Christiansen: ‘I Cannot Endorse Dewey Bartlett for Mayor’
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Date: 9-19-13
Contact: Josh McFarland 918-706-6787
Bill Christiansen says he won’t support Dewey Bartlett for mayor
At a time when budgets matter the most, Tulsans need transparency and accountability at City Hall. Fonner mayoral candidate Bill Christiansen today announced that he would not support Bartlett for mayor.
”I’m a real conservative, and Dewey Bartlett is not,” Christiansen said. “He is a tax-and-spend liberal, he has supported a permanent new tax increase and proposed the largest levels in city spending in our history, and he has worked to grow government and the bureaucracy. Perhaps even worse, he has done it with no sense of transparency and accountability toward Tulsans. For so many reasons – almost too many to count, I cannot endorse Dewey Bartlett for mayor and I will not vote for him. He is not what Tulsa needs and he does not reflect the conservative principles I believe in.”
Christiansen said he met with Bartlett this week to talk about the many issues that concerned him and was deeply disappointed at the lack of response. He said he asked the mayor what his platform for the future was. “His response- he doesn’t have a platform and will not talk about one out of fear that people will hold him accountable. He actually admitted he does not want to be held accountable. At the core, elected officials should be held accountable and we now have a mayor that runs from accountability, has no commitment to transparency, is a tax-and-spender who pushed for a permanent tax. We cannot elect him.”
Christiansen also criticized Bartlett for repeatedly saying his opponent, Kathy Taylor, spent the city to near bankruptcy when she was mayor. “I was on the council when Kathy was mayor. We were NEVER going bankrupt. In very challenging economic times, the Mayor and the Council worked together and made tough choices to ensure the budget was balanced every month.”
Christiansen attacked Bartlett’s “irresponsible fiscal practice” of proposing revenue budgets that are unprecedented. Mayor Bartlett’s last three budgets are the largest in Tulsa’s history. He over budgets and now he wants a permanent tax increase to grow city government.”
Christiansen said another factor that made it impossible for him to support Bartlett is the mayor’s well-known practice of not attending the majority of meetings of the boards and authorities he has a seat on, and for continuing to serve as full-time president of his business while taking a $105,000 salary as mayor. “Tulsa needs and deserves a full time mayor,” he said.
Christiansen said he would not have put his name on the ballot if he had thought Bartlett was doing a good job, but said after the primary he felt he owed it to his supporters to take a close look at both candidates in the race before deciding who he would support. The recent spate of stories about the lack of transparency and accountability at City Hall just reaffirmed his belief that Bartlett is not fit for the job, he said.
“There have been so many stories that have come to light recently on the lack of transparency and accountability at City Hall. Green Waste and the trash system, 911 Center, Open Records the list goes on and on. You’re either committed to transparency and accountability or you are not. The fact that he is willing to say that he knew nothing about the green waste problems and recently went on KRMG to blame citizens for putting their green waste in the trash, shows just how much he tries to shirk responsibility and accountability.”
Christiansen, a former Marine Corps Officer, said he is hopeful that Dewey Bartlett will not try to attack him and try to discredit him because of his announcement.
Christiansen is hopeful to see a new campaign pattern from Dewey Bartlett that is not negative as shown in the primary.
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