Council - Regular Meeting

Um, pledge of allegiance. You okay with that, Carla? Surely. Okay. I now call the uh May 12, 2026 work session of the Riverton City Council to order at 6:01 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Councilwoman Brothers. brothers orders and then I will uh give us the invocation. If everyone could please rise. I pledge

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Heavenly Father, we're grateful for the opportunity we have to meet here together to discuss uh the budget for the city of Riverton. We ask thee as we speak, we will have our minds enlightened. We'll be able to have um the needs of the city in mind and be able to consider uh the benefit that will be provided to our citizens and how best to be able to have that uh play out. We thank thee so very much for the opportunity to serve and we thank thee for those who serve this city in many different capacities throughout our community. Uh firefighters, um police officers, EMS, first responders of all kinds and for those who serve the city and other means just by being business owners or folks that are working for the government in different positions. We ask that it please bless them as we have all of the many people within the city who have many different needs and ask that it please bless them that they will have those met. And we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

All right, Miss Harris, if you could conduct the roll call. Yes. Council member Karen Johnson here. Council member Kyle Larson here. Council member Carl Borders here. Council member Mike Bailey, absent. Council member Rebecca Brothers, here. Council member Eric Carr, absent. Mayor Tim Hancock, I'm here. I'd entertain a motion to excuse uh Councilman Carr as well as Councilman Bailey from tonight's meeting. So moved. Second. Councilwoman Brothers with the motion. Councilwoman Borders with the second. I don't know why I have issues with that sometimes. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay.

I vote I. Motion passes. Uh despite those who are not not here with us, we do have a quorum. I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. So move. Second. Councilman Larson with the motion. Councilwoman Johnson with the second. Any discussion on that? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Fiscal year 2027 budget presentation and discussion. Mr. Butterfield. Thank you, honor. Do you mind if I uh go to the podium? Yes, please.

Anyone who is curious about why I am wearing a lay. I promised my daughter that I would wear it at least for part of the meeting tonight. middle school is doing their big uh I was going to say shindig, but maybe luau would be better because it's Hawaiian themed. Eighth grade restaurant. Eighth grade restaurant. And they are doing a heck of a job. I was just trying to delay while you got to the podium there.

Well done, sir. Your honor, members of the council, it's a privilege to be before you tonight and run through the proposed fiscal year 27 budget. Before getting started, um, I really need to say thank you to my team for the hard work that they've put in over the last few months to prepare a responsible and valid budget for your review. I also want to thank you as a governing body for the participation and guidance provided us as staff. As I get into this presentation, I want to remind you that this is your budget. So please if you have questions uh don't hesitate to ask them as we work through what is provided here. Also it is not possible for me to run through every line item of the proposed budget in the time that's allowed for tonight. However, I know you've all received um per statute the proposed budget and have had opportunity to review it. So remember we as staff are here to support you and if you have questions do not hesitate to ask at any time. As we uh work through tonight's presentation, I'd like to follow the um proposed agenda. This is similar to what we've done in previous years. And uh I think it's important to start with uh where you have set priorities for your goal setting for fiscal year 27. We'll then provide an overview of the entire budget and then we'll work through the individual funds associated with the city of Riverton fiscal year 27 budget. I've said this before. I every budget presentation I've ever attended or witnessed has some quote and so tradition is important I think in this sense. Um, just like tradition with our team, as I show a silly YouTube video to start off our session, just to try and make sure we have the appropriate tone. I won't show those

tonight for you, but the quote that I think is appropriate are those I I kept from last year, and this is from George Washington. We must consult our means rather than our wishes. And then next, decision-making is easing when our values are clear. Budgeting is decision-making. It's also an opportunity for you as a governing body to show where your priorities are by how you allocate the funds that are brought in by taxpayers and fee payers of your city. I wish it was possible to say that we had means to cover every single request that has come forward from our supervisors, our division managers, our department heads, and even you as a council. But we have to live within our means just like those who run their businesses in town or those that run their homes in town. Therefore, I really like this quote by George Washington that we must consult our means and not just our wishes and do what is best for the community and honestly for the the employees that serve the community as well. You as a council had opportunity in February to have a work session to set your fiscal year 27 goals. And I liked the direction that you took this year in providing three broadstroke goals that we as staff can focus on and you as a governing body can focus on improve public perception, enhance public safety, and address aging infrastructure. We had a print out of these goals in our workroom, so to speak, for every session uh as a staff as we worked through the budget. And trust me, there were several sessions that we got together to discuss the budget. From these goals, I I bring out a few highlights, not all, from the proposed budget. First, um this budget includes a

safe routes to school project for the Willow Creek Elementary School. This is something we have planned for several years, but this year we'll actually be able to see the rubber hit the road, so to speak, or maybe the shovel dig up the dirt, if that's a better analogy, to make that improvement possible for um the neighborhood surrounding Willow Creek School and making it safer for our pedestrians to walk back and forth. There's also a safe streets for all grant that um our prior public works director, Mr. Egleston was successful in receiving and our new public works director Brendan Tolman has done a wonderful job jumping in and taking the reigns on. This is uh 100% grant-f funded and it will be focused on a study with the intention that in future years we can use the results of that study to get money to make physical improvements in our town. I know Mr. Tolman is prioritizing the intersection of Hill Street and Main Street with these funds. as well as pedestrian paths and other transportation corridors. The EPA ground brownfield grant is also included in this budget which allows for an assessment particularly of the south federal corridor and ways that that corridor can be improved and ways that we can work with private property owners to envision um an opportunity to not just remediate potential contaminants but also bring more value to those properties and make them more marketable should they want to put them on the market. All of our cost centers are lean. I'm proud of our team in the sense that they brought forward responsible budgets and still made cuts even after presenting lean budgets. So know that your team understands the stewardship that they have over public funds, especially as they present it to you as a governing

body who make ultimate decisions in this regard. There's $319,000 committed to law enforcement equipment upgrades. that includes uh vehicle upgrades and then also the second installment of a five-year plan to pay for equipment upgrades related to uh I don't remember what the term is, but tasers. We're not supposed to say taser anymore, are we? Axon products.

Thank you. Axon products. So, um, whatever the generic term is for taser, because that's a actual, uh, trademark product, but body cameras, tasers, the drone, and then also dash cams and software to support our officers as they do their um, duty every day to protect the public. There's over $4.47 million in infrastructure projects put to work from the optional 1% tax. Think about that. 4.47 47 million that's going to go towards improvements to our community. I'm grateful that that tax is there because without it, I do not know how the general fund could support that much improvement for our roads and our water and sewer infrastructure. The budget is 44.4 4 million. But I want to highlight, and I did this last year, that 37.5% of that budget is covered by proposed grants, whether grants that we are seeking or grants that we already have in hand. Um, our team should toot its horn more about the grants that it seeks. And this is across all departments. Uh we have our new lieutenant here today, Lieutenant Filer, and she is already working on grants to support the police department, and I'm very impressed by that. So, while resources are limited, your team goes to work to find additional resources so that we can do the job that you direct us to do to provide service to the community. to provide an overview of all funds. The total proposed budget, as I mentioned, is just over $44.4 million. That's almost a 17% increase over fiscal year 26, which had a budget of about $38 million. Fiscal year 25 was

36.9. Capital expenditures represent the largest reason behind this increase and we'll get into that as we work through this budget particularly in the water fund. The last comment I'd like to make as we run through just an overview of all funds is that capital improvements that will improve our community and our residents that live here and and the quality of life that they seek represent 56.6% 6% of this overall budget. That's important because when people pay their taxes or fees, they expect to see it um provide a return for them. The greatest return that they receive is from the people who serve them. We cannot provide public safety without officers. We cannot plow snow without operators. We can't mow grass without employees. We can't receive payments without a finance team. We can't make sure that the IT works well without an IT team. We can't do building inspections to ensure our community is safe without those employees. I'm trying to highlight everyone and please forgive me if I've missed treating water, waste water. All of those services that our community relies upon are provided by people and we need to take care of the people that take care of our community. I like these bar graphs. Um I've used them the last few years. This shows uh an easy way to digest the year-over-year changes as it relates to your entire budget. You'll notice here that the overall budget is, as I represented, larger than previous years, but if you drive down with your eyes and look at the capital budget line, you'll see a significant increase. So that accounts for um a lot of the year-over-year budget increase that's proposed today.

