Tulsa mayor seeks $115,000 to staff new Office of Children and Families through contract with Impact Tulsa

Mayor Monroe Nichols and city budget staff told the Urban and Economic Development Committee on Feb. 12 that the city will ask to appropriate $115,000 now to staff a new Office of Children, Youth and Families and to pay Impact Tulsa for that work.

The mayor said the appropriation would be seed money to hire staff, build data and planning systems and leverage private dollars. "This is us being one investor of many," Monroe Nichols said, adding that the city’s $115,000 would be used to raise a larger pool of private funding for the office.

Jared Milton of the city budget office described the item as a fiscal-year 2024–25 budget amendment moving $115,000 from savings in the finance department into the mayor’s office to fund the new office for the remainder of the year. Ashley Phillipson, who the mayor identified as serving as director of the Office of Children and Families while remaining executive director of Impact Tulsa, said Impact Tulsa will act as a…