The Tulsa mayoral debate between candidates Karen Keith and Monroe Nichols is currently underway. Monroe Nichols, a Democratic representative for Oklahoma House District 72, is vying for the mayor’s seat.
Karen Keith, also a Democrat, is the Tulsa County Commissioner for District 2. Her jurisdiction includes Sand Springs, Tulsa, Jenks, and Glenpool.
What do you see as the city’s greatest need when it comes to road improvements? And how would you address those needs?
Nichols: One of the big issues is how we are working with contractors. That’s been a challenge from the start. We have these issues of people not getting paid on time, or we have these little, minor issues that are happening at the site level, making sure that we’re working with contractors a lot better, as I said before, to make sure that our infrastructure projects, our roads are smooth and it’s a transparent process start to finish. And so for me, it’s really working with those contractors and working with communities and business owners. So we actually have real-time information about when a project should get done. We have a lot of accounting about who’s getting projects, that anybody in the city can really understand what we’re spending, who we’re spending, who we’re spending with, how long the project’s going to take, and that the folks who are working with us in the city to get those projects up and going are there, and that there’s a high level of coordination. So when we do tear up a street, we don’t tear up that same street six months later because we forgot to do something that we make sure is efficient, that we drive down the cost of doing it, and we do it in partnership with those folks who are helping us build that infrastructure every day.
Keith: Well, I think our orange cones are just about everywhere, but these projects are taking way too long, and contractors won’t bid on many of our projects because we don’t pay on time, so it limits us to some of the larger contractors. The other issue we have is that the way ODOT bids theirs out, ODOT pays a bonus if you finish early, and you get fined if you don’t, if you finish late. So we have got to bid similarly, because when you see a project that’s been abandoned and it’s during the week and there’s equipment sitting there. And you think, why is that happening? Well, I can tell you, that they have an ODOT project, and they’re running to meet those deadlines, so we are going to have to bid similarly. We also need to make sure that we’re using the best pipes and things underneath our streets, like, let’s look at the specs because this freeze-thaw cycle is tearing up our streets right after they’re done. So there are some things that we can do, and I want to work with our really talented teams in the city to make some of these changes.