John Jolley Discusses His Vision For Tulsa; Upcoming Mayoral Race

Voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to decide who will become the next mayor of Tulsa.

One of the candidates, John Jolley, joined Dave Davis on News On 6 at 6 to talk about his plan.

Dave: So, John, you're a business owner. Tell us a little bit about how your business experience, you believe, helps qualify you to run as mayor.

Jolley: Well, I came to Tulsa in 1982 when I transferred from the Enos Naval Academy to the University of Tulsa petroleum engineer. After that, I started my advertising company. So, I've seen how business in Tulsa and Tulsa itself has changed, and Tulsa is going to continue to evolve, and we must evolve and grow. Otherwise, the whole city will slowly deteriorate.

Dave: Big picture, why did you decide to run for mayor?

Jolley: The biggest picture, and the easiest answer to that is, I became a single father at 50 years old, and it changed me. I want to leave the world a better place and make a difference.

Dave: And so what are your plans if you are elected for the first 100 days in office?

Jolley: The first 100 days, I'm not going to make any promises on that because you're just going to get to find out the other people that work with you. You know, who's going to be their part of you, what you've inherited, what you've got going on. Then, you just want to make a difference, and my number one goal is to support and defend the Tulsa Public Schools.

Dave: Tell us more about that. Are there things that you would do differently as it relates to how the mayor has handled Tulsa Public Schools versus what you would do?

Jolley: No, I think, you know, I'm a big fan of GT Bynum. No, I just think, you know, my daughter goes to Tulsa Public Schools, and there's some great people over there, and they need to be represented. I know the mayor is not officially with Tulsa Public Schools, but I think the mayor should stand for Tulsa Public Schools and defend them because there's some great people, and a city is only as strong as its public schools because if you don't have strong public schools, a city will slowly die.

Dave: What are some things that Mayor Bynum is doing now that you would continue to do?

Jolley: I've been here for 40 years, and I've seen a lot of mayors, and Mayor Bynum has been my favorite mayor, and my favorite part of it is, I think he's been the most progressive mayor Tulsa has ever had. And there was a lot of things that happened during his administration. He did a great job of bringing the community together and healing. There was some things that could have gone one way or the other, and I think that he was his strongest suit as a mayor, was keeping the city together and keeping, you know kindness that was used, his kindness and his compassion. And that's what I want to continue.

Dave: I wanted to talk about homelessness in Tulsa as well. It is a problem that many people have been trying to see what they can do about. What would you do about homelessness?

Jolley: You know, that's not a quick fix. You know, it started in the 1980s when the federal government put the people that had mental illness on the streets. We then had people with addiction problems and lost their jobs and all that kind of stuff. And then since the darkness of the pandemic, we've got more people in the streets that didn't know they're going to be on the streets, but that's life, you know, now they're there. And I think the first thing you got to do is, like Mayor Bynum's doing, slowly, kind of start fixing things as you can, you know, give those people a hand that are that can help themselves and give them a belief in themselves. Because when people lose belief in themselves, they lose all hope. And that's the biggest thing is you got to give them hope. And the second thing after you get after you work on that, then you got to start looking at plans of how you're going to help with those who have addictions and those who have mental mental issues, because they're going to need help. They can't just fix themselves. They need help from us.