The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/tax-commission-blue-dome-district-bars-owned-by-tulsa-city/article_498e01bd-8d55-5147-809a-706171a0b727.html

Oh, Blake....say it ain't so...!

I was really enjoying having a politician I didn't have to rant and rave about....hopefully we can go back to that earlier, more innocent time very soon!

Blaming his employees? Come on. Mistakes happen, own up to them.

Lol...Been waiting on this...Heard about it a while back....He's always been shady...

He really doesn't have much of an option, aside from just not saying anything, which may have been classier. And it really could have been a clerical error. Trust me, I have seen it. Upper management is not checking to make sure every payment is made, and only usually find out when the business starts receiving notices. Even then, the OTC isn't exactly on the ball sometimes, and it's a bit of a self reported thing so, all that added up it probably was a clerical error by someone who likely doesn't remit sales tax for a living.

Lol...This is no clerical error....

He's had too many 'clerical errors' I think for that excuse to continue to fly during separate instances.

Don't get me wrong, I like Blake as a person, but he may have too many irons in the fire here.  Not so much anymore as I've heard he's sold some of his properties.

It was clerical (possibly) in that it was overlooked by management due to not being performed by a clerical worker. That's what happens. It's bad policies and procedures likely, which is not surprising for restaurants.

 Reading the nasty comments after the article and on Facebook it is apparent that many of them do not have small businesses of their own.

  It is tough as a small business keeping track of all the bills and taxes you have to pay.  There are SO many tax type things alone that it is tricky, I think there are about 30 tax forms we have to fill out each year, and many must be filled out multiple times each year, and a mistake can be made on any one of them, or heck one can be overlooked entirely and then you spend or invest the money thinking it is yours... I could only imagine having many businesses.

I just over paid my OTC by $1000 last month.  I am just glad it was a mistake in the "overpayment" direction versus the other way around or people if they found out about it could say bad things.  "We will see how quickly and determinedly the OTC gets us back money that is ""Not theirs to begin with"."  Ooops wait, that is not going to happen.  If I can make a $1000 mistake with my little store, I am sure bigger businesses can make bigger mistakes lol.

Employees do make mistakes and yes it is up to the owner to check on everything.  I have a long list of things I have to check on each month (the list is saved on my desk top, and then I have directions on how to do it and what I am looking for cause there is so much stuff and not all of it is something I completely understand lol)

And remember, the taxes aren't the only thing a business owner has to be keeping track of, budgeting, employee performance and payroll, I have literally hundreds of vendors and vendor payments each month, hundreds of thousands of products in my store to keep track of (whats selling, what is not, what sells when and during what part of the year, etc.) then there are many credit cards and bank statements, many vendors we have "terms" or credit with which have different times when payments are due (you may get the product in on one month and the payments start or are due several months later, try budgeting with that when you have hundreds of vendors lol it can get quite tricky), permits and insurance, then I have events we put on (getting food, ice, promoting it, decorating for it, staffed for it, planned out right etc.), homeless/trouble people (yes they take up your time often hours a day, hours that you could be doing other work, when they wander in and start looking at every single product or asking questions, or trying to as they mumble incoherently, ask to use the restroom, etc. ) the painting classes we do and preparing for those, book signings, creating our own new products (which is time consuming) making the store better in general, promotions and budgeting for that, day to day keeping the store clean and organized and keeping care of the daily sales and the cash drawer, finding new interesting products at good prices, reordering product that is sold (or not if it is not doing well but you have to determine that properly) reordering hundreds and hundreds of books sold many through the many different book companies, unpacking everything you get in and making sure all that paperwork is right and taking care of orders that are not complete, damaged, following up with that, making sure they have their numbers correct, etc, pricing it, placing it on the floor in a good way and reorganizing product so it will sell well and keep the store looking fresh, scanning in all the paperwork and invoices into the correct places, answering phone calls, general promotions including posters and ads (which I design and create) business Facebook posts which can take time if done right, twitter, histogram, making sure the website is up to date and continually improved, (keeping track of all the domains, trademarks, etc and making sure they are paid for and hosted) going through tons of business e-mails, etc. etc. etc.... etc.   etc.        etc.

