museum Road near Pine that will now be converted in properly into that kind of 10 foot wide sidewalk that you will see run all the way to 412. That was put in strictly to allow the artwork to be transported and it was done by all accounts, well without any issue. And the spiral staircase is, you know, the floating staircase has been finally finished and the skylight is installed and does not leak.

Yep, I'm just on pins and needles because there's, Lakin actually turned me on to, what was it, Benjamin Franklin's traveling declaration that we own? No, but I'm saying that's the one that he traveled Europe with, correct?

Yes, that was the intent.

Yeah, so I'm excited to see that, if nothing else, right? Because I haven't made it to some of our places in Washington, D.C. or anywhere else to see that stuff. Yeah, so I'm just excited to see all the artwork and things. So thank you for the work of you and the rest of the folks who sit on our sales tax oversight committee. We appreciate it. You're very welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Webb. Appreciate you. Do we have any speakers on item 5A?

We have one speaker, Mr. John Huffines.

Thank you, councillors. I'm also grateful for Mr. Ashley Webb and his leadership of the STOC and his report. and the unity and harmony demonstrated by the Sales Tax Overview Committee as they come together to produce this report. Their collaborative spirit strengthens trust and helps guide wise decisions for our city. And under parks, we have seen supporting documentation regarding our public zoo, a place celebrating the beauty of nature. It offers opportunity to appreciate creation and our creator, God, the Father, and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you all.

Thank you, Mr. Huffines. All right, item 5B, final plat for Stratford Ridge consisting of 109 lots, seven blocks on 3.51 acres located east of the southeast corner of East 11th Street, South and South 161st East Avenue. Do we have any speakers?

There are no speakers.

Council discussion?

I move to approve item 5B.

Second. Please call the roll. Councilor Dutton? Yes. Councilor Belis? Yes. Councilor Gilbert? Yes. Councilor Bengold?

Yes.

Councilor Dr. Wright? Yes. Councilor Lakin? Yes. Councilor Bush? Yes. Councilor Hall-Harper? Yes. Councilor Archie?

Yes.

All right. We got three yeses out of Councilor Archie. Item 5B is approved, six ordinances first reading. The following items in this section of the agenda will not be read out loud and without objection, items 6A through 6C will be forwarded to the next council meeting for action. Seven ordinances second reading, 7A ordinances amending Tulsa Revised Ordinance Title V, Boards, Commissions, and Committees by the addition of a new Chapter 15 Title Planning Commission repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith, providing severability containing other provisions related thereto establishing an effective date. B, rezoning ordinance Z7867 from RS3 to IM for property located in a northeast corner of West 37th Place and South Galveston Avenue. C, ordinance amending Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Tulsa titled Five, Chapter 1, Human Rights Commission requiring the compliance official to provide quarterly reports on all complaints filed pursuant to this chapter, deleting the requirement to file complaints with the city clerk in addition to the compliance official. D, ordinance amending the Tulsa revised ordinances. Title 47, administrative permit and license fees. Chapter 18, animal service fees. Section 1802, impounded animals to add a new subsection listing a fee for animal surrender. Amending section 1804, permits and exceptions to add a new subsection listing a permit fee for type C commercial animal establishments e ordinance amending the fiscal year 2026 2027 budget to transfer unencumbered and unexpected and unexpended uh appropriations of various amounts for go bond amounts um f ordinance closing a certain storm water detention easement request requested by James Capta for the location of 11-0-2-0 South Memorial Drive, Block 1 of Heartland Venture 2, addition for future development. Do we have any speakers?

There are no speakers.

Council discussion?

I move to approve items 7A through F with the emergency clause on 7A. Second.

Please call the roll. Councillor Dutton. Yes. Councillor Bellis. Yes. Councillor Gilbert. Yes. Councillor Bengel. Yes. Councillor Dr. Wright. Yes. Councillor Lakin. Yes. Councillor Bush. Yes. Councillor Hall-Harper.

Yes.

Councillor Archie. Yes. All right. Items 7A through 7F are approved with the emergency clause on 7A. Eight council items, 8A, councillors' announcements and reports on current community events, activities, efforts. and concerns other than announcements and reports, no discussion will ensue. Councilor Archie.

