Gov. Mary Fallin shouldn’t further delay citizen-approved changes to Tulsa’s city charter without offering some valid explanation.
In 2017, 68 percent of Tulsa voters OK’d a charter change proposal to allow city employees to participate in municipal elections so long as they do so on their own time and out of uniform. Voters also approved (with a 64 percent vote) a measure to make sure a municipal public safety sales tax wasn’t used for other purposes.
Fallin has signed five other charter changes approved in that election, but hasn’t acted on the campaigning measure or the public safety lockbox. She hasn’t offered any explanation for why she hasn’t signed the charter changes, but without Fallin’s approval, the measures don’t go into effect.
The governor needs to either sign the charter changes or explain to the voters of Tulsa why she isn’t doing so.
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We’d caution her against rejecting the charter changes. The state health board’s recent efforts to thwart State Question 788 and medical marijuana shows just how much controversy is possible when the voters make a clear choice, but it is then blocked.
If Fallin has a valid reason for concern — if she sees some violation of state or federal law, for example — then she should veto the charter changes and tell the voters of Tulsa why she is doing it. But if she simply disagrees with the wisdom of the choices as public policy, she should bow to the will of the people.
The worst choice is doing nothing: Ignoring the vote without explanation and leaving the issue in doubt.
The Tulsa World endorsed one of the delayed charter changes and opposed the other, but now that they have strong majorities of the voters, we think both should be added to the charter and treated with respect.
Otherwise, the vote was a facade designed to suggest the public controls its own city government, when in fact it does not.