As we worked through um preparing a balanced budget for your review, there were certain priorities that we focused on as staff in addition to the goals that you set as a governing body. We recognize that inflation and cost of living increases continue not to just impact our community and economy, but our employees as well. It costs more money to buy gas, hires, and all the other things that are required to operate a city and provide services, but our employees who provide those services also see an impact in their day-to-day lives. We use the Wyoming cost of living index as a metric as we measure inflation. The most recently published WCLI index shows that there's a 3.4% inflationary increase. If we dial that into our region, which is the SE central region, that's a 2.6 inflation that was seen between Q4 of 24 and Q4 of 25. And again, that is the most recently released WCI WY report. In response to that, this budget proposes a 2% cost of living increase for all employees, excuse me, for all non-exempt employees. It also proposes a 1% cost of living increase for exempt leadership team members. In addition to this cost of living increase, we have budgeted in merit or step increases pursuant to our pay scale. On an average, that equates to 2.5% between steps for non-exempt employees and roughly 1.75% for exempt.

As I explained last year, I want to remind you that our pay scale tries to get our employees to the midpoint of the pay scale as fast as possible. Therefore, employees that are earlier in the in the early stages of the pay scale typically see roughly 4% increase between steps. But if they're on the latter end of the 10step scale, that increase um is not as aggressive and is just under 2%. That's why I share that it's an average of 2.5. If we have an employee that just started and is at a step one, they'll see a 2% cola increase and roughly a 4% merit increase. For our employees that are at a step seven or eight, when they receive their merit increase, it'll be roughly under 2%. uh for our employees that are maxed out at step 10, they will see the 2% cola. It's important that we protect the funds of the city pursuant to statute and ensure that as you provide services, a governing body and we as staff um we pro protect again those resources. City policy does require 18.5% to be held in a reserve. This budget maintains that amount. We also maintain that amount in our enterprise funds except for the airport fund and that's because the airport fund um does operate at a deficit and receives a contribution from the general fund to maintain operations and to balance. As we look at um the increase of potential benefits in this proposed budget, I'm happy to report that our insurance provider, Wyoming Educators Benefit Trust, or WEBT, has notified us that there will be a 0%

increase for health insurance this year. They wanted to propose a 2% increase. However, because the city has a long-standing relationship with Webt and it carries a low loss ratio, the Webt board agreed to basically buy down the 2% increase and propose 0% increase for our health insurance for our employees. This budget does take into account um retirement system increases. This is dictated by the legislature. Um, beginning July 1st, 2026, rates for both the law enforcement pension plan and the regular employee pension pan plan will increase. However, as I've mentioned, we have certain priorities to take care of our employees this year. While retirement costs are set to increase by a half a percent for employees in the regular plan and 1.8% for employees in the law enforcement plan. This budget proposes that the city pick up the additional cost which is an increase of about $52,000 to help our employees see the full impact of their merit increases and their colas. This additional pickup is not required by statute, but it is something that we felt as a leadership team was important to show our team that we appreciate them. As we talk about uh other personnel matters, this budget um brings back two positions that had previously been in our um budgets in fiscal year 25 and 26. It does not propose new positions, but these positions that I'm saying we're bringing back were eliminated through attrition in this current fiscal year, fiscal year 26. And we're finding that

operationally that's not panning out. So, we are um budgeting for a part-time deputy court clerk to assist our efforts in the municipal court. And then we're also proposing um for half of the year uh airport operator. Um, this position was eliminated after the retirement of a previous operator. And as I see the hours that are put in by Bruce Ransom, our airport division manager, I'm finding that he's picking up extra shifts to cover the obligations of a 365 247 operation. And we're spreading him too thin by eliminating the resource that we pre previously had. So this budget includes the addition but not really the addition. It's just returning positions that were previously budgeted but eliminated due to due to attrition. The budget also takes into account appropriate um advancements for our employees. These advancements include um advancements from a patrol officer one to a patrol officer two or patrol officer two to a patrol officer 3. As we encourage our employees to receive certifications, we want to ensure that they advance um at a respective appropriate rate in the pay scale. In addition to those advancements I mentioned for the police department, this also includes um our water and sewer operators, our park operator employees, our street operator employees, and others that have the chance to advance in the pay scale as they receive necessary certifications. Transitioning now from a general overview of the budget, um I'd like to highlight the general fund. And I'll

start with the the line graph. You'll notice that the overall budget in the general fund is showing a decrease year-over-year. And that's largely due to a decrease in capital improvement projects that are paid for or sponsored by the general fund. there is a slight increase in the operating budget and that's due to the um personnel increases that I just went through and then also to appropriately budget for our housing of prisoners. This budget proposes 300,000 to house prisoners whereas the budget that we're currently in proposed 145,000. It's a it was necessary to analyze our actual spends as it relates to this activity or this line item year to date. Thus far, um the city has spent $340,000 in housing prisoners. We have far exceeded or surpassed the budget of $145,000 for that to the tune of roughly 235%. That's not wrong. It's not right. It's just a thing that we need to account for as we move forward in fiscal year 27. So that $150,000 shift budgetarily helps us more accurately um pay for and plan for the housing of prisoners. to get a little bit more in detail on the general fund. The general fund budget is just over $11 million, which is about a million dollar decrease from the 12 that was proposed for fiscal year 26. It anticipates 6% increase in sales tax, uh 17% increase in our franchise agreement with Pacific Core, and we do find that we're projecting better than we anticipated in property tax. We were conservative in fiscal year 26 because

of the changes that were made by the legislature. However, in analyzing the actuals through this fiscal year, we believe that it is responsible to increase that amount by 18% or $70,000. We do see a decrease in our building permit line item as far as the revenues go. Uh we will also see a 75% reduction in paramutual bedding. This is because we've um no longer we will no longer have um the drier club on Main Street operating. Um we do receive um skillsbased revenue but that will be to the tune of about $30,000 which is significantly less 90,000 less than what we had budgeted in fiscal year 26. Our franchise agreements also for Charter and Black Hills reflect a combined 11% decrease and that's just due to uh right sizing it based on actuals. I want to highlight that the general fund is um supported by many revenue streams. The largest of which is our sales tax. However, that sales tax doesn't even cover half of the cost of the general fund. So, we pull in franchise fees, mineral royalties, severance fees, but also what we've called supplemental funding. I'm going to continue to reference this revenue source of supplemental funding throughout this presentation, but know that um House Bill 107 was enacted in the recent legislative session that changes how direct distribution is allocated to communities. Rather than it being two lumpsum payments, it's actually calculated off of sales tax. It's an 8% shift in how sales tax, excuse me, sales tax is allocated between the state and local governments. For simplicity sake, just know that

fiscal year 27 anticipates a little over 2 million in this revenue source, which I'll again continue to refer to as supplemental funding, which is a decrease from the current fiscal year of about 2.1 million. I think it's important to note and going back to George Washington's quote. Currently, our expenditures required to provide service to the city of Riverton outpace operationally the revenues to provide those services. I shared a similar message last year. Consequently, fiscical year 27 anticipates a transfer of almost $182,000 from unobligated funds or cash in order to balance the proposed budget. It further anticipates um 238,000 of unobligated funds or cash to support capital project proposals. I think that's important for you to know on the front end of this budget proposal. We are a lean operation, but our revenues are even leaner. Fortunately, through the hard work of your team, we're comfortable with the proposal that we've brought forward because of savings realized in fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 25 to create that cash balance in the general fund. From an operations standpoint, I like this because it it demonstrates how you spend funds in the general fund. 52% of your general fund budget goes towards public safety. That's the largest priority that you have set for our community. And I think it's very appropriate and we've

attempted to keep that. In fact, as you look at the year-over-year changes for police, fire, and victim witness, we were uh proposing a 461 almost 462,000 change. Now, the number in reality is not that large because you'll notice that municipal court shows a significant decrease as well. We chose to put the housing prisoner line item in the police cost center instead of being in the um municipal court cost center. Overall, for operations, you'll notice that to run the city day in and day out, excluding capital is about $9.3 million. I'll pause there. if you have any questions as it relates to the general fund and then if there aren't I'll I'll move on to the enterprise fund.

Your honor, I'm just wondering on the on the uh housing costs for inmates, what's the daily cost on that? Do you know? I I do, but Miss Harris may remember. Are you asking for the rate that's charged by Fremont County? I'm sorry. I I'm not pulling that number from my memory right now. Yes, your honor. It's $55 per day. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Harris.

On another on the same thing, um do we know an average of how long the same prisoners housed? Is it kind of a revolving door kind of thing or? Your honor, you'll answer that.