Yes, thank you, Chair. So I want to invite everyone, all the families in Tulsa, especially those in West Tulsa, to our Back to School Bash. We will be gathering in Celebration Park, which is in the Eugene Field neighborhood, which is the park by River West Apartments. And we'll be giving away hundreds of backpacks, Joshua Snow Cones will be there, and we will be grilling, so come hungry for the families. We will have some resource booths there. IMSA will be out. The fire department will be there. The bookmobile will be out. And so last year we had close to 400 folks, and so we're expecting even more. But come and connect with folks in the community. August 15th. It'll be from 4 p.m. to 6.30, and that is at Celebration Park in the Eugene Field neighborhood.

All right. Councilor Bengal.

Yeah, I got the finger. when I said I wanted to speak. Yeah, not the middle one. But anyway.

Number one, you're number one.

I heard the word pruning earlier, and I immediately thought of two people on both sides of me. Councilor Lakin, today is his birthday, so we want to congratulate him on his birthday. And then I don't think we're in. We have council next week, and I think your birthday is coming up in four days. Is that not right? No. So congratulations and happy birthday to both of our colleagues. I think it's self-explanatory.

All right. I think we're all a little delusional now after today. Yes. Happy birthday, Councillor Lakin. I think it has to do with age. All right. I do have an announcement. So, okay. Um, I just want to remind everyone about our district five meeting. Uh, it's going to be held on Tuesday, August 11th from six to seven at the Tulsa tech Limley campus. And we have our city auditor coming to speak to us. So Um, Councillor Bellis.

Just really quickly. This is a birthday present for Councillor Lakin. I want to remind people about our letter on a stick laws related to campaign signs. Cause it is the season people have them all over the place and public rights of way by, you know, stop signs, et cetera. And I have started pulling a Councillor Lakin and pulling them of all varieties, but I have been redistributing them to people who support those candidates. Um, but just reminding folks, you can't just put them anywhere and everywhere. It's not legal.

Right. Thank you. Any other announcements? All right. We're moving on. Item 8B, District 5 project plan number two that will use council district community development priority project funds from Improve Our Tulsa II for the installation of a water fountain, seems to be the theme today, at Darlington Park in the amount of $50,000. Do we have any speakers?

There are no speakers.

Council discussion.

Now I want to ask, why does their water fountain cost $40, but yours costs $50? No, I'm just joking.

Well, ours also has a meter that we have to install.

There you go. There you go. Well, if you wanted to know. All right.

I'm astounded. Sorry. I move to approve item 8B. Second.

Please call the roll. Councillor Dutton. Yes. Councillor Bellis. Yes. Councillor Gilbert. Yes. Councillor Bengel. Yes. Councillor Dr. Wright. Yes. Councillor Lakin. Yes. Councillor Bush. Yes. Councillor Hall-Harper.

Yes.

Councillor Archie.

Yes.

All right. Item 8B is approved. Item C, wait for Councillor Hall-Harper, Dutton, and Bellis to recuse. so we can talk about you.

Yeah. Finally have our chance.

All right. Item 8C, travel authorization per council rules and order of business in the estimated amount of $2,500 for Councilor Hal Harper to travel to Kansas City, Missouri, and also for Councilor Dutton and Councilor Bellis. Do we have any speakers?

There are no speakers.

So council discussion.

I move to approve items 8C through E. Second.

All right. Please call the roll.

Councilor Gilbert? Yes. Councilor Bengel?

Yes. Yes.

Councilor Lakin? Yes. Councilor Bush? Yes. Councilor Archie? Yes.

All right, items eight C through eight E are approved.

The rest, some more of us are going to change places. Musical chairs.

All right, so now we have consideration of possible approval for the same thing, $2,500 for Gilbert, Bingle, and Dector Wright to go to Kansas City. Is there any council discussion?

Move to approve items for, sorry, 8F through H. I'll second.

Please call the roll.

Councilor Dutton? Yes. Councilor Beallis? Yes. Councilor Lakin? Yes. Councilor Bush? Yes. Councilor Hall-Harper? Yes. Councilor Archie? Yes.

All right. Item I, travel authorization per council rules and order of business, an estimated amount of $2,500 for Councillor Lakin to travel to Kansas City for the Chamber 2026 inner city visit. Do we have any speakers?

We have two speakers, James and Bernice Alexander for item 8I.

Good evening, once again.

Good evening.

The only request I have is one of you lovely people bring back a shot. Okay. You going to do it? Okay. Thank you.

All right. We always do report out after our trip. She used all of her time.

Okay.

Ms. Alexander, you don't have any time left.

Oh, I only got to speak for five minutes on one item, and I can only speak for one item only for five minutes.

