Tulsa City Council says it learned only after passing the FY2026 budget that Mayor Monroe Nichols's office had reclassified the $170,000 Public Safety Commissioner post from an at-will mayoral appointment into a protected civil-service job

Hours after the City Council unanimously passed a $1.2 billion FY2026 budget on June 17, 2026, councilors said they discovered the mayor's office had posted the Public Safety Commissioner role -- held by Laurel Roberts -- as a civil-service position, which carries termination-for-cause protection that at-will mayoral appointees do not have. It is the second high-level Nichols appointee (after city administrator Mike Miller) moved from at-will to civil-service status.