Councilwoman, I I don't have those statistics for you tonight. I think it's safe to estimate that we do have individuals that frequent um our our jail system and also have visits from our police department. But I don't like to throw out estimates and I would rather provide you actual data which I know our police department and our municipal court would be able to provide without hyperbole. Thank you. I think that tells me I need to get moving. Yes. Okay.

The get moving beep. So, transitioning from the general fund, I think it's important to explain that the city of Riverton has several different types of funds when it provides services to its residents. The general fund is largely supported through taxes or, as I mentioned, other fees based off of mineral royalties, severances, or franchise agreements. They are meant to provide services that are not exclusive that are available to all and are supported again primarily by taxes. Enterprise funds are defined by Wyoming statute and they explain that enterprise funds account for operations that are financed and operated in a manner similar to private business enterprise where the intent of the governing body is that the cost of the expenses including depreciation of providing goods and services to the general public on a continuing basis be financed or recovered primarily through user charges. That was a mouthful, but that's what the statute says. Essentially, to put it more simply, enterprise funds must generate sufficient revenues to meet their operating obligations, including debt service, and have sufficient reserves for depreciation and capital needs. That was discussed um last week as you considered um fees or rates related to your enterprise funds. I want to note that the city of Riverton treats Central Wyoming Regional Airport as a proprietary fund. However, excuse me, I'm having a hard time scrolling. Thank you. I don't know why I just said thank you to my computer, but that's where I'm at today. So while we list it as a proprietary fund, ICMA explains that municipal

airports often lie between proprietary and government funds. This is because a municipal airport provides individual benefit that can be excluded to those unwilling to pay for them. Yet it also benefits the whole community by improving business opportunities, thereby creating jobs, thereby creating economic opportunities. The first uh enterprise fund I'd like to run through and again this is just from a high level. We'd be happy to get into more detail if you'd like to discuss line items is the water fund. Just take a minute and digest those bar graphs real quick. Fiscal year 27 shows the largest increase in the year-over-year budget. The water fund budget is 12,834,553 which reflects about 175% increase over the 8 point excuse me about an 8 million increase which is about 175% over the 4.6 from the current fiscal year. Water receipts reflect an anticipated 8% increase. That incorporates the 2.5% rate increase that you approved last meeting, but it also takes into account um actuals as we've projected performance over the last few fiscal years. It also includes significant grant and loan opportunities to cover 9.99 million in capital improvements. We'll get into the capital improvements later in the presentation. Our teams take responsibil takes their responsibility very seriously to provide

safe drinking water to our community. The fastest way to allow someone to have a bad day is to give them unsafe water. And we can do it to about 10,000 people almost immediately. We take that responsibility very seriously. And I'm grateful for our public works department for the way that they not just treat water, but deliver water to our community. It is important that we prioritize the health, safety, and welfare of our community and we prioritize the system and make the improvements necessary to ensure that it functions in a way that does not provide threat similar to what we've seen over the years from news reports across the nation. I want to point out that um in addition to the grants and loans that were uh important in balancing this uh water fund budget that we will also draw upon 1% funds to support the main street waterline project to the tune of a million dollars. We also plan for $485,000 transfer of unobligated funds or cash to ensure that we meet the capital needs of the system. In addition, it is projected that our revenues um will overperform our projected operational expenses by about $466,000. That money is immediately spent to our capital budget. We are not putting anything to savings as it relates to the water fund. We are using the money that's generated by the fees to support operations. And if there are funds in excess of operations, they immediately go to

system uh improvements for the wastewater fund. Um you'll notice that the overall budget reflects a decrease and that is true to both operations and our capital budget. The decrease as it relates to operations largely has to do with employee turnover and uh replacing them with employees that are not as high in the pay scale that I had mentioned earlier. The wastewater budget is $6.2 million which is about $170,000 decrease 2.6% under the 6.4 4 budget that you approved a year ago. It does reflect a 1% increase in our water receipts. That does take into account the 2.5% that you just approved, but again, we weighed that against the performance month by month for those funds. There are several grants and loans supporting this fund. Capital investments total 3.9 million, which is a slight decrease year-over-year of the 4 million that was spent or budgeted to be spent in fiscal year 26. Similar to the water fund, in order to ensure that we pay for the improvements necessary for the system, 255,000 is being transferred of unobligated cash. Also, we project that revenues will perform over projected expenses in operations by about 438,000. Those funds are immediately spent and used or capital. We are not putting anything into savings. We are using the money generated by the users to provide operations and to ensure the system is operating safely. The sanitation fund reflects a slight year-over-year uh increase that does uh

show in the operating budget and also the capital budget. Sanitation fund is proposed at 2.87 million which is an increase of about $140,000 over the 2.7 from this current fiscal year 26. It anticipates a 2% increase. same story that I've shared on the other two funds. We also show that um our mulch sales and solid handling revenue, those are line items within your budget, reflect a slight decrease as well. Capital improvements total just under 600,000. And that's a slight increase about 72,000 year-over-year. assum uh this assumes again a transfer of cash to support the capital budget of 259,000 and then also again using the funds generated this fiscal year above operations and immediately putting them into system improvements and that's to the tune of about $438,000. Those cover our standard enterprise funds and I'll take a break there. It's hard to listen to one person talk this whole time. So, I'm happy to take a break and and stand for questions.

Do I have any questions? A lot of fun. Thank you, honor. Keep

going. The overall budget for the airport fund uh has a year-over-year decrease and that is due to the completion of some capital projects and the proposed projects in fiscal year 27. I want you to also note that when you look at the trends in the operating budget, uh this is um safe to say your cost center that decreases operational year-over-year and that is because I our airport employees know that the fund is not self- sustaining. It requires contribution from the general fund and therefore they are lean and every year they get leaner and that's because they take their job seriously. airport budget is 4.4 million. That's a decrease of $2 million or at least 31% from the 6.4 last year. It includes about 3.2 million in grants from the FAA and another 2, excuse me, 276,000 from White Dot Aeronautics. It anticipates roughly 274,000 in generating revenue at the airport. That's from lease revenues and operating fees. It also assumes about $100,000 in passenger facility charges. These revenues are off offset um excuse me, these revenues help to offset a total operating cost center of about $710,000. Capital is the lion share of this budget at 3.69, but it is less than what was in fiscal year 26. In order to balance this uh fund, fiscical year 27 proposes the transfer of roughly 336,000 of supplemental funding to support um operating expenses.

It also uses about 110,000 to support the improvements and that is to match the grants that we're receiving from the federal government and the state. It's a pretty good deal to do $3.69 69 million of capital improvements for only 110,000 bucks. You also have several other funds that we account for. And I want to make clear that these funds do not mingle with other funds. Sometimes I think there's a perception in our community or maybe a concern and it's a valid concern that funds mingle with the general fund and all of a sudden get lost in employee raises or police vehicles or snowplow vehicles. That does not happen. And that's because we have a strong finance team that accounts for the money appropriately. Therefore, water fund monies do not mingle with the general fund. And as it relates to these other funds I'll run through, they do not mingle with any of the other funds. Let's start with the 1% fund. I've already mentioned that 4.47 million is budgeted in this fund to support improvements. A lot of that, a million goes to the Main Street waterline improvement. You'll also see significant uh expenses there as a partnership with Fremont County for the Riverview Road and major hill improvement. I'm sure you deal with that today. I know I do. I was meant to pick somebody up on Sunday and I forgot about it for some reason and was 10 minutes late to their house because I I forgot about the detours somehow. But I'm glad those detours are there. I love seeing traffic cones because what that means is we're spending the money on improvements. It's an inconvenience and I and I know that, but it means we're making our community better. So much better than leaving the money in the bank. Let's put it to use.

