Needs work

By World's Editorial Writers - 11/5/2009


The just-released audit on city street maintenance and engineering operations doesn't have any cure-all solutions for what ails city streets. But it does offer some guidance for how to keep from losing so much ground year after year on maintenance.

The 52-page EMA Inc. presentation, outlined for city councilors and the city Transportation Advisory Board on Tuesday, did not surprise anyone with the assertion that the city has not adequately funded street maintenance.

The result of that failure has been periodic ballot initiatives that attempt to address long-overdue maintenance needs, including the latest street-repair program approved by voters last year.

Perhaps the report's most noteworthy finding — which actually wasn't a new one — was that more than half the work done by street maintenance crews is not exactly street maintenance. The consultants determined that about half of the division's duties are related to special projects and special events.

No wonder our streets are in such sorry shape.

That's not to say the work being done by maintenance crews wasn't worthwhile. The work included such chores as fixing parking lots for the Police Department and driveways for the Fire Department and mowing for the Park Department.

All of us can agree that's work that needed to be done. The question becomes which department should be paying for the work. If those other departments had to pay for the work to be done, street maintenance would have a lot more resources to devote to ... street maintenance.

The consultants also found that street maintenance crews do a lot of "reactive maintenance" generated by calls to the Mayor's Action Center. These projects are done usually within 24 hours, a practice that results in other needed maintenance being further delayed.

The consultants recommended a number of management, communications and structural changes that could improve efficiency and outcomes. Obviously some policy decisions, such as prioritizing maintenance needs and determining who should pay for what, also are long overdue.

City councilors and other leaders should give careful consideration to the audit's findings, but it's doubtful that implementing all the consultants' recommendations would lead to vastly improved streets any time soon. Sometimes, throwing money at a problem has to be one of the recommendations too.


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Tulsa World Reader Comments
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Justun, tulsa (11/6/2009 12:19:08 PM)
Hey...I care...my vehicle(s) gets torn up with the best of them...I hate this cities streets and ideas for fixing them...they wait until there is no room to pass any more the say...Hey! maybe we should widen this road?!? Ya Think????

Justun, tulsa (11/6/2009 12:19:58 PM)
too may typos to explain...try to read between the lines.

Ric, Broken Arrow (11/5/2009 4:34:20 PM)
I hate to say it but... this is just ridiculous. "The Street Thing", seems it's always something that's being dug up to find out why the money was/is not there. I mean Street Funds being used for Parking Lots and Mowing, etc...? Man, this is 2009. When is Tulsa going to take Management class 101. If you want growth, these things can't be happening.

Ric, Broken Arrow (11/6/2009 12:14:08 PM)
Dustyoutlaw. You've got that exactly right.

dustyoutlaw, Tulsa (11/5/2009 9:08:14 AM)
When the latest increase in sales tax was voted on "to fix the streets" I said "the city will divert that money to their pet projects". I shouldn't have to be patting myself on the back here. Citizens should be outraged and picketing city hall. Over more than a year now since the sales tax was increased the work done (and virtually none completed more than a single mile) is not confidence building. How anyone gets re-elected in city hall of Tulsa is a mystery. I guess it's true. We get the government we deserve.

dustyoutlaw, Tulsa (11/6/2009 7:15:20 AM)
This is exactly why the streets of Tulsa are not maintained. Five comments and two of them are mine. If you don't care enough to get worked up about it, City Hall watches these type editorials and they say "they're not really interested, let's screw them some more.". And the beat goes on.

vermejojoe, (11/5/2009 9:40:25 AM)
Let's set the story straight. About two years ago, Kathy Taylor moved all the maintenance personnel, all maintenance equipment, and the corresponding budget allocations FROM the parks department and moved it all INTO public works. If the parks dept. is now charged for that service, it represents nothing but a massive power and money grab perpetrated by Charles Hardt and his criminal staff...and the result has been poorer maintenance in parks,and no improvement to street maintenance. It's the old legal " but for" standard:.....i.e., "but for this failed 'efficiency ' change, the public works dept. would not be doing so much work for the parks dept."....it's a shell game. Put maintenance back under the parks dept., Taylor and Hardt have ruined what was once a VERY GOOD parks and recreation dept.

Loophole, (11/5/2009 7:30:42 AM)
If street funds are going for repair and replacement of parking lots, etc., for other city agencies, there ought to be reimbursement to the street maintenance fund out of the budget for these agencies so that the tax dollars go where the taxpayers intended. Otherwise, city agencies could exhaust the funds to the loss of the citizens.



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