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Tulsa council approves $2.5 million for LED highway lighting, water plant work and new fire department cost-recovery ordinance
Summary
The Tulsa City Council approved a set of fiscal-year 2026 budget amendments and a new ordinance Nov. 12, 2025, providing $2.5 million for LED highway lighting, funding for Mohawk water treatment plant work and a new incident-response cost-recovery ordinance for the fire department.
The Tulsa City Council approved a set of fiscal-year 2026 budget amendments and a new ordinance on Nov. 12, 2025, backing funding for highway lighting, water-plant infrastructure and several community programs and authorizing cost recovery for certain fire responses.
The council adopted an ordinance (7a) to appropriate $2,500,000 from the Public Ways operating fund to complete conversion to LED lighting on city highways. "Completion of the conversion to LED lighting on the highways" was described during the second-reading listing of ordinances, and the related appropriation was approved by roll call.
Other budget changes approved included a nearly $2.5 million appropriation for replacement of chemical tanks at the Mohawk water treatment plant (7c); a health and human services amendment of just under $1 million tied to a three-year substance-abuse and mental-health grant (7b); a transfer of slightly less than $20,000 for homelessness-prevention funds (7d); $1,069,000 for the retail revitalization fund (7e, as amended in backup materials); $900,000 for housing and small-business loans (7f); and a transfer of just under $300,000 for arterial rehabilitation (7g).
On ordinance 7h the council approved adding a new chapter to Title 13 of the Tulsa Revised Ordinances to establish "incident response cost recovery," authorizing the city to seek cost recovery from at-fault parties for certain fire-department responses and establishing cost-recovery rates. A public speaker characterized the measure as a way to support first responders; the ordinance text and second-reading summary in the record describe the measure as authorizing cost recovery from at-fault parties for fire-department responses and establishing rates.
Public comment before the vote included praise for Turkey Mountain improvements and first responders from a resident who supported items tied to parks and incident-response costs. Another public commenter, James Alexander Jr., addressed item 7d (homelessness-prevention funds), urging that funds be directed specifically to North Tulsa: "This money needs to be turned over to North Tulsa, not all over Tulsa, North Tulsa," he said, and urged continued pressure on the council to change distribution practices.
Votes at a glance
- Items 7a–7h (package, with 7e as amended in backup) — Approved by roll call.
What happens next
The ordinances approved on second reading will be handled according to the council’s standard ordinance-adoption process; specifics such as effective dates were not announced during the meeting.