Moving from the optional 1% fund, we do have an air service fund. Fiscal year 27 includes just over 1.8 million to match state funds to keep commercial air service in Fremont County. It also includes about $100,000 to support marketing efforts and that's largely covered by grants. 80% of it is for at least the first quarter of fiscal year 27 costs associated with commercial air service will be covered by a reserve balance created by the defeated optional half percent excise tax. It assumes the passage of a new optional 3/4% tax to support commercial air service moving forward. If that p tax does not pass and the people choose that's not a priority for them, then you as a governing body need to make difficult decisions about whether or not commercial air service is maintained at central Wyoming regional airport. We also are assuming contributions from the city of Lander and Fremont County. And I say assumptions because I I hate to impose on them, but should we run out of funds based off of our cash balance at the end of the first quarter and should a tax pass, there's a gap of about six months to cover this the gap period of six months. We're asking our two peer communities to utilize unspent funds that they have from the defeated optional half percent tax to support commercial air service and sustain it in our community. There are a lot of assumptions with this cost center and I won't say what assumptions make me, but um we had to make those assumptions. You also have a an independent fund for the tourism asset development program. We brought that in in fiscal year 25. They're independently accounted for and based on the awards that you as a

council made, we plan for $90,000 worth of grants to community entities from tourism asset development program. We also have an opioid settlement fund. We anticipate $350,000 in fiscal year 27 in that fund. You as a council will have opportunity to choose how to spend those funds and especially spend those funds over roughly the next 10 to 15 years as settlement money continues to come in incrementally. Uh we do separate 911 funds. This helps support um really our century link feed into the dispatch center. There are other um funds that support the dispatch operations, but these funds um are dedicated for 911 operations. So, we put them in their own fund. Uh we have a fiscal opportunity, maybe responsibility is the better term there, to serve as the agent for the endowment created for the senior center. Um as you remember, that endowment was an initiative of the people roughly 30 years ago. to ensure that we have senior centers in Fremont County and we can operate them. The endowment is roughly $880,000 and this budget um proposes roughly 145 for improvements to support the senior center. We account for the Riverton Rendezvous balloon committee. I should have put balloon there after rendevous. Um it does project $10,000 being received from Fremont County School District 25 and $35,000 from um program revenue. This supports our annual balloon rally. And we're so thankful for Max Batista, for our community volunteers that keep this program going because that's really part

of our identity as a community. I'm so grateful we have it. This year's an ad administrative allocation is $1.57 million. That's approximately 3.9% increase over fiscal year 26. As a reminder, the administrative allocation serves the purpose to offset administrative and overhead expenses that the general fund carries for the enterprise funds. Think of legal services, human resource support, payroll, all the other items that we don't have established in the individual enterprise funds, but are supported by the general fund. As we work through our budget proposal, I want to remind you that the city has debt obligations and we take into account our um debt service as we've prepared this budget. There's no way for you to see or run through all of that, but we can provide this and show you that we have debt service in the general fund, the water fund, the sewer fund, and the airport fund. You'll have opportunity tonight to speak more about community service contracts. Um, this budget proposes $240,000 to go towards community service contract allocations. That is just a placeholder. You as the governing body can choose if you want to allocate more or less than that 240. We plugged that in because that is what you had budgeted the last two fiscal years. After this presentation, you'll have opportunity to discuss that more in detail. Nine entities submitted funding applications for a total of $549,000. Um, we can now transition to our capital

proposal for fiscal year 27 budget. Before doing so, I'll pause for questions and maybe a sip of diet coke if that's okay. You need to have a transition there. That's like have to have a truck backing up or something. Beep beep beep. That's what I was thinking. Be a good transition to capital. We can do that next year. We just did. Yeah, we we got it for you, Kyle.

Well, I mentioned we start uh our budget planning with a silly video that I provide and usually it's about government and budgeting and and there's some irony in it. This may show what happens at my house a lot, but um I provided a Bluey episode, a very short Bluey um I love Blue item as it relates to budgets and complaints and making sure that the government does its job. I will not share it with you. Oh, come on. I got so excited. I had a professor in law school who always showed different clips during presentations. He was one of the favorite professors. I will just say Bluey is amazing. It was usually Simpsons, not Bluey, but Blue is

a few years ago it was it was from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. So, you can see how I've devolved.

Okay. Capital in the general fund is 2.4 million, which is again a decrease of about 1.2 34% from this current fiscal year. Grants are proposed to support 1.4 million of this capital outlay. I want you to know that our team cut and cut and cut from the proposals that came forward. And it's not because the proposals that came forward from our supervisors, division managers, department heads, or others were frivolous. It's because we felt the responsibility to balance and draw on cash as uh little as possible. Still, there's $2.4 4 million proposed. Much is covered by grant that includes the Willow Creek Elementary School, um, Safe, Safe Streets for All, the EPA Brownfield project, and a few small others. The largest improvement proposed in the general fund this year is to replace the roof on city hall. That's a $400,000 uh cost. Our roof, unfortunately, is at its end of life. In fact, on a windy day, if you walk through the parking lot and you see vinyl white shreds, that's because our coating of the roof is coming undone. It's a membrane roof over foam. And for the last four years, we've known that it's been failing, and it's time to replace it before we have a catastro, excuse me, catastrophic failure. The next uh um highest improvement outside of those that are grant covered is our investment in the axon equipment for the police department. This is a necessary improvement to support our officers. Um as you remember, we had an unfortunate inst incident where an officer was hit as they were traveling back from Lander late at night from

someone leaving the casino. And because we had this axe on equipment, not only was dispatch notified in a very prompt and immediate manner, but our teams were notified as well to ensure that our officer was safe and that we could get there. And fortunately, Officer Borchard was safe and he did very well in his evasive maneuvering. Um,

and that's been explained by the captain and our lieutenants before. But I want to just highlight that again because that immediate response and the ability to support our team comes from the axon equipment. We also have seen a recent example from drone footage as we had a situation where it was better to deploy a drone and see what is behind corners or fences than sending our officers in. That's why we're committed to that. and that's the second largest capital improvement project that's supported by supplemental funding. Um we have $80,000 that go to police vehicles and then we have some improvements as it relates to our IT infrastructure. Um and then uh our public department is proposing a hydrovac kit to help us clean storm drains. But also, I'll note that uh we need to replace or refresh the rubber mulch at JC Park and City Park. This is a safety component, not an aesthetic project. We are required to have fall pro protection for our playground equipment. And right now, our rubber mulch has um deteriorized or migrated under the grass to the point that we do not comply with the fall protection requirements. So, we're replenishing it at both of those parks. Moving on to our water fund. This is uh again the largest investment that you have proportionately in your fiscal year 27 budget. This goes to the discussion that you had last week about rates. It was not a rate that was proposed by staff arbitrarily or willy-nilly to say cost of living is increasing so we want to increase as well. There was thorough analysis done

and I appreciate the explanation of Mr. Toman as he provided a a glimpse into what he deals with on a day-to-day basis. But you see it right here. You see that the funds that we generated in the water fund immediately go towards improvements and we had to cut some of the necessary improvements just to make sure we provided a responsible budget. Planning for an $8 million water main replacement is not something that we can just cover by increasing the rates that our community pays. That would be irresponsible. So, we get aggressive and we seek loans and we seek grants. And yes, staff did propose a 2 and a.5% increase, and we appreciate the council considering that,

but again, it was to ensure that the infrastructure necessary to provide the health, safety, and welfare of our community through a a good water system is maintained and invested in. There's no way to cover that $8 million cost without the hard work of our team. So, thank you, Brendan, for that. Of the 8 million, about 7 million come from grant and loans. We're going to be paying those loans down for some time. Fortunately, there's principal forgiveness that we can apply for for those loans, but we are um doing the responsible thing in planning for these improvements. I won't run through all of these uh because they are listed in your budget book and there are explanations behind each of these projects in your workbook. But I did want to highlight just briefly that large investment that's happening and if we don't do it in fiscal year 27 when Y dot is ripping up the highway or improve that's a bad way to say it. How about improving the highway? That's a better way to say it. But if we don't do it when they make that investment ripping or improving the highway, it costs us all the more to replace that utility.

Yeah. Brendan, how old do you think that water man is in Main Street? Mr. Bfield, it's a 1962 vintage. So half nice way to say that. 65 years. And they don't get better with age. It's not like wine or anything.

