Tulsa reports hiring gains but hundreds of vacancies, HR warns budget choices will affect recruiting and retention

Erica Felix Warwick, Tulsa’s personnel director, told the City Council Budget & Special Projects Committee on May 16 that the city has made recent hiring gains but still faces persistent vacancies and budget uncertainty that could affect future recruitment and retention efforts.

Warwick said the city recorded a net gain of 62 non‑sworn employees over the past 12 months and added 420 new non‑sworn hires in that period. “Over that 12 month period we have had a net gain of 62 employees,” she said, and later reported the city is averaging 16–20 new hires at each biweekly orientation.

The nut of the discussion was whether those staffing gains will be sustainable as the council prepares the next budget. HR officials and council members debated how many currently empty positions are grant funded, which would need to be moved to the general fund when grants end, and which openings represent permanent authorized positions the city expects to fill.

Warwick told the committee the city’s full authorized strength, including sworn police and firefighters, is about 3,700 positions and that the workforce counts often cited at meetings represent people in place rather…