Who covers Operation SAFE clean up bill? Stitt says City of Tulsa

“The State made a decision to conduct a large-scale cleanup of property that it owns and maintains. It is difficult to understand how the City of Tulsa then becomes financially responsible for that cleanup simply because the State wants to be reimbursed for their own expenses.

It should be of note that the City of Tulsa already dedicates significant resources to maintaining State property. Tulsa spends just over $300,000 yearly, which is almost $2 million spent since 2021, to dedicate two crews to cleaning approximately 300 miles of State highways. If the State’s position is that governments should simply bill one another for work they believe the other should have done, then we are certainly capable of having that conversation - and we can start by sending the State the bill for the work the City is already doing on its property.

We could also begin accounting for the significant time and resources the City has spent responding to the consequences of the State’s operation, including helping locate individuals who were displaced, reconnecting them with medications and identification, and responding to the impacts in our parks and neighborhoods after people were displaced without a place to go.

This should not be a competition over who can send the other government the largest bill. The City and the State should be working together to address homelessness and public safety, not shifting costs onto one another. Tulsa will continue to do its part, especially through proven and effective programs like Safe Move Tulsa, our strategy to end street homelessness that has already moved nearly 600 people out of homelessness, closed 10 encampments, provided housing services for 40 animals, and cleaned nearly 190 tons of trash and debris in less than a year.”