TEAM BYNUM Brandon Oldham, mayor’s aide; Kimberly Madden, mayor’s executive aide; Michael Junk, deputy mayor; James Wagner, chief of performance strategy; G.T. Bynum; Jack Blair, chief of staff; Amy Brown, deputy chief of staff; Jonathan Townsend, assistant to the mayor for community development and policy; Christina Starzl Mendoza, assistant to the mayor for community development and policy; and Nick Doctor, chief of community development and policy.
Bynum’s Tulsa roots run through the mayor’s office. His great-great grandfather, R.N. Bynum, was Tulsa’s second mayor. His grandfather, Robert J. LaFortune, served as mayor from 1970-1978, and his cousin, Bill LaFortune, served as mayor from 2002-2006. Even Bynum’s current Philtower office has ties to the mayor’s office. Bynum says it was for many years occupied by Tulsa’s 30th mayor, James M. Hewgley Jr., who rented the space following his departure from the mayor’s office. “This was his office for decades,” Bynum says. “It happened to be available, so we thought, ‘That’s good karma,’ because he was such a great man. We knew we could work out of his office for a few months and put us on a good path to City Hall.” Bynum has spent a lot of time reading biographies of various presidents to learn how they handled their transitions into office. He jokes that there aren’t many books that provide in-
G.T. Bynum will be sworn in as Tulsa’s 40th mayor on Dec. 5.
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK 6-8 a.m.
G.T. Bynum awakes and does household chores, reads the Tulsa World, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal before helping kids Annabel and Robert get ready for school. 30
TulsaPeople DECEMBER 2016
8-10 a.m.
Breakfast at Atlas Grill, then proactively tackling a mountain of work before the day’s meetings begin.
sight into the transition from citizen to mayor. Because of the city charter’s change to non-partisan elections four years ago, there is a fivemonth gap between election and installation. “I came across this great quote about (Abraham) Lincoln, where he referred to creating his staff after being elected as a constantly shifting crossword puzzle because one decision impacts all these others,” Bynum says. “As soon as you change that decision, it makes other things move around, which is definitely the case. The great thing about having so much time is it has allowed us to be very deliberate and very mindful with each ask and each hire.” (At press time, Bynum had hired 10 staff members. More on that on the next page.) When it comes to running the mayor’s office, Bynum is comfortable and ready to work on policies. He credits his time working in Sen. Don Nickles’ and Sen. Tom Coburn’s offices and his eight years on the city council in preparing him for that aspect of his job.
Just because he hasn’t taken office yet doesn’t mean Bynum isn’t pounding the pavement. He describes a typical day in the life of a full-time dad and mayor-elect.
10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting, most of the time in 30-minute increments.
3 p.m.
Picks up kids from school.
3:30-6 p.m.
Works from home while kids do homework.
6-8 p.m.
Dinner, sports practices or school activities.
8-10 p.m.
Kids go to bed. More working from home while wife Susan does law school homework.