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Tulsa leaders outline homelessness, public safety, economic development and children’s services as top budget priorities
Summary
City officials presented a summarized action plan from the Jan. 22 mayor–council retreat, identifying homelessness, public safety, economic development and children/youth/families as the four priority areas to guide the FY25–26 budget process and associated reorganizations.
Tulsa city officials and councilors on Thursday reviewed a condensed action plan drawn from the Jan. 22 mayor–council retreat, identifying homelessness, public safety, economic development and children, youth and families as the city’s four budget priorities heading into the FY25–26 process.
The mayor’s office and council staff presented a draft “work plan” that groups retreat ideas into the four themes and lists target action steps, responsible city leads and whether funding has been identified. Shane, mayor’s office staff, summarized the plan and said the aim is: “to finish what we started and focus city efforts on the priorities while maintaining a balance of our revenue and expenses.”
Why it matters: Councilors said the framework will guide legislative, budgetary and operational decisions over the next year. Staff emphasized the document is a draft; many proposed actions do not yet have identified funding and will be weighed through the formal budget process.
On homelessness, presenters and councilors discussed continuing the 3H task force work, improving winter-shelter capacity and developing upstream prevention programs. The mayor’s office noted the city has funded coordinator positions and emphasized that voucher and housing placement capacity must exist to make outreach and encampment decommissioning effective. Councilor Kelsey Doctor Wright urged language that anticipates “extreme weather” beyond winter storms to include heat and flooding, and participants discussed keeping the initial operational window aligned with a time-bound response (the presenters cited an October–March focus for winter sheltering while noting the need to prepare for other extreme-weather responses in the future).
Public safety items in the plan include elevating animal welfare work, augmenting investigative capacity, continuing police recruitment and retention efforts, and exploring alternative response models (including co-response and pre-hospital emergency medical procurement work). Staff said a new animal shelter is under construction and capital campaigns are underway.
Economic development priorities center on reducing internal barriers to development, expanding infrastructure access through GIS mapping and funding, and preparing for tourism and event opportunities such as the Route 66 Centennial. Councilors pressed for nimbleness: several said city infrastructure timelines sometimes lag private-sector readiness and urged faster capital-prioritization when development interest exists.
Councilors and staff also discussed workforce development and recruitment as cross-cutting needs. Presenters said departments review vacancies and recruitment strategies but that the city faces retention and pay-competitiveness issues in some trades and professional roles. Several councilors recommended a joint follow-up with HR and the mayor’s office to examine staffing strategies for hard-to-fill positions.
The retreat summary will be revised to incorporate council feedback and redistributed. Staff said they will work with departments to align the priorities with the mayor’s formal FY25 budget proposal, and councilors were offered one-on-one briefings before the formal budget documents arrive.
