TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Tulsa City Councilor Roscoe Turner revealed Wednesday he received a telephone death threat over the council's ongoing investigation into airport operations.
The Tulsa Police Department plans to investigate the threat and is taking the matter seriously, said Sgt. Kim Presley.
Turner said Wednesday the threat that was left on his home answering machine at 6:12 p.m. on May 24 was so garbled that he initially ignored it.
But when his wife heard the message later in the week, she urged him to listen to it again, he said.
''It then became very clear to me what was being said,'' said Turner, who played the message for the media.
In it, a man's voice gives an obscenity-laced warning for Turner to ''leave the airport alone.''
The caller also threatens to kill Turner if he does not leave Tulsa.
When asked who he thought made the call, he replied: ''I don't even want to go there. I'll let the police do their investigation.''
Turner said he is worried about his safety but that ''I'm not going to let something like this prevent me from doing what I need to do.''
The two other members of the council's airport investigation subcommittee, Chris Medlock and Jack Henderson, have not received threats.
''You never know whether it's just someone who's off their medication or whether it's really someone who's trying to intimidate us,'' Medlock said.
In a split vote, the council decided to launch its own investigation into the operations of Tulsa International Airport last July, after a federal probe found no criminal activity.
But the findings of the 16-month investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Inspector General's Office criticized the financing package for the now-defunct Great Plains Airlines, saying it involved a convoluted loan as a way to get around a federal ban on local airports providing direct subsidies to airlines.
The first phase of the council's investigation into the airport focused on Great Plains.
With a $60,000 budget, the council hired investigator Wilson Busby, who released his own findings in November that included nothing illegal related to Great Plains' dealings.
Two months ago, during the second phase of the council probe into the both Tulsa International and Jones Riverside airports, the council subcommittee accepted Busby's resignation after Turner and Medlock publicly questioned his objectivity.
In April, the council was notified that the subcommittee not only wanted to extend the probe deadline but also sought to use the remaining $14,000 of the original budget to hire a new investigator.
The council agreed to a 90-day deadline extension, but no one has been hired.
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