TULSA — Thursday night, inside Tulsa's Embassy Church, the Tulsa County GOP held an open forum to discuss the issues in Improve Our Tulsa 3.
Four panelists answered voters questions.
Two panelists, Tulsa City Councilor Christian Bengel and Mayor GT Bynum's Chief of Staff, Blake Ewing are in favor of voting yes.
The others, author Michael Bates and Tulsa City Councilor Grant Miller plan to vote no.
What started as a cordial event quickly became heated. One of the most empassioned voters in the audience, Ronald Durbin, had to be admonished for interrupting the panelists.
He's questioning the timing of it all.
"[Mayor Bynum] is not running, but he wants to dangle his fingers long after he’s out office," Durbin said.
He would prefer the vote come once the next mayor takes office.
Ewig admits, some politics were involved in choosing this timing.
"If we try to compete with next year’s presidential race, and next year’s mayor’s race, with this program, it gets drowned out in the mess," Ewig said.
Durbin also raised concerns around the estimates for the costs of projects.
"Let’s ask the Tulsans to vote on what they’re actually going to spend, not some pipe dream, that’s being created by Mayor Bynum," Durbin said.
Ewig insists the city has firm estimates. Not from a third party, like some voters would prefer, but leaders are confident in their standing.
"We have our city estimators, go in and do the best they can to look at these situations with what they have. We do our best to estimate, to leave a contingency in there, and then I tell the designers meet that number," Ewig said.
Voters will decide Improve Our Tulsa 3's fate on August 8.
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