Not this one, unfortunately. Thank you, Mr. Toman. We've got a we've got the use out of that line, but it is time to ensure that we protect the interest moving forward and invest in it. I'd like to highlight the wastewater fund at this point. Capital investments total 3.9 million. That is a slight decrease about 2.9% year-over-year. Um the largest project uh is our continued investment in the wastewater treatment plant wherein we received grant funds from WCDA to support that. That was an effort that Mr. Tolman and Mr. Egleston worked on a few years ago and now we're finally seeing those grants come to fruition. You'll notice that there are other improvements listed there. And again, I won't go through them line by line because I I realize this presentation is getting long, but the information is in your budget workbook. And that budget workbook is um listed on our website as well for the public to to view for the sanitation fund. The $592,000 proposal is uh largely spent towards the replacement of a sanitation truck uh to the tune of an anticipated $420,000 um cost. I've touched on the airport fund and the support we received from the federal government and also the state government. Uh the largest project proposed is the rehabilitation of taxiway D and then we also have the installation of a self fuel fuel excuse me fuel station self fuel station. Um and that project was actually bid in fiscal year 26. It came in too high. You as a governing body and also staff did the responsible thing by not awarding that and going back to the drawing board

to see if there are ways to value engineer that. And that's that's what's happened to and with the support of our consulting engineer. Your honor and counsel, I know that that was a brief and quick though long overview of our funds. I want to again thank my team. We're so blessed. You have a hardworking team that shows up and does their job and and does it in a responsible way. So, I want to I want to thank them for their work. I want to thank you and at this point we have proposed to you a balanced budget but again this is your budget so please um feel free to work through me to make any adjustments or changes that you feel reflect better the priority as a governing body with that your honor I will stand for any questions

any questions I just have a comment so Mr. Butterfield, you thank everyone else. I think a big thanks needs to go to you, too. Thank you. And your staff. You do an amazing job. And if anyone in the audience is listening, I think they should watch the YouTube of this meeting and look into the budget a little bit more because there's a lot to it. So, thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. And your honor, and I said this last week, but it was it was an honor to sit in through one of those budget meetings and to see all of you guys. It was truly impressive at how every single dollar um and the care that you take for um the people of Riverton's money. Um truly it's an honor to to be here serving with you guys and seeing that happen. Um just to reiterate what I said last week, but thank you. Um that was just super cool and just great. Every single one of you guys just like you guys really are heroes. like very cool, you know, and you can see how much you love your city and your people and and everything that you do. So, thank you and this is this is great. Fantastic. And and you took great care doing it and and all of us, we appreciate you.

Thank you. If you allow me a little bit of latitude just for a personal comment, this was a hard budget. Um, every budget has its challenges and takes emotional and mental and intellectual exertion. You know, it's just a process. This one was hard. Um, and I can tell you three weeks ago, we were staring down a deficit of over a million dollars in the general fund just for operations. And my team's going to hear the same analogy several times, but they can deal with it, I suppose. But when you're looking at a a number that large, it's not finding coins in the couch cushion to balance a budget. You're getting rid of the couch and the room that it sits in.

And we didn't take that as good enough. That's why we cut some of the capital proposals. That's why we went through every line item because we set a goal at the start of this budget to take care of our team. So, we did and uh it was it was a rough one, but we did it. So, now it's up to you to to let us know how you want to move forward. Thank you, your honor. I just have one. Councilwoman Johnson,

did I read in the U packet where it's talking about um the step increases and the cost of living increases that you are the only non-exempt employee that forego that increase? I have no comment. You read it right. I did. You tried that last year, too.

You may recall. Is that going to stand? Because if so, um that speaks volumes about your character and about the importance of staff to you. And I think that that needs to be highlighted because not often does that happen. And um for me, wages and increases and and all it's important. It's important. Um but for you to forego one yourself so that staff could have them was commendable and I appreciate that about you, Kyle. Thank you.

Well, thank you, but I have no comment. Well, and I think um it it shows an incredible amount of leadership and willingness to um to take care of other people before yourself. And I think that's important. And last year we kind of uh said no to that. We'll see how the discussion goes this year. Um, I I I think we're served well by you. And so I think sometimes we talk about money being of course and this is something that you talk about in any sort of human relations or uh anything like that, human resources, not relations. Um, you talk about motivation and uh, money of course is a motivator and there's other things that are motivators, but it's an easy one to be able to quantify and sometimes we sit there and when we talk about raises or that kind of thing, it's an easy way that you can say my worth is being recognized by my employer. And so to me when we are talking about employees and the need for people that are motivated, people that are attracting and keeping good people who are willing to serve the community, I think it's important that we're recognizing that wages, merit increases, especially I think almost every single budget should have in it a merit increase whether we have a cola or not, but a merit increase is huge because that shows merit is being recognized. If you don't do a cola increase though, there's plenty of city employees who are at the top and that

means they don't get anything for the year. So anyway, I I appreciate how much you try to take care of your team, Kyle, and I appreciate the hard work that it was in this budget. We've been talking about it um over the last couple of weeks and I know it's been a struggle, but I was impressed and I somehow every year it's like struggle with it for a couple weeks then all of a sudden everything just falls into place. I I don't know how you pull it off. So well your honor, thank you and thank you. It's the team and I hate the spotlight on me. So I think it's time to move on to other and better things.

All right. Well, we do have discussion for it next. Um, if we were wanting to give feedback, modifications we want to make before next week, this is the time to do it. Um, that's part of the reason why we do it this way where we have a work session followed by uh the actual budget passage the next week. So, if we're going to be talking about it and saying, "Hey, we want to make some modifications," this would be the time. Y um so what discussion do we have? What thoughts do we have?

Councilwoman Johnson, were you tapping your hand out of a nervous?

No. Well, that too, but but I'm I'm not nervous. I just um I had I had um spoke briefly about um doing some facility upgrades to the city impound down there. Um and I would really like to push to see some improvement down there, specifically in the back lot. Um I don't I I know that it's costly. Um, but I would like to put some aside to get some work done there.

Would the Um, okay. I'm not going to interrupt. Anybody else? Anything in that regard? I would just concur with Councilwoman Johnson. I agree. To see some funds dedicated toward that if we can find them. And even if we did that through community service contract funding agree specific to that, I would be okay with that, too. But I I do think that that's that that can's been kicked down the road long enough and that that that back glot needs upgraded for the sake of the animals.

Yeah, I concur. Mr. Betterfield.

Your honor. Um just to provide a few um additional points for your consideration. Um a few years ago, um staff and pause explored some issues as it related to the east side of that building. I know a a large concrete pad was explored. Um I asked our um building inspector today to provide some approximate ideas of what that would cost and um as it was proposed before we could maybe anticipate between maybe $120,000 for that concrete pad. However, there are also um other improvements that we discussed that could help the situation when it comes to drainage and then shadows and ice buildup and everything else. Um the current um facility does not have rain gutters. And then also there was an exploration of um installing a a French drain to help move water away from some of the areas where it pools. Um I know Mr. Tolman worked with um Mr. Troyer, our building inspector, on that. Rough numbers at this point could be anywhere between 10 and 15,000 for at least those improvements. Um that could be a helpful step forward if the full concrete pad um solution isn't isn't brought forward. But we as staff can can work on that if that's a priority you have for the budget. would it and I it's always hard because when we have a budget a lot of these projects are multi-year discussion in the making sort of thing and I know we have at least an estimated amount. Would it make sense to put that into the budget this year or to maybe look at it as part of the contracts for services? Kind of like

you're saying even if we were to do some of it like the French drain or something like that. Um, another because the reality is no matter what you do with the budget as it is now, whatever you'd be proposing would have to be saying take it out of here to put it here. And so that's where it gets a little bit hard. Not that I'm saying we can't do that right now. That's part of the whole purpose of the discussion right now. But it's it's where would we take it from to put it in there, I guess, is my question right now.

Um, and I know we're not to community service contract funding part yet. Um, but I would be willing to adjust some of that if it was specific to those improvements. And I know that they were looking at some decking, some different decking and stuff like that to see test the waters to see how that fared with the animals, but I I would be okay with starting small, but at least getting forward motion. And I think that makes sense saying that we would put an amount in and then we would be saying, "Hey, next year we want to come, we want to have staff come forward with some different proposals and some set quotes and that kind of thing and have it in the budget from the beginning. I think would be probably the easier way to do it. But I do love the idea of saying something now so that we kind of set that as the precedent. Let's get it going. Yeah.

Um the other thing though that I'm thinking about is that we do have our group that we're wanting to be looking at this kind of holistically, the whole situation with, you know, impounding animals, animal shelter, what role we want to have going forward with that. And that's where it would make sense to kind of get that committee going before we start to go too far into how we want to be improving or changing or modifying the shelter as well. I guess just as a thought

for me it's a city asset and whether whether whether it's us that's housing the facility or manning the facility or pause or another entity whatever it's still an asset that needs to see upgrades and needs to be maintained I think a little bit better. So that's I see where you're going with that, but I I just I I just want to get it on the radar. We right for for so long we've we keep saying yeah it needs done yet needs done yet needs done and nothing ever happens with it and and I want to dedicate some forward motion to it.

