“I think this is a time of honesty.”
It’s the sentence of many that I have thought about since my conversation this week with Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols. As the president of the Tulsa Press Club, I had the honor of talking with the mayor for 45 minutes in front of an audience of members, the public and the media. It’s a December tradition where the Tulsa mayor takes a moment to share with the Tulsa Press Club what the year was like and what’s ahead.
It was the second time Nichols and I shared the stage in 2025. We talked to the crowd at a venture capital convention in Tulsa that brought people in from both coasts and showed off what’s worth funding in middle America.
He mentioned this time of honesty after I asked him about what people get wrong about him. He said he’s not focused on his political ideology. Many times he’s dealing with just a math problem. He’s just trying to make a sustainable system that won’t break under the pressure of today and tomorrow.
Some politicians don’t have a good trend line when it comes to honesty. But some do. In the first year of his first administration, he has some worried that he shares too much and it might get him in trouble. But I don’t see it that way. He’s establishing the fact that it’s about the work. And Tulsans have work to do when it comes to facing some brutal facts.
That’s the only way you create the chance to grow, a fact proven in the research of Jim Collins and others.
How honest are you being when it comes to the brutal facts?
Read about the interview with Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols
“The most revealing moment of the 45-minute interview had nothing to do with policy. It had to do with Nichols’ love of a good cigar and a lesson he learned from a homeless woman he met while campaigning for mayor.”
Read Kevin Canfield’s story in the Tulsa World about what the mayor had to say during his conversation with us at our December Page One Luncheon.
Mayor Nichols talks tactical errors, cigars and 2026 at Press Club event
“n November, Nichols proposed increasing the sales tax by seven-tenths of a cent to generate approximately $80 million annually for city projects. The city council wasn’t sold on the idea and plans to revisit it in January, but the mayor says Tulsa needs more money and current sales tax revenue ‘is not sustainable.’”
Read Ismael Lele’s story in the Tulsa Flyer about the event.
Schedule a 30-minute free call or in-person meeting at my downtown office to draft the beginning of a new chapter for you, your business or nonprofit organization.
Jason Collington 