And there are basically 3 of us doing all of that. While....... I work my DAY JOB (lot involved there) and work on the house, and try to keep a museum running and growing (and helping with fundraising events for that, paying the bills, doing the accounting, taxes, sales with the gift shop, employee, volunteers, etc.), Helping with the Deco District, and try to have a life and pay all of the "home" bills and taxes, mow the yard, feed and take care of the critters, family, you all know the drill lol . in there somewhere.

I can see how mistakes can happen and they get away from you really quickly if your a busy, small business owner.  Thank goodness my parter is a paperwork, organization freak Nazi lol.  

Anyway, got to go and finish loading up some scaffolding to take to the new job I am starting today, and hoping that everything goes ok at the store while I am not there!

Well said Artist. I have always felt that running a small business is tantamount to earning an MBA. Only, its more powerful because its street learning and the stakes are higher. Especially when its a business dealing with real people on a face to face basis.

Still, people give little credit to the complexity and are very willing to judge you. One of the greatest guys I remember from my time in business was a restauranteur who had a well respected business but failed to pay his state taxes. He wasn't treated as kindly as Blake. They shut him down, seized his assets in a heartbeat. He screwed up and never denied it but that business is hard to manage, cook, make payroll and on, and on. He recovered, opened another fabulous food operation in Brookside and all was fine. Till the business gave him a heart attack.

There are those who talk, and there are those who do.

Red warning lights have been flashing for a while that there might be cash flow problems, from the accusations that arose from the failed grocery store on Archer to the year-long lack of post-fire rehab at Joe Mamma’s to the short closure of The Phoenix last month over a tax issue.  I hope the sale of many of his entities will help Blake focus on the remaining businesses and right the ship.

He was sued over the grocery store....It appears for taking money from that project and putting it towards his other business's....

And there are those who run it like the should....Those taxes are not his....You get multiple warnings before they shut you down they even work out a payment plan....This is no clerical error....It's stealing cut and dry....

As CEO of a company, ultimately the responsibility falls on him to make sure the forms are filled out and taxes are paid.  His issue is only topical because he’s a councilor and we do expect more out of our public officials.

I’d hate to think how many other businesses are that far in arrears to the OTC or behind on federal payroll taxes.

I’d expressed concern when he first ran for office he was spreading himself a bit thin.  Best wishes Blake on getting this all ironed out.

I will be slow to pass judgement on this.

I don't view Blake as a businessman, even though I was a customer of his pizza long before most of you ever met him. I now see him as a councilor, fighting fights I generally agree with.

I wish him the best.

The Ron's Hamburgers a coworker of mine and I used to frequent for at least 8 years shut down out of the blue last year.  Would see one of the employees at Oiler games fairly frequently.  Knowing she was now out of a job, I asked what happened.

He quit paying state taxes.

That was my favorite Ron's too (21st/Garnett).  Sure the location wasn't ideal, but that place had better food than the others I've been to (The Farm, and now the one by my work).  Sad.

That is what happened to Little Lannie's Submarine shop.  Predecessor of Big Al's and Bill and Ruth's.

It's kind of crazy that half of the people in this thread seem to be giving him a pass. His business skips on taxes after being one of the front runners for a sales tax renewal and it's the employees?

Owners read P&L's and politicians that are owners for sure know taxes. I'm assuming too many people on here are worried about the politics involved to be critical. I challenge you to have a backbone and start questioning.

I don’t detect “half” the comments on here give him a pass.

He foobared up.  According to the Channel 6 news at 5, he’s said he’s responsible and he’s working on correcting it.  What more do you want?  Do you think he should resign from office?

He owned successful businesses with partners and decided to run for office. He was elected and public office ate into his time for the businesses. He turned the day to day operations over to people he believed he could trust, he took their word for how things were going, he got screwed by them, and is owning up to it and correcting the problem. He's not denying or trying to cover it up, he's doing the responsible thing when your name is on it.

Agreed.  And my assessment still stands.  Too many irons in the fire.  He's a great guy.  Hopefully he gets it rectified.

Here are the facts directly from the Court filings:

OTC v. Legends
http://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=tulsa&cmid=2968690

Tax warrants issued 7/21/16 for non-payment of sales and mixed beverage taxes for the months of December, January, March and May. Claims appear to be just short of $40k.


