Tulsa Public Works Committee Meeting – September 2, 2026
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Tulsa Public Works Committee Meeting – September 2, 2026
The Public Works Committee met on September 2, 2026, to consider a reappointment to the Human Rights Commission, a general obligation bond issuance, a cable franchise ordinance, and the annual flood insurance report. No public comments were heard.
Discussion Items
Reappointment of Joyce Roberts to the Human Rights Commission
- Joyce Roberts, a 30-year employee at American Electric Power and a representative of the Indian Health Care Resource Center on the Human Rights Commission, presented her work over the past year. She highlighted leading research efforts with La Kendra Carter to update complaint forms, reviewed best practices from peer cities, and identified improvements to modernize the process. She also noted that Councillor Gilbert helped remove a city clerk barrier in filing complaints. Roberts reported that the Commission submitted a memo to the mayor’s office and city council demonstrating a disparity in geographic representation on authorities, boards, and commissions by council district, with Districts 3 and 6 currently underrepresented. She expressed a desire to work with the committee to increase participation. The committee thanked her and noted that a vote on her reappointment would occur at the city council meeting on September 16 at 5 p.m.
General Obligation Bond Series 2026A – $65,660,000
- Chad Becker from Treasury presented the ordinance for the issuance of $65,660,000 in general obligation bonds, authorized by a previous election. He explained that this was step two of the process following a resolution approved on August 26. The ordinance provides for registration of the bonds and levies the principal and interest repayment to a sinking fund. The ordinance was on first reading at this meeting; second reading and a resolution to award the bonds to the best bidder will be considered on September 16.
Cox Communications Franchise Ordinance
- Jeff Stevens from the city legal department introduced an ordinance to adopt a new chapter in Title 15 granting a non-exclusive franchise to CoxCom LLC dba Cox Communications for a 10-year term. He noted that Cox approached the city seeking a traditional cable franchise rather than remaining a right-of-way occupant, likely spurred by the acquisition of Cox by Charter Communications. The franchise maintains the status quo with a 5% video service fee and the same capital contribution fee. No questions were raised by the committee.
Flood Insurance Coverage Improvement Plan Annual Report
- Eric Lee and Joan Goswick from the Water Department presented the annual report for the program for public information and flood insurance coverage improvement plan for 2026-27, as part of the city’s participation in the Community Rating System (CRS) since 1991. Goswick detailed outreach efforts including articles in City Life bill stuffers, notifications to residents behind levees, 11 different targeted letters for floodplain residents, and letters for repetitive loss areas (properties with two or more flood insurance claims over 40 years). The report also covered a flood insurance expo and goals to improve communication. During discussion, Councillor Bingle asked about private versus public stormwater drainage mapping and permitting for yard modifications that affect water flow. It was clarified that the city pays for elevation certificates and that the Tulsa Viewer online floodplain map allows residents to check their property. Councillor Dutton requested the website (cityoftulsa.org/floodcontrol) and noted that 311 is the contact for further questions. The committee noted that the report is being adopted and the map updates should be completed by the end of the month.
Key Outcomes
- The reappointment of Joyce Roberts will be voted on by the full city council on September 16, 2026.
- The bond ordinance passed first reading and will return for second reading and award on September 16.
- The Cox Communications franchise ordinance was presented without objection and will proceed to a full council vote.
- The resolution adopting the annual flood insurance report was presented and discussed; no formal vote was taken during the committee meeting, but it is expected to advance.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. Okay. Well, welcome to the 230 Public Works Committee meeting. I'm going to call this meeting to order. And first on the agenda is Joyce Roberts for reappointment to the Human Rights Commission. Come on up and tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, I'm thank you for the opportunity to serve and thank you for the opportunity to be considered for a second year. I'm a 30-year employee at American Electric Power, and I currently serve on the Board of Trustees at the Indian Health Care Resource Center. I represent the Indian Health Care Resource Center on the Greater Tulsa Area Indian Affairs Commission and in turn am their representative on the Human Rights Commission. Oh great. Yes. Somebody has their handed. A legitimate achiever from my district. That's exactly right. I am in your district. Thank you. Thank you. Well, and um really proud of the work we've done on the Human Rights Commission this year. We've uh really made a lot of progress on our two roles, and I've been serving on the committee for goal number one, and that's to improve the access to the City of Tulsa, the City of Tulsa's Department of Resilience and Equities resources. Um the most significant contribution was leading research efforts with La Kendra Carter and to update the Human Rights Commission complaint forms, a reviewed forms and best practices from peer cities and identified opportunities for improvement to help create recommendations to modernize our current process. And another major milestone was when Councillor Gilbert included the verbage that deleted the city clerk's barrier in reporting. Filing the complaint before the city clerk, you had any Tulson had to go through the city clerk to file a complaint now. Thank you for creating the draft that removed that verbiage. Absolutely. So that was a huge hurdle for us, and looking forward to it now. We've kind of handed it off to the city, working through the technical part of it and some of the processes that flow after that. So excited about that. We've made a lot of progress on that this year. And then the second one we have is increasing diverse representation and equitable recruitment practices across all the city of Tulsa's ABCs. And the Human Rights Commission submitted a memo to the mayor's office and city council demonstrating the disparity in geographic representation in the city's authorities, boards, and commissions by city council district. And this is a milestone in our progress towards one of two established goals, and it's increasing diverse representation and equitable recruitment practices across all city of Tulsa's authorities, boards and commissions. Currently, District 3 and District 6, where I reside, are the underrepresented. And I'm hoping to be able to work more with you to increase. It's a challenge. It is, you know, we're kind of out far to the far east Tulsa, and with our schools, students, and you know, in broken arrow schools, we kind of forget sometimes we're, you know, except we pay our water bill that we're part of the city of Tulsa. Yep. So, you know, like to be able to um actually bring the fact that you can serve on the authority board and commission, and um hopefully get to work with you more on that. Yeah, actually, uh my uh trail of in she kind of misrepresented that I made a deal with her here at the table where we've reappointed her to serve on the STOC. So I try and encourage what we talk about on our town halls. I know it's just even as much of a challenge for Councillor Dutton and District 3 to get people motivated, um, and then you get people who don't feel like it's a fit. They may try it for a few months, and it's not what they expected or what they'd hope for, and so you well look look at all the other commissions that potentially you could sort of. There's a huge list, so thank you for your advocacy. You're welcome. And Councillor Dutton, thank you for attending our meetings too. I know um you're underrepresented, and hopefully we can turn that around. Yeah, working on it. I thought anyway, we have a lot of enthusiastic commissioners this year, and we hope to move forward to finish these goals and move on and create more. That's great. Well, thank you so much for your service. Anyone have anything else?
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