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 than vacant positions. She said the city typically runs about 80 to 200 vacancies at any given time and that 82 positions are currently in active recruitment. “These are budgeted. We anticipate the departments have budgeted to fill those positions,” Warwick said.

HR presented several other metrics the council used to probe staffing risks and costs: a citywide turnover rate for non‑sworn employees of roughly 11 percent (excluding retirements, deaths and disability), 59 retirements in the last 12 months and a four‑year increase of about 397 authorized positions citywide. Warwick said some departments, notably water and sewer, have reduced turnover and vacancies through cultural and managerial changes; she credited work in that department with bringing turnover below 10 percent, a 10‑year low.

Committee members pressed HR on the city’s recruiting tactics. Warwick described a shift from large career expos to smaller, job‑specific events at city locations where applicants can apply on site, be interviewed by recruiters and meet hiring supervisors — an approach she said has improved conversion from applicants to hires. For technical trades and certified operator roles (streets, stormwater, water/wastewater operators), Warwick said the city relies heavily on internal training and promotion ladders because the work requires specific certifications and experience.

Council members and staff also discussed pay and bargaining constraints. Warwick said non‑sworn positions are often subject to collective bargaining limits (she referenced AFSCME bargaining constraints) that restrict salary flexibility at lower levels, while professional roles such as engineers and accountants are negotiated within broader salary ranges and can be adjusted by departments when needed.

Several councilors sought clearer data about grant‑funded positions and which roles would require general‑fund support if grant dollars end. HR staff and members of the small budget group said a table of grant‑funded positions exists and that they would make such information available to the full council. Warwick also said HR can run reports showing how many employees in each department are eligible to retire.

Committee members raised contracting as an alternative for hard‑to‑fill positions, noting past instances where contracting out produced cost savings or was used for major projects; HR said those decisions are typically department specific and depend on quality, cost and continuity concerns.

The presentation included a discussion of sworn versus non‑sworn staffing: HR handles recruiting and classification for non‑sworn positions while police and fire maintain separate testing and hiring processes. Committee members noted the city budgets for multiple police academies and a yearly firefighter academy paid for with public safety tax revenue; Warwick said police and fire recruitment is tracked separately from the non‑sworn data she presented.

HR committed to provide additional breakdowns — including which advertised positions are grant funded, how many vacancies have remained open long term and department‑level reports on retirement eligibility — ahead of budget deliberations.

The committee did not take formal action during the HR briefing. The discussion closed with council members urging the administration to supply the requested detail so future budget decisions can reflect which positions are critical to operations and which obligations would shift to the general fund if grant support lapses.