OTC v. The Max
http://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=tulsa&cmid=2968694

Tax warrants issued 3/30/2016 for non-payment of sales and mixed beverage taxes in November and December. Claims appear to be just short of $18k.


OTC v. the Fur Shop
http://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=tulsa&cmid=2968698

Tax warrants issued 6/15/16 and 7/21/16 for non-payment of sales tax and mixed beverage taxes in December 2015 and May 2016. Another warrant is for failure to pay mixed beverage from May 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015. Claims appear to be ~16k (maybe? They give three numbers and I don't know if the new warrant supersedes or adds to the old warrants).

- - -

Correct my facts if I read them wrong, just quickly pulled them and posted so others can review.

It's embezzlement.....At the very least....

Embezzlement? That's a spin. Especially without direct knowledge.  I know two employees who worked for JoMomma's. They both spoke of the administrative confusion they faced but they didn't find it unusual having worked for other restaurants. One even received two W-2's from them. That indicated that they had some clerical problems.

Yes, it wasn't his money. He was just to pass it on to the state. Business is messy. He screwed up and is working to pay off the state.

Trust me, people that run restaurants like these are generally really good at one thing, and it ain't runnin a business. This is not criminal.

There is a reason restaurants open and close at such a rapid pace.

You really seem to be hoping for the worst about Blake.

As someone who has many family members in the restaurant business I can tell you that this sort of thing is not unusual. Especially when you are dealing with multiple locations and are large enough to have others running your day to day operations. One of my Aunt's went through this very thing with two of her places and a small hotel she owns last year. Mistakes happen, frequently.

Did your aunt's situation also get to the point of the OTC making court filings?

I'll have to ask her. I know she had to get more involved in the day to day operations as a result. She is older and mostly retired and really wasn't doing much oversight prior to the issues coming up. Basically she was letting people that had worked for her for many years run things.

It's Breadburner....you know what that means.

In any given month, the OTC bill is the easiest bill not to pay.  If you don’t pay the beer/food vendors one month, they stop delivering beer and food.  If you don’t pay OTC one month, nothing happens - for a while.   Sounds a lot more like a cash flow issue than a clerical issue.

I wanted to point out that in CF's research it shows that taxes were being paid, just not every business every month, which would indicate clerical issues and not defiance of the law. Why would someone pay's April's taxes before they paid March for example?

Also, I don't have any insider information on what happened, but anyone running multiple businesses like this has to delegate a lot and he has had a lot of turnover in the people he delegated to. Restaurant and bar management is not sexy or really high-paying, it's a lot of work with few perks.

If nothing else, the Smash Mouth concert should've brought in enough to pay those bills.

What a crazy night. My favorite part was when they debuted their new edm track! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LSBrccSbBI

Potentially.

Seriously. Those numbers make it obvious it's not just a clerical error. I get mistakes, but this seems to be systematic.

If you get a warrant in March for one business, why is there a later warrant for mistakes in May?

It's absolutely unusual to have this much money not accounted for. I work in the industry.

I'd buy the cash flow issue. Sales are down at a lot of downtown establishments. My frustration is blaming employees. There is only one way to succeed in the service industry and that's owning up to mistakes, holding yourself accountable and working hard. That pretty much always trickles down to the people below you.

Yes...Keeping the cash that's not yours to keep....

The cash flow of a sandwich shop and a bar are very, very different.

Especially when the sandwich shop reports to a franchise owner that takes care of payroll, tax reporting both payroll and sales tax, and reports to a corporate office that makes sure that franchise owners are operating their stores properly and steps in quickly if things are not done right.

They are....How so...???

Agree 100%....There is a pattern here...

For one thing the managers of sandwich shops rarely run off with the nights earnings! Not that uncommon in bar operations. Unless they operate out of an open till, a sandwich shop has every transaction monitored by the register. A bar has lots of cash floating around.

A busy night at a popular bar will take in more cash in one night than a sandwich shop would in weeks. $7 sandwich combo vs $7 drink. The profit margin is very different too.

What does that have to do with anything...So in other words you have never been involved in either type of business at any level..

Never heard of that happening at a bar....You realize people don't use much cash anymore...You need to get with times...But none of this is has anything to do with the thread which is someone stealing money that does not belong to him....

