CHICKASHA, Okla. – September 21, 2021 – On Monday, September 20, Mayor Chris Mosley announced that the City Council has hired Tyler Brooks as the next Chickasha City Manager. Brooks will start working in early October.
“We were looking for a great communicator, and I believe we’ve got one,” Mosley said. “Tyler has been engaging and proactive throughout the interview process. He knows how to lead and manage large teams with diverse backgrounds, and he’s bringing an energy and enthusiasm to Chickasha that I believe will be a great asset to our City.”
Captain Tyler Brooks, of South Daytona, FL, has been in the United States Air Force since 2013, most recently serving as Assistant Professor of Aerospace Studies. He has led 10-12 department directors and as many as 210 employees in Public Works and IT Infrastructure, Human Resources, Planning, Project Management, Records Management and Cybersecurity, and managed more than $250 million in federal assets at one time. During a deployment, Tyler created the first backup U.S. communications circuit in the Middle East, at no cost to the United States government, saving $15 million.
Recently, Brooks was nominated and competitively selected to mentor and shape the next generation of Air Force leaders by instructing one of the largest ROTC detachments in the country, with more than 400 cadets. In this role, he shared leadership experience and taught doctrine, policies and procedures, and the leadership principles of the United States Air Force.
“The City of Chickasha, as an organization, is very similar to what I’ve been doing as a Flight Commander,” Brooks said. There’s going to be a bit of a learning curve, transitioning from military to city government, but I know I can do it. Chickasha’s City Council is very supportive, and I’ve got several mentors in Oklahoma who have already reached out to me offering their support.”
Brooks said in his first 90 days on the job, he intends to focus on getting to know the citizens, the City staff, and dive into the City's finances and projects. Networking with other Oklahoma city managers will also be a key priority.
While his original career plan was meteorology, Brooks graduated college during the recession and began looking for a different career path.
“I took an interest survey, and City Manager popped up as a career I’d be interested in,” Brooks said. “Looking for a way to follow that career path and provide for my family, I joined the Air Force and they offered to pay for my master’s degree. Along the way I made connections with other City Managers, who have been good mentors for me.”
Brooks has a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Nebraska – Omaha with a Local Government Concentration and a B.S. in Meteorology from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
When deciding to seek employment as a City Manager and separate from the military, Brooks said the Midwest was a region chosen to get them closer to family.
“Chickasha was really appealing, because we have family in Broken Arrow, Kansas City and Omaha – all within a day’s drive,” Brooks said.
The city even reminds him of where he grew up in North Platte, NE, where the main road going through town is also 4th Street.
At the suggestion of Mosley, Brooks’ wife, Gail, made the trip to Chickasha with him for his interview. After meeting City Council members, some school administrators and spending time in the community, she was impressed with Chickasha.
"I'm really glad she joined me for the interview weekend because she has been with me through two deployments and moving four times in in my eight-and-a-half years in the Air Force," Brooks said. "We always ended up with good assignments, but this is the first choice we get to make after leaving the Air Force, and I needed her make this decision by my side. We were impressed with how much the council and citizens love the city of Chickasha."
The Brooks’ have five children and have already begun looking for housing in Chickasha. Brooks said they enjoy spending time being active in the outdoors and are looking forward to having some long-term consistency in their home and getting involved in the community.