City planning and construction services to undergo major reorganization, Mayor Bynum announces

Kevin Canfield, Tulsa World

Mayor G.T. Bynum on Thursday announced a major shakeup in how the city plans, designs and builds street projects and other capital improvements.

The reorganization of multiple departments — and the addition of several new ones — is intended to create a development process that starts with citizen input and ends with the projects they envisioned.

“This will establish a far more collaborative and linear approach to the way that we build Tulsa, and it will all start with the citizens’ hopes for the city that they want to build,” Bynum said during a press conference at City Hall.

In 2011, then-Mayor Dewey Bartlett disbanded the Public Works Department and created three new ones: Streets and Stormwater, Engineering Services, and Water and Sewer.

In the current fiscal year, those departments account for at least one third of the city’s $945 million budget.

The reorganization calls for reestablishing the Public Works Department, creating a new Department of City Experience, and maintaining a slightly modified Water and Sewer Department.

“Unfortunately, all of this (work) has been siloed over time, and we just haven’t had the level of collaboration or the citizens and design involvement on the front end that I think we need to do quality work,” Bynum said.

Under the reorganization, which takes effect when the new fiscal year starts July 1, Streets and Stormwater employees will become part of the Public Works Department, and Engineering Services employees will move to one of the new departments, depending on the type of work they do.

For example, engineers who work on streets and stormwater projects will be in the Public Works Department, and engineers who work on water and sewer systems will be in the Water and Sewer Department.

The Department of City Experience will be made up of six divisions. They include four departments that already exist at the city — Animal Welfare, Neighborhood Inspections, The Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Equity, and the Tulsa Planning Office — and two new ones, Community Development and City Design Studio.

Bynum said he began thinking about reorganizing the city’s development processes when he asked himself where he had settled for less and where he should press his team to do a better job.

“What I found was, after eight years on the council and one term as mayor, I was falling into the trap of thinking: ‘You know what? Street projects — that is just the way that they are in Tulsa.’ And that should not be just the way they are,” Bynum said.

“When a street project is completed, the people who use it should be delighted with the end result, because they played a part in it and it reflects their aspirations for our city.”

Bynum said the city’s work on Riverside Drive near the Gathering Place should be a model for how all city projects are done “because people were engaged on the front end and you had great designers and community engagement on the front end to build something that the citizens wanted.”

He stressed that Thursday’s announcement was not a response to last week’s call by the Association of Oklahoma General Contractors for member businesses not to bid on city street projects because of late payments, tight construction schedules and other concerns the organization has about how the city manages its projects.

“This is something, you know, we have been working on for a year,” Bynum said.

The realignment will not result in a loss of any jobs but instead will increase the number of city employees, Bynum said. But Engineering Services Director Paul Zachary, Streets and Stormwater Director Terry Ball and Water and Sewer Director Eric Lee will have to apply if they want to manage one of the three new departments.

As will James Wagner, because the Department of City Experience is essentially a rebranded version of the city's Working In Neighborhoods Department, which Wagner leads.

Here are the new departments and the sections under them:

Department of City Experience: City Design Studio, Community Development, Tulsa Planning Office, Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Equity, Animal Welfare, and Neighborhood Inspections.

Public Works Department: Stormwater and Land Management, Traffic Operations, Street Maintenance, Refuse and Recycling, and Engineering Services.

Water and Sewer Department: Engineering Design, Operations, Asset Planning, and Information Systems. The realignment will not result in a loss of any jobs but instead will increase the number of city employees, Bynum said. But Engineering Services Director Paul Zachary, Streets and Stormwater Director Terry Ball and Water and Sewer Director Eric Lee will have to apply if they want to manage one of the three new departments.

As will James Wagner, because the Department of City Experience is essentially a rebranded version of the city's Working In Neighborhoods Department, which Wagner leads.

Here are the new departments and the sections under them:

Department of City Experience: City Design Studio, Community Development, Tulsa Planning Office, Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Equity, Animal Welfare, and Neighborhood Inspections.

Public Works Department: Stormwater and Land Management, Traffic Operations, Street Maintenance, Refuse and Recycling, and Engineering Services.

Water and Sewer Department: Engineering Design, Operations, Asset Planning, and Information Systems.

February 2023

Tuesday, February 7

Associates Council | 11:30 a.m. at HBA

Wednesday, February 8

Southwest Chapeter | 11:30 a.m. at One Gas, Downtown

Thursday, February 9

International Residential Code Seminar | 8 a.m. at HBA

Tuesday, February 14

GMM: Valentine Couples Themed Dinner | 6 p.m. at HBA

Wednesday, February 15

Professional Women in Building Council | 5:30 p.m. at HBA

Wednesday, February 22

Joint meeting Builders & Developers and 40Below Councils | 11:30 a.m. at HBA

Monday, February 27

Rogers County Chapter| 12 p.m. at Hammett House, Claremore

March 2023

Thursday, March 9 through Sunday, March 12

Greater Tulsa Home & Garden Show | SageNet Expo Center

Friday, March 24 through Saturday, March 25

Claremore Home & Garden Show | Claremore Expo Center