Cash, tips, overcharges, stolen credit numbers. I'm not too far off base. So many ways to steal. Cash is still the medium that talks. There is a reason that managers of bars change often.

Huh....so you are arguing with "sauerkraut" now...??

Step away from the whisky!!

You're right. I took the bait. We all have a moment.

Yeah....well, sounds like maybe you recovered....


And I was wrong - NEVER step away from the whisky....!!

Blue Ox is the same type of operation as a franchise.

We have 15 drivers drivers at one location riding around with money at lunch just like a bartender at night...

Anyway, I'll remove myself from the thread. I think it's pitiful there isn't more accountability at city hall and people aren't outraged by this. Cross you T's and dot your I's if you want to hold public office.

Sounds like this is a bad case of absentee management.    Focus, focus, focus....

Blake is way to smart to do anything like this purposefully. He has a management problem that he overlooked and now he has owned up to it and will rectify it.

You are spot on again.....

I see merit to both of these points of view.  I can separate his position as a politician from his position as a business owner.  Small businesses face these issues all the time, this one is only in the headlines because he's a City Councilor.  I don't think running perfect businesses is a requirement to serve as City Council, so a recall is largely a proposal from people who already hated him.  However, sales tax remittances are a big friggin deal and are different than other tax issues.  It can lead to personal liability in some cases and sometimes are not dischargeable in bankruptcy.  So it's not as minor a deal as a bookkeeping error that resulted in a slight underpayment of business tax.  The reports say that he's reached an agreement with the OTC to make this right, so as long as he follows through, I don't see how it affects his position as a City Councilor.  I worry, though, about the viability of his businesses which seem to be successful.  I'd hate to lose those businesses and what they've done for downtown.  

Here's a shocker....

http://www.newson6.com/story/33387316/lawsuit-accuses-tulsa-city-councilor-business-owner-of-fraud

Adding myself back to the thread...

Why can't we see the docket?

The docket or document?  If the suit was filed today, it won't be on the docket yet.

Subscribe to the Frontier or buy the story for $5, the entire 50+ page suit is posted there.  I've managed to read about 1/3 of it so far.  The Frontier also does a pretty good summary of all the issues with the businesses but the suit lays out a lot of the financial transactions according to the plaintiffs accounting of it.  Pretty damning stuff, if it's true.

/edit, just noticed that KOTV published the complaint in it's entirety.

What I find most upsetting is that it looks like he goes to Barnes & Noble a lot, but not one purchase from DECOPOLIS Books.  Any series, any book you want, we are happy to get it for you!

But anyway, yea does not look good.  I still wish him the best, he has imho been a very good City Councilor.  Perhaps not the best businessman.  However, there are a couple of things with this that I can see, that depending on how you look at it, could change the majority of the perspective. 

Misspoke. Document.

Read through the entire lawsuit. I'm not as concerned about this as the taxes. Appears as though the The Max makes a lot of money. Only skeptical thing on there is the personal food. That's a waste if you're trying to profit.

Honestly, it looks like he got over his head on having too many businesses without a good support group under him. I still don't understand how you miss the taxes if you're keeping up with P&L's. My issue on taxes is that he's holding public office. A personal lawsuit regarding a business doesn't matter as much to me.

Transferring money from The Max, and from Folks?  Fun times!

How do we know it wasn't a business to business loan?

Lol...If you are this naive you are in trouble....

Not naive. I'm asking questions on the other side. Naive would be only listening to one side of the lawsuit.

Really?  It didn't sound like that when you removed yourself from the conversation when this was still about being out of trust on collected sales taxes.

I'd like to hear CF's take on the filing if he can comment.  I know he may represent clients in that part of downtown and can't comment on the merits of the suit.  I know Blake's business interests also involve at least one or two members on this forum.

I question some of the wording in the suit and I'll be curious how it stands up when it goes to court.    

Taking the allegations in the Zenthoeffer suit, this suit, and the 19 tax liens, it would appear there's been a cash flow issue amongst the businesses at various times.  Whether or not that was due to personal enrichment or simply over-extension and Blake was directing the cash flow to cover losses is for someone else to judge.  

