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Knowledge is Power!
Tulsa — oil built it and today it's a fresh episode of "How Can We Make it More Like Portland.
🔎Receipt-based citizen journalist
Political commentary, local Tulsa/Oklahoma issues, receipts-based content.
09/23/2026
Last April, Lori Decter Wright tried to put her “independent oversight” plan on the ballot. Tulsans would have gotten a yes or no. That path died.
So she came back without voters. Same Office of Independent Review. Same Civilian Oversight Board. Councilors now pick their district's person for the civilian board. This time it’s an ordinance, a law. No vote. Council can pass it in a meeting, where they usually vote unanimously.
That vote is at 5 pm today with a 1 pm discussion.
This bill doesn’t give these proposed entities any teeth. They can watch and write. They can’t compel. The ONLY investigative POWER baked in is City Council’s — the same body that would pass it without asking you. The office will be funded by the taxpayers. Another city layer, another expense on a budget that's increased 54% since FY 2022 by these councilors.
That’s not a new path to accountability. This path ignores the voters.
09/22/2026
Former VP Kamala Harris is in Michigan today with Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.
▪︎He has said the Israeli government is “as evil as Hamas.”
▪︎He wants ICE abolished, not reformed.
▪︎After a synagogue attack, he added “hurt people hurt people.”
▪︎He campaigned with Hasan Piker and still won’t cut ties.
That’s the Senate candidate the Democrats are unifying behind.
UPDATE info 4 pm:
Harris spokesman put it as: turn out the vote, “flip the Senate,” cut prices, and “stand up to Donald Trump’s corruption.” El-Sayed framed the visit as coalition-building with Black voters in Detroit who had leaned toward Stevens.
Today’s stops (Tuesday, Sept. 22)
1. Detroit-area roundtable on Black maternal health / healthcare costs with El-Sayed. Harris used it to urge people to elect him: “His will be… a national voice.”
2. Private Oakland County Democratic Party reception hosted by former Rep. Brenda Lawrence. Gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson was expected.
3. Faith / NAACP turnout meeting** with Rev. Wendell Anthony (Detroit NAACP), Rev. Genetta Hatcher (The Room Church), and other clergy.
This is the first public joint appearance since she endorsed him in August.
Monica and Jason Ponnequin showed for their Sept. 17th arraingment, both still out on bond. The 71st Street Hag and hubby came without a lawyer again. Next date: Oct. 22.
Felony conspiracy for both. Jason also charged with A&B. Said again they are “speaking to” Ben Fu, former Assistant DA who challenged DA Steve Kunzweiler in 2018.
We are three months in now.
09/20/2026
UPDATE 12:26 pm: Clapp was found with a hold for GPS monitoring under "all." Thanks Chad!
Today, the Tulsa Police Department posted they arrested Austin Lane Clapp on September 17th: “booked into Tulsa County Jail” on Murder 2 after the July 12 Admiral Place fatal crash.
Searching the TCSO public roster using last name Clapp there's no bookings found.
If he’s there, show the booking.
If he bonded, say so (not listed as recently released).
If he’s a tribal citizen and this went federal/tribal under McGirt, say which court has him.
The public roster should not just go blank after a murder arrest.
09/19/2026
Tulsans don't need permission for independent oversight of the mayor and council. It needs signatures.
Tulsa’s budget jumped about 54% since FY2022: $799 million to $1.227 billion. That money is being spent by a mayor and council who "police" themselves — and who keep getting cozier with unelected nonprofits while residents get rate hikes, few answers, high crime and poor roads.
Tulsans have the tool these big spenders hope you won’t use or don"t know exist.
Oklahoma law lets citizens put independent oversight in the City Charter by public vote initiated by a citizen petition.
Tulsa Police Department wrote a long story about arresting Daelon Jacobs.
What they left out: he's being held for Cherokee Nation Marshals. Heading to tribal court.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ended Nichols’ written deal with tribes to do this ---but Jacobs still got the hold.
You’ll probably never hear a verdict.
UPDATE 9/19: Jacobs has completely disappeared from the jail roster.
The Tulsa City Council didn’t really pass a solid resolution last night. It passed a "framework" of intent — intentionally vague and the sponsor called it a privilege.
Last-minute changes made it easier to swallow and harder to pin down. The final 5 pm version was not done before meeting. Converted to a pdf at 5:01 pm. The public had zero time to review before the meeting. Landlords, education, “early settlement.” They removed “low-income tenants" from the title. Public lawyer money now “focuses” on a medical shock or a slum unit. A new Whereas added:
WHEREAS, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES, EARLY DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROGRAMS, AND LEGAL REPRESENTATION INITIATIVES ARE ESSENTIAL PROGRAM COMPONENTS TO ACHIEVE STABLE TENANT-LANDLORD RELATIONSHIPS AS WELL AS COMMUNITY HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS GOALS; AND
Notice the tenant is placed before the property owner, those who pay the property taxes on the rental property.