Okay. So your thought right now is maybe rather than having it be something where we would take out of one location to another when we get to the contracts for services discussion, you're thinking you would be having that be part of it would be a uh physical improvement to the building? Yes,

Mr. Butterfield. Your honor, as you consider your options here, um whether that's through the contract for service or community service contracts allocation, I also should bring up that the budget includes money from the Wyoming community gas program, but we as staff did not allocate that towards any project. We believe that that amount will be roughly $13,000. Um you could allocate those Wyoming community gas dollars towards an improvement on that building. you could put it towards other priorities you've discussed. Um, and then also there there is an ability for us to look at the cash position and and help cover an improvement if you prioritize that from uh a transfer of more cash. I know we had set some of that towards security cameras over at city park the which I don't know if those have been installed yet or not. they have

um your honor uh two of the cameras are going in um directly in the next two weeks and then the remaining I think it's three or four will come in right after that all the infrastructure has been put in and they're going in very soon like I said physical changes take a while that was something we had set this cash aside two years ago I think um but the other one that we had done so we had done park improvements for that we had also done the drinking fountain and then had also discussed lighting at city park. There's no reason though why this couldn't be something that goes to the pause shelter. Um there's I don't think they necessarily have limitations on it. They just want you to tell us tell them what it is so they can put it on their website and say this these are things that we've paid for with Wyoming community gas funds.

Uh do those lights require lots of lumens or do they work without light? You're talking about when we had been discussing in the park. Well, this is kind of an offthe cuff answer for you, Mr. Tolman. So, would these be initial lights or the current lights that are in the park now? No. The cameras that are being installed, do they work with or without sufficient lights? My question is that because we have lights there, we're just not turning them on called skate park, right?

And all we have to do is pay the light bill. Skate park lights are on. I thought that was taken care of. I thought our recre or our district 25, whatever our wreck was taking care of that. The school district 25 took care of the bill that year. I don't know where we're at with it right now. But the point is though, you're saying in terms of the cameras that are going to be installed, yeah, if we need to be turning on the lights, that's a that's a good thing we should talk about. Might not be something to get an answer from him off the cuff right now. But but then we need to budget for that also to be effective. I agree. We do.

It's a good point. We want if for example if we have cameras going in and the it's going to require some lighting we're going to have to make sure that there's lighting. I hear what you're saying. Yeah. I think the rec board was paying they did at least I think last year. Are we still paying for it? I'm That's what I'm trying to remember. Dean know for several months. Dean knows we paid for it for a year too. Say that tempted to text him right now. I I I think he's I think we are paying for it. The the wreck board is. Yeah, I think you're probably right. Well, then why aren't they on at night? Well, I think in the summer they are. They leave them on later.

It was summer last week. I thought they were on a timer that shut off automatically at I think you're right. 10:00 or something. I think at 10:00 they might shut off. Mhm. But maybe we could leave them people out of there from skating at night. Maybe we could leave them on longer. Mr. Toman, tell me about skate park lights. Whatever you can tell us.

Your honor, the um lights have been left on later and I believe it is around 10:00. So then they do go off in the skate park. The new cameras are pretty amazing cameras. We were just having a discussion here whether you can see at night. Um I'll have to get back to you on exact if they can or cannot. Um, but with the cameras and this the way they're pointed, they do get some auxiliary auxiliary light from the sides of the park and so they can see partially even if they're not okay, they axion cameras or the but they the police chief and I were just talking. I know they're they're infrared cameras so they can see minimally at night but maybe not perfectly. Okay. Thank you.

Worth looking into and we can talk about that. Well, part of the part of our goals was public safety enhancement. We talked about lighting around that whole area. So I I thought that there was a grant that was going to put more lighting in altogether around the area. Am I mistaken in that? Well, it's something that we can seek out. I don't think we have anything in particular that we have going right now for lighting any grants. The only lighting we had was along Federal out to the right um Prison Farm Road

and I do know we were discussing lighting in terms of what we wanted to do going forward this year. I know we had discussed that. Mr. Tolman, can you tell us about that? Your honor, I can a little bit. Um after the council had a discussion on lighting within town, we reached out to um in in fact Rocky Mountain Power reached out to us about updating lighting throughout town for LED lights. Um, so they would be just brighter lights in the in the locations where lights are. And then we also have been working to update any lights that are out. Um, I did additionally got a proposal to get u more lighting down the rails to trails in in areas there to light that up. Uh, city park. Um, we have not got to that at this point yet though.

So tell me about the lighting along the rails to trails what you have going on there. um your honors just to switch out the current lights that are there with a little bit above a brighter light LED light that kind of has a halo effect and can can look out um there. I have to look at what the budget is and costs of that but um my thought was it was just around 100,000. Um I can double check that though. Okay. because I know that was something that when we were talking about our goals for the year, we wanted to have public safety being an important part of that and we were talking about the importance of lighting. So,

I just want to take away from the the what is it? High plains power funding if it meant more publicity your Wyoming community. Thank you. I didn't want to take away from public safety in order to do upgrades, but but it's a good discussion. At the very least, that is an option. Uh the Wyoming community gas funds have not been expended yet, have not been uh given to us yet. Um so there's no reason we couldn't say we'd want it to go to pause. There's no reason we couldn't say we'd want it to go towards lighting at City Park. Mhm.

Last two years, that's where we've gone with it has been different upgrades at City Park and it would be pretty consistent. Um, and then of course we could discuss in contracts for services, like we were saying, the possibility of some of that going towards upgrades there. But I appreciate bringing up Wyoming Community Gas, Mr. Butterfield. Any other discussions? Yeah, I just I keep thinking that this new committee maybe they could come up with the priorities of what they think needs to happen down there. Oh, and maybe we could set aside like cash or cash that Kyle had mentioned,

you know, once they decide what those priorities are. I hate to take it away from the community service grants because that's already pretty lean and we have a lot of requests. So, just kind of my thought. That's a really great idea. It's a good point and that's kind of what I was getting at, I think, which is if we're going to do this going into it a little bit, eyes wide open. This is exactly what we want to be looking at. This is what we want to prioritize.

But I also understand precedence is a huge thing in budgets. If you've had a $10,000 that's been in a budget one year, it's a lot easier to go back and remember, oh yeah, we need to put that in the budget this year. So, it it it is something that I think is worthwhile. Yeah,

but I do think in terms of what the the committee committee could be looking at is, you know, they're wanting to look at what are the needs for empoundment, what are the needs for shelter, where that ties in, and um a huge part of that I could see being what does the facility look like, what do we need to do to change the facility. Mhm. Yeah. Your honor, if if you're ready to transition, I had one other comment I need to make about the fiscal year 27 budget that I failed to bring forward before. So, um if you're ready to switch topics, I can do that now or I can wait till you're ready.

Oh, it's too late. You've lost your chance.

No, go ahead, Mr. Butterfield. I failed to mention that um as as we do continue to look for grants to support operations in capital, I want to highlight the police department because they are currently working on a cops program grant that does support um officer salaries. Um we have not yet submitted that grant and therefore we haven't included it in the proposed fiscal year 27 budget but um we have talked as a team that um once it's submitted and once we get notice of award we plan to come back to you and amend the proposed budget to include this cop's grant to support two officer positions. Um right now the timing is such that we anticipate receiving word of that within the first quarter of the fiscal year. We could then amend the budget to include um what would equate to about 50% of an officer's total compensation um that would be paid for by the cops grant. Um the cops grant provides um roughly $40,000 per uh position for three years. And right now, one of our entry level officer positions, assuming which health care plan they they get on and then retirement, um, is a total cost, maybe an investment is a better way to put that, a total investment of roughly $75 to $80,000. So, we look forward and appreciate the work of we look forward to that grant and appreciate the work of the police department because it will help offset at least two positions for our patrol officers. um that is not included in this budget proposal, but we do plan to bring it back and and propose an amendment

if it's awarded. Correct. Which if uh Lieutenant Filer has anything to say about it, it's going to be awarded. That's great. Maybe we could propose an amendment after the committee's formed and we find out what the actual needs of the facility are. Um and then look for that funding at that time. I that could be an option too. Um I think that that would be a good way to go where we would say okay we've had a chance to look at it. We've had a chance to see this is what we would want to modify because I also think that there may be some fundraising opportunity there too to reduce that cost a little bit. Sure. Yeah.