He may only be guilty of being too deft in his management style and trusted the wrong people to manage his affairs.  I did that once and assumed if there was money in the account when I needed it, all was good.  After that management style imploded on me, I've never forgotten that lesson.  I am a partner in four different business entities and still have a full time day job.  Every day, I know- to the penny- how much cash I personally and each business has on hand and how much is owed.  Taxes are always a priority and vendors are always paid on time.

People do make mistakes.  Blake may have trusted the wrong people or perhaps too many people trusted his ability to return a great ROI and he got over-extended with easy credit to over-extend his resources too quick without time to adjust and find the right people to manage his interests with limited input from him.

I have no axe to grind with Blake, but this is taking on the appearance of a business empire which grew too quick, trying to take advantage of lower rents and real estate prices which existed 6-8 years ago.  One thing about Blake is he is a visionary.  Perhaps he saw the upshot on downtown and he wanted in before it got too expensive to to be a player.

You do have to question how a business like Joe Momma's which was reporting a profit of $1.2 million ended up only showing a net income of 2% unless it was shifting money via the Engine Room to support other entities.  Creating a marketing or management arm like The Engine Room to collect marketing or management fees is a pretty brilliant move if you need to shift cash around.

Just my opinions, mind you.  Better legal minds will eventually get to the bottom of it.  

Yes there are a lot of unanswered questions and what was presented only had part of the info to make any real judgment.  

One part that jumped out at me was where it stated that a tax payment was made and then noted that the Max didn't own any real-estate.  I can pay thousands in property taxes and not own real-estate, but things like equipment and such can count as property. So perhaps it is the other partners who don't really know all the details of how a business is run.  

Also per the purchases, I really don't know the particulars of how those businesses are set up and mine may be different, but if you were to look at a DECOPOLIS bank account and saw that I used the business debit card at Home Depot to buy a Skeleton, and at Party City to buy a Pirate Costume... what might you think?  You may think I am using it for personal business but I was not.  It was for "props and displays" for the business. https://www.facebook.com/decopolis/photos/pcb.1454898017860259/1454895027860558/?type=3&theater
Poor guy didn't pay attention to the sign!
 https://www.facebook.com/decopolis/photos/pcb.1454898017860259/1454894894527238/?type=3&theater

Or if I perchance I do purchase something at a store that is personal use with the business Debit or Credit Card I will have it listed as "Member 1 Draw" which basically means its part of my pay.  So whatever ones pay is from the business if its a percentage or set monthly rate or whatever, then that "Member 1 Draw" comes out of that. A "Member 2 Draw" would be for the other business partner.  If say DECOPOLIS LLC is in need of money, we want to add another product line, etc. I can make a Draw from say my other business, William The Artist LLC, and put that money into DECOPOLIS as a "Member 1 Equity"

Whenever I come into the store the person who looks at the bank statement will ask me about purchases or deposits like those.  "Whats this and what category is it to be listed under?" They will ask. And every so often I wander in and pull a wad of receipts out of my wallet and put them in a different employees tray and they know to either 1. Find the bank transaction if its already in our system and then scan in and "attach" the receipt to it. or 2. If the transaction is not yet in the system, then they create it (and then its matched to the bank later) and categorize it.  So as long as all the receipts, transactions and categories are there and match and are correct, you should be good to go.  At least thats how I understand it and hope thats ok! lol

The other thing I found interesting was that they were claiming that the "Fur Shop" and his other businesses were basically "Blake Ewing" and thus they could go after those businesses to get the money they say they are owed by Blake.  But then if you went with the same logic and said that "The Engine Room" was Blake Ewing" and it helped with some management aspects and promotions, etc. Might that possibly mute some of their claim that Blake wasn't doing the things because "The Engine Room" was doing it (but then they are saying his other businesses are him), or money went to "The Engine Room" (aka Blake)?  Anyway, need more info that was presented to make a judgment.

Lol...Yes it was a B2B without your partners knowledge...That's legit....I'm sure the folks he was involved with at Archer Market thought it was ok too....

Also, many downtown leases are triple net, meaning that real estate taxes, insurance, and building maintenance are the responsibility of the tenant. It is not necessary to own real property to be responsible for real estate taxes.

They are using his public image for a pay day.

