Tulsa Human Rights Commission presses city IT to build secure online discrimination-complaint system

Members of the Tulsa Human Rights Commission said Oct. 20 they have begun conversations with city information-technology staff and the Department of Resilience and Equity about building a secure online system for discrimination complaints.

Vice Chair France, presiding at the meeting, said current complaint forms can require mailing a signed document or appearing at the city clerk’s office. She said commissioners see modernizing the process as a way to increase accessibility and that city IT and equity staff “understood the task” and initial costs and implementation considerations were discussed.

Commission staff member Lexi said the city’s 311 Customer Care team has expanded its intake capacity in the last 18 months to collect initial human-rights complaint information and route reports to equity staff for full filing. “If and when we’re able to get a fully online system up, that integration will be even easier,” Lexi said.

Vice Chair France said the city’s legal team had earlier suggested removing the human-rights ordinance’s explicit reference to the city clerk as the required recipient of complaints. “That reference is arguably unnecessary,” France said, adding that stripping the reference could help the city adopt a modern intake system that still preserves confidentiality and evidentiary safeguards if a complaint leads to litigation.

Commissioners stressed confidentiality, secure timestamping and defensible records as prerequisites for any electronic filing system. The item will remain a recurring topic for the commission as staff and IT refine options for implementation in 2026.