All right. Any other discussion? Okay. We can move on to the contract for services discussion then. Mr. Butterfield, take a break first. Oh, we could take a break. Great idea. I was looking at the clock and thinking it's 7:30. We've only been here a half an hour, but we've been here an hour and a half. Yeah. So, it' be a great time to take a break. Uh, if we could, let's just do a recess until 7:35. All right. I want to see if

And I'll be brief because we've covered it in the budget presentation, but essentially you have opportunity now to prioritize the awards. You won't take action because this is a work session. The awards are finalized when you adopt the budget. Um last year, you chose to do um an additional session to help you prioritize these funds, which you can do again. This is just a starting point. Um, in preparation for tonight's meeting, each council member individually rated um their priorities, sent them to me for me to compile, and now you have an opportunity to at least use that as a starting point um uh for your discussion. And with that, I'll I'll send the sheet and then uh follow your direction, mayor, as you prioritize the applications that have come forward.

All right. Well, I will let you send that. We'll wait a minute. Let me just make sure I send the most current saved file. So, I'm sorry this taking a moment.

You're good. Thank you for the brief delay in sending that, but it should be coming through your inbox now.

Okay. All right. So, uh I guess still tell us where we're at here, Mr. Butterfield. It sounds like we've got average response of council members um for each of these. The total though came to which I think last year the average response of council members was right at 240 and we almost just took the average and went that way. Looks like the average here is just a little bit more at 257500 though. Is that right?

Your honor, that is correct. After taking the individual feedback forms, um that total represents the averages as it sits right now. And then the orange column represents um the requests from community entities and you'll see that that total is 549429. It looks like the ones that we have consensus on are the Riverton Volunteer Firemen, which is what we have consensus on, I think, every year. Um, and then Willow Creek Elementary, uh, the consensus, I think, on that from the council was zero.

Zero, but I think did want to definitely follow up and see if they could look for other opportunities and had some discussion then about that. Um, Eagle's Hope is pretty close to where funding was last year, uh, at 166667. Uh, juvenile justice was at 20,000. Pause was at 35,833. RC was at 93,750. Riverton Chamber. Was it 17,916? Your honor. Yes, ma'am.

Our wreck, that's very low and they're not going to be able to get money from from the wreck board. Um, so if you look at last year's because a lot of people are looking at last year's, they got money from the rec board. They won't be able to function on that number. Um, and they won't because of the rec boards board policies, they're not going to be allowed to go back and ask them for any money. Period. Did they get paid from the rec board at all this year? No. Why not? Did they not do a

They asked and the rec board said, "No, wait and see what the city gives you." And then the rec board passed a policy that said nobody can ask them for any more money. So they won't be able to get paid from the rec board. The city will be their only option of payment this year. Sounds like a little bit of bait and switch. Who is that?

Well, possibly, but I'm just saying that that that is that is period point blank. We are it for them. And I can tell you they will not be able to. And if you look at the past and I'm saying that like inflation, you know, money goes up, right? And so like you know if they were in 20 six years ago they needed $135,000 they will not be able to function on $93,000. Okay. um you know and and if the whole like thing in Riverton is nobody has anything to do our rec center that's that's one of the main things that we have to do for our both young middle elderly everything that's and we are their only funding

okay so that is my that's me advocating for them gotcha Um, Riverton Chamber of Commerce and Visitors was 17,916 closer to 2023 2024 funding. Uh, Riverton Mercy House was 35,833. Um, and then Wind River Transportation Authority was 32,500. Your honor. Yes, ma'am. Um, as it relates to the Mercy House, um, I'm going to advocate for them, uh, simply because that has the potential to reduce our inmate housing costs,

and I think that it's important that they get up and running. I think that Riverton is long overdue for a shelter, not a shelter period, um, in the winter months. Um but primarily it they will work with the police department, city of Riverton in housing some of these folks that um that need a place to go for the evening. And I think that that can reduce significantly the costs associated with prisoner housing for us. So I think that that's very important that we get as close as we can to what they need in order to get open and operate. um for Wind River Transportation Authority. I think that they are currently um on the uh looking at being funded through the the optional 3/4% taxes being proposed. And I think that 32,500 to them would be taken away from these other entities that provide services for the city of Riverton. Um juvenile justice services for for instance. um they provide a service to the youth. Um and I think that that's important. Our recreation, I agree with um uh Council Brothers, they service over 5,000 families. And I would like to see us get closer to their ask. Okay. Any other discussion here? I I I guess what I'm hearing is when we had talked about this um last year, I think basically what we did

is we took the average of everything. And it sounds like that is not what the council wants to do to put it lightly. So that's why I started with that though just in terms of discussion. Um really the biggest question for budget purposes is do we take the larger number the 257500 or do we stay with where we were at for 240,000. Now, theoretically that could mean that we would draw more into the um savings for lack of a better word. But, um we could do that in in terms of being able to say where it's going to come from. You know, like I had said, if we're going to be talking about the budget, we need to know where it's coming from. Um, any other thoughts here?

I'd like to see us stay within our means and our allotted 240,000. We're already working on lean numbers in each account and I think it would be the responsible thing to do to stay at the 240,000. Okay. Anyone else?

Your honor. Um, I agree with everything that everybody said, but I would like to see PAS get more money. I'm always going to Um, be for Pause. I'm always going to advocate for them. They in they do a very important service for the city. It's public health. It's public safety. And I think that we might need to squeeze it out somewhere else. I mean, um, WRTA is looking at potentially getting tax money if that passes. And I think that money would be much better served going to pause and I suggested 60,000 just to be clear. Um so I'd just like to have that be part of the discussion.

So if you had suggested Okay. So, let's say we did that and did 60,000 for pause and then the others were all kind of averages. Your honor,

that would mean you could do that theoretically and take 25,000 from Wind River Transportation Authority and you'd still be able to do that. I mean, it don't it'd leave at $7,000, but then that$7,000, ironically enough, just so happens to be the exact amount that we're well, not just so happens to be the exact amount over five 50,000 is or 10 17,000, but anyway. Okay. Where do we want to go with that, I guess. So, let's talk about that. How much do we want to fund? Pause. The average there is 35,833. The request was 75,000. This isn't something that has to be set in stone today.

We're missing two of our members here. Um, but it is something that at least for working numbers because we'll we'll pass the amount in the budget and then we'll have another discussion on this in terms of once we get the contracts finalized. Your honor, I do have two questions for Mr. Butterfield if that's fine before we continue talking. Sure.

Is that okay? So my two questions, one, I know we're digging into some of those savings right now with our So like how much if any wiggle room do we have I guess is one question. And two, Tim isn't here tonight, but like I know he relies on our funding to get grants if we give him none. Where is he at? Do we give him any? And is is he avail you know is he able to get some funding if we give him some like where where's that tipping point? You might be the one that has to answer that. Go ahead, Mr. Do you know?

Your honor, uh Councilwoman, unfortunately, I couldn't speak to the RTA's position, especially as it relates to their um matching component. And then if you don't mind, I place my budget prep book over there. Let me grab it real quick. I can your other question. As part of our budget prep, we went through an exercise analyzing our cash position. Okay. And um let me just uh pull that up because I can report that to you and perhaps as I I'm looking for that sheet um please feel free to continue the discussion and I'll report back. Well, one of the things that we had discussed was we had some funds, not an incredible amount, but some funds that were even still left over from um CO funds that um don't have any limitations on them. I don't remember how much we had, but the point is could that be expended there? Um, the other thing is though, those funds could be used for things like different upgrades, lighting, that kind of thing that we've been talking about as well.

Um, that's cool. And we haven't really quite gotten into that. It's nice to have things in the bank, but it's also nice to be able to show, hey, this is money that we're going to use to improve the parks or to improve this or to improve that. So, putting it in here might not be as because it's not a long-term solution, I guess, is the point. Go ahead, Mr. Butterfield. Thank you. And I appreciate Miss Harris. She's pulled up the digital copy that we were working from. um our cash position um changes every payun, but we're able to make projections based off of the budget, our actual spend, and then as we project expenses through the rest of the year from that.

Okay.

Um our unobligated cash position is safe to estimate it at roughly $25,000 today. as it relates to um funds you hold in reserves. Um and so that would be different than this um cash position I just reported. Um your honor, you had referenced um funds that we hold in reserve and that's about 1.3 million. That um is one-time money that I would recommend the council use towards uh an improvement of its choosing. I think a work session would be would be very helpful in that regard. I know several ideas have come forward whether it relates to the pause facility and operations. Um whether it relates to improvements at city park um that could be a bathroom

pickle ball court. Um it could go in in many different ways as you choose. But that is your unrestricted um cash in savings as it relates to funds that were um the byproduct of the ARPA act. Okay. And is that all from the ARPA funds, Mr. Butterfield? I'm trying to remember.

