Little was decided at Friday’s Tulsa County Criminal Justice Authority meeting, but a lot was said — much of it incendiary.
Undersheriff Tim Albin accused Mayor Dewey Bartlett and City Attorney David O’Meilia of “malicious and unethical” behavior when they questioned whether the Sheriff’s Office could be trusted to provide accurate financial information for a jail audit.
Last month, Bartlett and O’Meilia cited an ongoing lawsuit that includes a deposition from a former jail worker accusing Albin and Sheriff Stanley Glanz of hiding documents and moving inmates prior to a 2007 health-care audit of the jail.
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“We are probably going to see an increase in our anticipation for legal fees,” Albin said. “
And that is basically due, in my opinion, to what I consider to be the malicious and unethical actions of Trustee Bartlett and O’Meilia in their attempt to smear Sheriff Stanley Glanz and the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.”
At one point Bartlett dismissed Assistant District Attorney Doug Wilson when he stood up to speak on an unrelated issue, saying, “I don’t want to waste my time listening to him talk.”
The mayor said later that his remarks reflected his concern that Wilson was not the appropriate person to comment on the Department of Corrections’ housing rates since he does not represent the Criminal Justice Authority.
Michael Brose, head of the Mental Health Association Oklahoma, told authority members that the “bickering” between city, county and authority officials has left the private philanthropic community unwilling to help address problems.
“I am going to be honest with you guys,” Brose said during a presentation on mental-health issues facing jail inmates. “I was just on the phone with them this morning. They are reluctant to step in. … They don’t think that you guys can really come together and work in the way we are talking about.”
All of this occurred on the second-to-last day of February, making it nearly eight months since the city and county have had a signed jail agreement to hold municipal inmates in the jail.
The contract was not on the agenda, but city and county officials said after the meeting that they are close to a deal.
“I think we’re pretty close,” Bartlett said.
County Commissioner Ron Peters and City Manager Jim Twombly have met twice this week to discuss the contract.
As of Monday, the parties were working out final details but seemed to have agreed on two of the major sticking points — the daily rate to hold a municipal inmate and how inmate stays are measured.
What was not mentioned by county and city officials was a memo sent by O’Meilia on the same day stating that the city anticipates “becoming engaged in litigation involving multiple claims with Tulsa County” and asking the county to preserve 82 pieces of evidence.
O’Meilia states in the litigation hold notice that the city’s action was prompted by the county’s public assertion that it would likely require going to court to resolve the jail dispute.
Bartlett said after Friday’s meeting that he believed Albin’s remarks were inappropriate and rude, and did not reflect well on the Sheriff’s Office or its ability to operated the jail.
O’Meilia was more to the point.
“The ignorance and false accusations that Undersheriff Albin spews are astonishing,” he said after the meeting.
O’Meilia noted that it was his legal obligation to make the mayor and city councilors aware of the allegations cited in the lawsuit and that he is ethically prohibited from sharing his letter to councilors with the media.
The information sent to councilors “came directly from public federal court records of evidence specifically cited by a federal judge in his written decisions made in pending court cases against Sheriff Glanz,” O’Meilia said. “The information was shared with councilors because they must accept changes to the fee the city is charged to hold inmates in the jail.
“I have a legal and ethical obligation to provide advice and information to city councilors about matters which may potentially impact issues on which they are called upon to make decisions for the city,” O’Meilia said.
