Head of grants dept. received vote of no confidence from council

TULSA - Tulsa's grants administrator will keep her job, despite a vote of no confidence by eight of nine city councilors.

In a response letter dated Tuesday, Mayor Dewey Bartlett defended Dafne Pharis' performance. He wrote that Pharis "has taken a grants process that was reeling from lack of leadership and which was an expensive embarrassment to the City and built capacity and expertise and set it on the right course for the future."

Councilor Jack Henderson lashed out at director of administration Jim Twombly at Tuesday's council meeting in reaction to the letter.

"You're telling me that somebody that acted that irresponsibly you still stand by them 100%?" asked Henderson.

Bartlett has no plans to demote Pharis, who is accused by council of poorly managing Community Development Block Grants.

The concern the Mayor does agree with, and plans to address, is why the grants department is not proactively writing grants.

"We have grant writers scattered throughout the City...and I don't believe they are well coordinated," the mayor told 2NEWS.

Bartlett says a city efficiency study by KPMG will make recommendations for improving the grants department. That review should be completed by the end of this month.