The unknowns ARE the program:
What is hardship?
What is “similar”?
What is substandard?
What income cap?
Could non-residents get a free attorney? Think so.
What does a landlord actually get?
How long can they stall an eviction?
Who pays the missing rent?
What does it cost?
Some staffers will write that part later.
Ana Barros of ImpactTulsa spoke for it enthusiastically last night. Mayor Nichols co-founded ImpactTulsa. After he became mayor, the City handed this nonprofit the Office of Children, Youth and Families — a SOLE-SOURCE deal, about $390,000, with a big cut going to ImpactTulsa staff. It placed an attorney in a East Central school with significant immigrants, both legal and illegal. Then this ImpactTulsa director stood at the mic for a tenamt prevention-lawyer resolution. That’s not a random citizen comment.
Councilor Laura Bellis took the bow: sponsoring it was “a privilege.” First thank-you: Oklahoma Access to Justice —a non-profit. She credited Decter Wright and Hall-Harper for championing it FOR YEARS. Bengel’s amendments, she said, made it “stronger.” That’s how the deal got done. It was changed based on many of their constituents contacting them---most were against, per Councilor Lakin. It passed unanimously.
Bellis closed with the giveaway: “significant work to do” and an “important path.”
Path means they voted on intent with a stripped down framework the public never got to review before the meeting---and left the rules for later.
09/16/2026
Lori Decter Wright: I'm back!
Tulsa City Councilor Lori Decter Wright tried this in April. She’s back with it again: Office of Independent Review and a Civilian Oversight Board. 2:30 today at the Public Works Committee.
Open the ordinance and its says:
Office = paid Director + staff.
Board = 11 unpaid residents.
§103.H — advisory. Nonbinding. No discipline. No personnel authority.
§103.G — department heads wait on the report, then they can ignore it.
§106.A — the Board is literally an “advisory board.”
§103.E — the two new shops get no subpoenas, no oaths, no power.
Here's where the REAL power in it is: the new “independent” office director, appointed by the mayor, can ask the same council that passed the bill — the City Council to investigate.
09/15/2026
🔥🔥🔥 Only 8 Democrats denounced socialism in DC!
H.Res. 1490 passed 220-192 on Sept. 1, 2026. Every Republican who voted supported condemning socialism in all its forms (including the DSA). 192 Democrats voted not to. Leadership voted no. Only 8 Democrats voted yes.
The 8 Democrats who voted to condemn it:
Kathy Castor (FL)
Darren Soto (FL)
Henry Cuellar (TX)
Vicente Gonzalez (TX)
Jared Golden (ME)
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA)
Don Davis (NC)
Gabe Vasquez (NM)
Two more voted present instead of no: Chrissy Houlahan (PA) and Maggie Goodlander (NH).
That’s the record. 192 members of the Democrat party would not vote to denounce an ideology tied to famine, mass death, and 100 million+ killed.
This is the Democrat party of 2026. You've been warned by their vote. They are enemies of a free society.
🔥UPDATE 8/16 6:27 pm🔥The Tulsa City Council voted UNANIMOUSLY to pass the eviction prevention resolution with some changes made to it. This confirms to me these 9 councilors are all liberal, every one of them, for choosing to set up a program to interfere in a landlord's right to evict, according to state law. The resolution does not mention funds to help tenant pay their past due rent so the landlord gets the middle finger instead of a rent check, by the Tulsa City Council. The good news is councilors heard from lots of people. It forced changes. You're welcome.
----
Tulsa’s new housing plan: landlord stops getting rent, the tenant gets a city-backed lawyer!
Wednesday the City Council plans to vote to put lawyer in Tulsa County District Court next to the person who isn’t paying their rent to interfere with state law!
Oklahoma wrote the law: 5 days to pay or face the eviction process, if landlord decudes it time to move forward. A process that does not require a lawyer. It's handled in small claims court. Tulsa can’t change that law. So the Democrats running the city came up with a workaround: city-backed intent to interfere with a landlord/tenant lease and eventual taxpayer money on the tenant’s side of a state law.
Nichols went on TV selling it as mediation---but this word is not in the resolution published. Then, the mayor said the tell: next budget year, taxpayer money into the pot.
If you rent out a house here, it's urgent you call your councilor before Wednesday or they will walk all over your legal right to evict.
UPDATE 8:11 PM: the reworked resolution is up. Go to upcoming meetings with link below, find regular meeting, click on the agenda. On page 6 find "Consideration and possible approval, adoption, denial, amendment or revision of a Resolution of the City of Tulsa expressing its intent to support the establishment and funding of an eviction prevention and legal representation program. (Bellis)" click on the supporting documents. Look for the redline copy. This is the final resolution.
https://tulsa-ok.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=4
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