G.T. Bynum vies for reelection

Municipal elections are less than a week away, and Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum is hoping voters will decide to give him a second four-year term in office. La Semana spoke with Mayor Bynum this week about the state of the pandemic, police use of deadly force, and other issues of importance to the residents of Tulsa.

Although the number of new cases of COVID-19 in Tulsa County has dropped substantially from its peak in mid July, Bynum said the city is far from out of the woods and said that during a recent meeting with White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, the official stressed the importance of wearing face masks. The Tulsa City Council passed a mask mandate on July 15, which Bynum signed into law the following day. The mayor credits the mask mandate with helping to avoid a second costly shutdown of local businesses.

“[Wearing masks] was the least expensive of all of the options and the easiest for everyone to do, and so we’ve gone with that one and so far all of our trends are headed in the right direction,” Bynum said.

The mayor said the pandemic has had a major impact on the city’s finances, but things appear to be improving.

“We can track that fairly well from our sales tax receipts month by month,” the mayor said, explaining that the decline is not as steep as it was earlier in the year. “So our economy is recovering, but we’re in the midst of a global pandemic, a national recession and a really historically challenging time for the energy industry, which is still our largest industry, and for aerospace.”

In the wake of two recent fatal shootings of suspects by Tulsa police, La Semana asked the mayor about the city’s deadly force policy, and how officers are trained in this regard.

“That is something that we take very seriously as a city. The citizens of Tulsa empower our police department to use force when necessary to keep them safe and we want to make sure that that power is only being utilized when it needs to be,” Bynum said, adding that an outside firm had been contracted to evaluate the TPD’S use of force policy, and their recommendations are currently being reviewed by Chief Franklin.

Asked about the overall state of race relations in Tulsa, the mayor said that during the recent Black Lives Matter protests, Tulsa police – unlike those in other cities – were there to protect protesters as well as property.

“One big thing that that I’ve seen here in Tulsa that may contrast with what you see in other cities is that our police department has really sided on allowing people to speak their views,” he said, “even when those views are very critical of the police department.”

One area Mayor Bynum is proudest of is his administration’s approach to the city’s growing immigrant population.

“I realized when I came in as mayor that one of the most important things that I would do in the time that I have this job is bringing the Hispanic community in Tulsa more into the governance of the city,” Bynum said. “It’s the fastest growing community and our city. Our city is going to be a majority Hispanic city in 25 or 30 years.”

In addition to appointing Hispanics and other immigrant to the city’s boards and authorities – and to key positions on his own staff – the mayor noted that Tulsa is the first city in Oklahoma to host naturalization ceremonies at City Hall.

“We just had our latest one last week, and that is I think incredibly important for our immigrant Community to know how welcomed they are and how grateful we are as Tulsans to have them choose our city as the place that they want to be,” the mayor said.

Bynum faces several challengers in the August 25 election, including Greg Robinson, Paul Tay, Craig Immel, Ty Walker, Zakri Leon Whitlow, and Ken Reddick. In order to avoid a runoff, a candidate must get more than 50% of the vote. (La Semana)