Mayor-elect G.T. Bynum on Tuesday released the annual salaries he will pay his 11-member staff. Bynum will be paid $105,000, as dictated by the city Charter. DYLAN GOFORTH/The Frontier
One thing won’t be changing when Mayor-elect G.T. Bynum takes office Monday: Tulsa’s mayor won’t be the highest-paid member of his own staff.
Three members of Bynum’s staff will earn more than the $105,000 annual salary the mayor-elect will receive per the city Charter. Deputy Mayor Michael Junk and Chief of Staff Jack Blair will each be paid $130,000 a year. Nick Doctor, Bynum’s chief of community development and policy, will be paid $110,000 a year, according to figures provided by Blair.
Graphic by Kassie McClung/The Frontier
Mayor Dewey Bartlett also has three members of his staff who make more than $105,000: City Manager Jim Twombly ($160,576); Economic Development Director Clay Bird ($140,000); and Chief of Staff Jarred Brejcha ($138,715).
Overall, Bynum will spend $916,500 a year on Mayor’s Office staffing. The figure is slightly higher than the $915,461 Bartlett budgeted for staff salaries this fiscal year. However, Bynum’s staff includes 11 staff people, compared to nine on Bartlett’s staff.
Former Mayor Kathy Taylor, who will serve as Bynum’s chief of economic development, is not taking a salary.
“I am pleased we were able to assemble such a talented team within the budget provided,” Bynum said. “Every member of our team – including the mayor – will be mindful of the need to show significant value delivered in exchange for this opportunity to give our all in service to our fellow Tulsans.”
Other Bynum staff salaries include: unfilled, chief reliance officer, $97,000; James Wagner, chief of performance strategy and innovation, $97,000; Kimberly Madden, mayor’s executive aide, $55,000; Amy Brown, deputy chief of staff, $48,500; Christina Starzl Mendoza, assistant to the mayor for community development and policy, $48,000; Jonathan Townsend, assistant to the mayor for community development and policy, $48,000; Brandon Oldham, mayor’s aide, $48,000.
Bynum is taking office in the middle of the city’s fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30. As a result, the mayor-elect is inheriting the Mayor’s Office budget of $932,000 from Bartlett.
The Mayor’s Office, like any other city department, is funded primarily from the city’s general fund and is reviewed and approved by the City Council. Most Mayor’s Office staff are paid out of the Mayor’s Office budget, but not all of them.
As of October 31st – four months into the fiscal year – the Bartlett administration had spent 33 percent of its Mayor’s Office budget, according to city records. However, in three subdivisions of the budget – airline travel, membership fees and other services – the administration has spent nearly all of its allotted funding, or more than was allotted.
The administration budgeted $18,350 for “other services,” which covers expenses not covered in other areas of the budget, and has spent $46,000, or 333 percent, of its allocation.
According to the city’s Finance Department, the $46,000 was paid to Mike Cooper, who lobbied on behalf of the city to get the U.S. government to house part of its F-35 fleet at the Air National Guard base near the airport. The government has yet to announce where the fleet will be based.
The $46,000 came out of the Mayor’s Office budget but will be reimbursed by the Indian Nations Council of Governments, city officials said.
The Bartlett administration has spent 72 percent, $1,821, of the $2,500 it appropriated for airline tickets. The money was spent on trips Bartlett took to Washington, D.C., to meet with government officials about the F-35 program, and to New York City and Washington, D.C., where he joined the Tulsa Regional Chamber for economic development meetings, city records show.
The Mayor’s Office budget this year includes $26,000 for membership fees, 72 percent of which has been spent, city records show. The $18,571 includes a $1,060 payment to the state Chamber of Commerce and a $17,511 payment to the United States Conference of Mayors.
Blair, Bynum’s incoming chief of staff, said the new administration has some concerns about the airfare portion of the budget, “but we are working with Finance Department staff to understand those expenditures and to evaluate what will remain on Dec. 5.”