None of this changes that he has been a good representative for smart urban development even when he is outvoted or loses to special interests.  I can separate that from his business acumen unless he intentionally defrauded the public i.e. embezzlement.  I haven't seen any such allegations.  He's making up he sales tax part it seems and the courts will resolve whatever private disputes he's facing.

I like Blake and think he’s been a great councilman.  However, this is serious stuff.  What’s alleged in a lawsuit is just that - allegations.  However, in light of the history here, these allegations look pretty credible.  The folks who ran the grocery store essentially made similar allegations - that he was moving money between businesses and deprived them of promised funding and any chance of success.  That was settled quickly.  The failure to rebuild Joe Momma’s after the fire was another red flag - either there was no/inadequate insurance or the insurance money went elsewhere to more pressing needs (and reopening White Flag would not account for all of it).  Then there was the failure to pay taxes.  This lawsuit appears to be putting all those previous pieces of the puzzle into place.

Lax management does not account for the specific types of transactions alleged in the lawsuit.  I’ve long worried whether Blake could manage what is essentially a full-time elected position while running a large number of restaurants and clubs.  Money has a way of disappearing in these types of businesses without strong oversight and management.  He’s been around long enough to know that and trying to blame “others” now is not very believable.

Yesterday, The Frontier did run a pretty nice companion story to the one about the financial difficulties his businesses have been facing which focused on the appreciation people have of him as a councilor.

Not paying taxes was an absolute. Someone filing a lawsuit citing a transaction without knowing the full story behind it is another. I just want to hear the other side, that's all. I'm for sure harder on him regarding the taxes since he's in public office.

No, I'm just saying it could potentially be with their knowledge. Both Ewing and Perkins get a lot if things said about them in circles that might not be totally accurate because they are/were politicians.

To my knowledge, Perkins has never been a politician.  He ran for mayor once and his brother sat on the TMAPC.

I mean, if you run for office then you're a politician.

Annnnnd....It's get worse....

I hereby nominate you for most worthless poster of the year. Zero substance what-so-ever. I had to Google what you were talking about to glean any substance from your post. Put some effort in for Gods sake.

News reports indicate 2 other Plaintiffs have joined the suit:

http://www.newson6.com/story/33580639/two-new-plaintiffs-join-lawsuit-against-tulsa-city-councilor

He doesn't need nomination - he gets it by acclimation/default.  From review of some of the old FOTD posts, even he wasn't the most worthless - at least there was some thought put into it.

Additional people with the same allegations in the same lawsuit.  Nothing has really changed.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since anyone can file a lawsuit.  It doesn't have a large affect on my view of him as a city councilor either way. 

I sure don't waste as much bandwidth as you...Counselor....

The same allegations his partners at Archer Market had......

Lol...lol...lol...lol...

But what you do is more profoundly wasted....

I guess that is just the ultimate expression of Trump Fanboy syndrome.  Even before Trump!

 If Blake screwed up it isn't Breadburners doing. Just because we like Blake as a counselor doesn't mean he is immune from criticism for his business acumen. We sure loved his restaurants and praised them when they were setting the pace in Blue Dome. Well, turnabout is fair play.

BB's style, or lack thereof, is another subject.

I haven't defended nor criticized Blake in regards to this lawsuit. My concern was not with BreadBurner raising issues of public interest, rather that he consistently drops vague comments and leaves it to others to figure out what the hell he's talking about. Then I actually post the basics of the story and link to a source, and I'm mocked for my trouble.

That's the definition of a troll.

I don’t know about the allegations in the lawsuit, but I’ve lost respect for him after seeing he ate at The Olive Garden, Waffle House, On the Border, and Cracker Barrel!

Lol in a funny way....!

Lol...It was in the Ewing thread....How hard was it for you....Front page news....

Lol Olive Garden.... gotta love those breadsticks

Why don't you guys go someplace else? And you chaps stay here. And then, some other night, you can all meet up at your Onion Garden...


"Will and Grace" - "I never promised you an Olive Garden".   (1999)   

Serious, serious, thread drift.  I apologize profusely.  Couldn't help it.  One of my favorite episodes of the series.

If ya gotta use pre-made dressing, theirs is ok...just like Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinaigrette with Parmesan cheese added....