You have five minutes per meeting. For the entire council meeting. Correct.

Yep. Okay. Yep. I'm going to leave a word with you anyway. The Bible says that a good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. So your battle is not with the Alexanders in North Tulsa. It is with God.

Thank you, Ms. Alexander. That's not on the item. So thank you very much. All right. Do we have any council discussion?

I move to approve item 8I. Yes.

Second. I'm tired. I think all of us are very tired. All right. Please call the roll. Oh my god. Yes.

Councillor Bellis? Yes. Councillor Gilbert? Yes. Councillor Bengel? Yes. Councillor Dr. Wright? Yes. Councillor Bush? Sure. Councillor Harper? Yes. Councillor Archie?

Yes. Councillor Lakin, you're nominated to provide the post-trip report. Councillor Bellis is going to take that off your plate.

All right. Item number nine, no items this week. Ten, hearing of appeals, hearing impossible action upholding or denying an appeal to the City Council requested by Mr. Atatoula. So is this, just for clarification, is this an actual appeal or... Is it, what are we doing?

Hello, councillors. Carrie Fothergill, public advocate, city of Tulsa.

Mr. Atatula is unsteady on his feet, so I told him he could stay right there, and we'll get him a microphone. This is an official appeal, but tonight he wants just to say thank you. Mr. Attitullo, do you want me to read your statement? Yes. And I'm going to read a statement from him to the council. From him. The subject, appreciation for city council's effort in preserving property. Dear members of the city council, I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude for the diligent efforts undertaken by the council to prevent the demolition of my property. Your commitment to the well-being and preservation of our community has not gone unnoticed and I'm sincerely thankful for your unwavering support. I am filled with immense joy and gratitude for positive outcome and I am truly appreciative of the dedication and hard work exhibited by each of you. Your actions have not only saved my home, but have also demonstrated your dedication to serving the community. To the six members seeking reelection, I have a full confidence in your capabilities and leadership. I am certain that you that with your continued efforts, our city will thrive and prosper. Let us unite in our endeavors to secure reelection and further enhance the positive impact we have on our community. In closing, I extend my best wishes to each member of the council. Your commitment to public service is commendable and I am grateful for your ongoing support. May you all be blessed with continued success in your endeavors. Thank you once again for your invaluable contributions and unwavering dedication. Warm regards, . Such a nice guy.

Thank you. That was very nice.

So I do believe that there is a construction plan in place. You have a copy of it. So I believe that means code enforcement is thumbs up. We're all good. We will continue monitoring, though, to make sure that the construction agreement continues as stated. And so I'm going to hand it over to Mr. I'm going to sit down. He has a microphone. So if you want to ask him any questions or Give him an opportunity.

Brant, do you have anything that you would like to add?

Brant Pitchford, Code Enforcement. So I think y'all have a copy of the construction schedule. We also have a copy of Mr. Attitula and Mr. Walker's contract for deed. So we welcome the opportunity to monitor this case and continue to monitor it. We do ask either that Mr. Attitula withdraw his appeal or the council deny the appeal so that we can follow the signed order and monitor his property. Okay.

Mr. Attitula, do you want to say anything before we? No, I'm fine. Okay. Appreciate you, ma'am. Absolutely.

So just point of clarification, we either need to have him withdraw or we can just make a motion to deny and then that drops it? Just administratively, basically?

Okay.

Your daughter is attempting to reach you on your cell phone. Denying the appeal would basically kind of put it back to as if there was no appeal and it would be kind of between the two to work on it. The signed order would be in place and, you know, code enforcement would be able to work with that.

The signed order, which he appealed, if it was denied, that would allow us to follow through with the signed order and monitor and accept his construction schedule. And it's set to be completed in like mid or late June.

Okay.

If he gets further along the road and we're 80% done, then we'll extend that and let him work longer.

So, Counselor, can I just make a motion? Okay. I move to deny item 10A.

Second.

Please call the roll for the denial.

Counselor Dutton? Yes. Counselor Bellis? The happiest yes. Counselor Gilbert? Yes, of course. Counselor Bengel?

Yes, and thank you, sir.

Councillor Dr. Wright? Yes. Councillor Bush? Yes.

Councillor Hall-Harper?

Yes. Councillor Archie? Yes.

All right. The appeal is denied. So thank you very much. All right. 11, hearing of public comments. No items this week. Item 12, we are finally adjourned.

dollars total and then $100.