It seems the City of Tulsa forgot something in its Vision plans.
Hiring 160 police officers and 65 firefighters with Vision funds will cost money besides their salaries, benefits and equipment — namely, ensuring city departments that directly support public safety can deal with 225 more employees.
Asset Management Director Mark Hogan estimated what he’d need to maintain 160 more vehicles a year: 1.6 additional technicians.
"I haven't figured out how to get a 0.6 technician yet, so that's maybe two people," Hogan said.
Across all departments that would support public safety somehow — from information technology to human resources — costs for support staff may total $2 million a year.
City Councilor Phil Lakin said it could come from the tax itself.
"If we're adding officers, and we talked all along about costs being contained for those additional officers within this new tax ... then I think we really have to look at taking care of the costs, the direct costs for those officers, out of that tax," Lakin said.
Councilor Anna America regrets the oversight.
"No funding package should go through without this kind of analysis first and making sure that we accommodate that," America said.
City officials have some time to figure out a solution, as the new cops and firefighters won’t be hired all at once. Their current options are taking it out of the tax and perhaps leaving less money for public safety, or taking it out the general fund and leaving less money for other city programs.
The capital improvements portion of Vision doesn’t have the same problem.
