2020 Office of the Mayor Annual Report Released

1/12/2021

Mayor G.T. Bynum shared the 2020 Office of the Mayor Annual Report today, which consists of a variety of programs, projects and events his team at the City of Tulsa worked on the past year, all during a global pandemic.  

“2020 was a difficult year for our community as we endured challenge after challenge while responding to a global pandemic. Yet, despite the challenges we faced, we pulled together to face those challenges and found a way to continue Tulsa’s forward progress,” Mayor Bynum said. “I want to thank my fellow Tulsans for your perseverance through the past year and look forward to what we can do together in 2021.”

2020 Highlights

• Swiftly responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, being the first municipality in the metro to issue a Safer at Home Order and a mask mandate, balancing the City’s budget by instituting a hiring and travel freeze and furloughs, creating the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Advisory Committee to help with economic recovery, and using CARES Act funds from the State of Oklahoma to help with virtual learning, sanitation efforts, homelessness and business supports
• Conducted two test excavations at Oaklawn Cemetery in the City’s search for mass graves from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, uncovering what is believed to be a grave shaft consistent with a mass grave containing at least 11 individuals (excavations never occurred until 2020)
• Announced Tulsa’s single-largest capital investment in the city’s history - American Airlines’ planned $550 million investment in its Tulsa Maintenance Base
• Broke ground and cut the ribbon on the City’s largest Vision Tulsa projects to date, namely the $48 million Zink Dam Modification project, which will soon create vibrant recreational opportunities in the Arkansas River by creating a lake, and the ribbon cutting for the $55 million renovation at the Cox Business Center, which will help the City attract more world-class entertainment to Downtown Tulsa
• Completed $320 million in projects on both arterial and non-arterial streets and broke a City record with the number of capital construction projects that went to bid from April through mid-October, with 64 contracts valued at nearly $240 million
• Honored the life of Sergeant Craig Johnson who was killed in the line of duty following a traffic stop the morning of June 29 and created Officer Aurash Zarkeshan Day in Tulsa after he was injured alongside Sergeant Craig Johnson in the same traffic stop
• Hosted Oklahoma’s first drive-in naturalization ceremony, which took place at the historic Admiral Twin Drive-In to help participants practice social distancing amid the pandemic, which saw more than 50 naturalize at one time – to date, nearly 400 people have naturalized in Tulsa since the City started hosting ceremonies at City Hall in 2019

You can view the complete 2020 Office of the Mayor Annual Report at www.cityoftulsa.org/mayor and watch the video, with Mayor G.T. Bynum introducing the 2020 Annual Report. Media are welcome to use the video for their use.