Your honor, no. Um, a number of years ago, the city council chose to dedicate 2thirds of those funds to go towards uh the water fund, one-third to support uh general fund activity. We've kept those funds invested so that the council could choose um how it would want to use those. It has not made that selection yet. Okay. But again, I they are one-time monies, so I do not recommend you balance your operations with those funds. I I do recommend that you use them for a one-time expense to benefit the community. And how much are we supposed to have in reserves in terms of for emergency purposes, that sort of thing?

18 and a half 18.5%. So in terms of that, we're not taking that into account with the 1.3 million that you're talking about though. No, your honor. Okay. Your honor,

Miss Johnson, I am um I guess full transparency there. I I've received emails from um another entity who has expressed interest in the use of the the facility at no cost to the city with the same um contracts uh that are currently in place that that pause utilizes. Um, and with the recent accounting issues, I'm not saying that I don't want to give pause anything, but I'm I'm saying that I think that there needs to be um some clear guidelines if we do that. I have reservations about it. And I think to ensure that taxpayers money is being spent and used appropriately that that would only be fair.

Okay. Well, would certainly like to hear whatever their proposal is as we go forward. Um, and it we don't have to talk about it all now, but I'll just forward you the email that I received so that you know what I'm speaking about. Can all the council members get that? Sure. Thank you.

Well, the biggest question that we'd need to walk away from here with is not the exact amounts, but it's the final amount. Like I said, part of the where this discussion came out of was if we wanted to modify that amount from 240,000, this would be the time to do it. Other than that, we can still figure out where that's going to go. we still have time um even before July to figure out where these are going to go. So the main question I guess for the council tonight is do we want that to stay as 240,000 or do we want it to go somewhere else? I've often thought 240,000 is such an odd number even though it's not. It's even. Um, but I mean even 250,000 but that's just where my mind goes is it's just arbitrary. There was no reason for it. Um,

but that's the real question tonight. If we want to continue to discuss this and have another work session on it in particular, it might be good for us to have a little bit more information about some of these. Um there might be good to know a little bit more. For example, you were talking about RERC and what was going on with WCK board funding and how that had been pulled out.

I know WCK board funding usually for them was their summer programming. Um so we could basically put a pin in this tonight. Consider um 240,000 is the amount. give that direction to staff and that's what would go into the budget and then we could figure out where we want to go from there or we can get it all finalized tonight. I I feel kind of funny getting it all finalized tonight when we don't have Councilman Bailey and Councilman Carr. I agree with you, but Well, we can't This is a We I agree. It's a work session.

It's a work session. We can't agree to anything. We can we can look at it. Good point. stumble on it and feel good and everything else. But until it's a regular session, well, and then it's just we have five people on the council that are saying this is what we decided. You guys just have to go along with it. Yeah, it's true. Even though we can't I mean, it's a work session. You're exactly right, Councilman Larson.

I want to make it very clear that I'm not going to feel good about this. I don't know how you will, but I don't. We've got a limited amount of funds. We have wonderful um entities that need the funds. And I'm not going to feel good about any of it, honestly, because somebody has to be cut somewhere. Right. You're right. When you have 549,000 that's being requested and you've got to whittle that down to 240, no matter what, it's not going to feel good. No, it's not easy. It's not fun. And it definitely doesn't make me feel good. Well, 25% of it is one category.

Which category? Homeless, shelters, period. Each other is separate. Animals are for animals. Um, we have wreck for wreck. We have swim club. We have um well, swim club wasn't a request this year, but I agree. It's on the list.

It's there. And so um I'm wondering about the duplication of those other items. There's no duplication with pause. There's nobody else out doing pause. Okay. None. So, um,

well, and that gets difficult, too, because that's that comes into a little bit of the county uses paws. Tribes don't have their own animal shelter or anything like that. Um, it gets used and abused a lot. Uh, but when it comes to government funding, it's us. I don't know that. I mean, other than the county with the contract in terms of how long a dog is there or whatever, they'll pay up to a certain amount. So, that's a it's a unique circumstance. Yeah.

But then it goes back to to what Councilman Councilwoman uh Brothers was saying about our wreck. That's an entity that just exists because of us. But where I get a little bit skittish with that when we're talking about how confident you feel, and not that I don't feel confident in the two individuals that are running that, they do an incredible job, but it's not a nonprofit, so they don't answer to a board like Pauses or Eagles Hope. Um, it's not government like Juvenile Justice Services where they answer to the county, um, or Winds River Transportation Authority or the Riverton Volunteer Firefighters. All of those organizations answer to a separate board.

Maybe that's what makes them successful. Maybe. But Iraq is this weird kind of entity that does not do its own fundraising. They do collect fees and that sort of thing. um had explained that their human resources goes through CWC, which I think is incredible that CWC is willing to do that,

but when it comes to any sort of governing board that our wreck might have, we are it. And to what extent are we governing them, I I haven't regularly said anything to them in terms of how they have to do things or or or told them how their programming has to be. And so that one it it's not that I have any issue at all with the people that are running it. I think they do an incredible job. I think the programs are incredible. But I've long thought it's overdue for needing to figure something out. Whether that's folding it into a city as a city program that we actually have management over or that they actually have their own board or something. I think when you look at the number of families they service,

it's got a proven track record. Oh, sure.

And I think if you stop funding that or you reduce the funding in that um I think that's detrimental to the citizens. And I think that when when we're considering these things, we have to look at the things that service the community as a whole the most and is most needed or a service that is needed. Um, so I think that's important to to to recognize. with pause. It's It's um I almost feel like it should be an amount that's earmarked until we're able to have full discussions as to what it's going to look like going forward where, you know, do we need do we need kit replacements? Do we need gutters? Do we need concrete? Do we need more space? Have we outgrown Paw's needs? Have the that the facility itself was built as an impound. It wasn't built as a rescue shelter. And that's the difference is it's trying to be it's it's it's being used as a rescue when its intended purpose was an impound. And so doing the needed upgrades necessary is going to be costly if you want to use it as an actual rescue. So the committee, you know, through discussion is going to determine that. So, it's hard to put an amount on what those services are going to need. Are they needed? Yes, they are. But determining to what extent is the struggle,

right? Well, and I think that's part of the purpose of having the committee in place is figuring out how things are going to be going forward. I guess what I would say is no matter what um what recommendations or whatever come out of that we have an organization right now that is running it that's doing it that has the space that has the staff and and this is where we come into this issue every year when we look at budgets because I'm looking at it saying I'd like to do something different for some of these these items, but the reality is talking about it in May

when the budget is going out in July is hard. Now, I see what you're saying, which is okay, have that amount earmarked, but then have more discussions about what the contract could look like. And I think that makes sense from a budget standpoint saying we're going to have this amount set aside. We're going to come back and we're going to look at what is it actually that we want to look for in a contract.

It could be that they need more than that. It could be less. It could be more. It could just be dedicated to specific upgrades or whatever. But um I think we need to get a better handle on those services before we make decisions about how much we're going to fund it. So my recommendation would be just to stay in the 240,000 and after those discussions take place maybe then take from the reserves if we need to to further fund what we need to. Well, I guess for purposes of the discussion today, which is really a budgetary discussion, um it sounds like the council is pretty comfortable with keeping the amount at 240,000. Not that we're comfortable. I think you said that right, Councilwoman Borders. Um but understand that we have limitations and uh we put that into the budget right now and then we keep the discussion ongoing in terms of where recommendations will come back with the committee and what that's going to look like but we limit ourselves to that 240. Does that sound like about where we're at?

Yeah. Okay. Any other discussion on these then? Not trying to leave everybody in the audience high and dry. I mean, I don't know if if you were part of this process last year, you probably understand this is about what we did last year, too, which was we said we're going to look at it. We're going to look at the overall amount and then we're going to have to cuss and discuss and figure out exactly where everybody's going to fit in that. So, I know it's frustrating. You're sitting here and it'd be nice to have answers. Hey,

it is very frustrating and I, you know, I've been the liaison to pause for several years and for lack of a better word, it sucks this time of year because they have to come here, beg and plead for Bunny to operate a facility that they're working in partnership with the city. It's not like any other entity on this list. It's not. And for me, it would be nice to get something ironed out so this doesn't have to happen every year.

Well, that was one of the thoughts that I had in terms of how the contract could read would be something where it was more like a pure contract for service almost like what the county does where it would be something where we would pay on a daily basis for the animals for the impoundment. Well, and that's one of the problems because the county pays a certain amount and then after they've paid that, they're done. They don't do anything else. But those animals still have to go somewhere, right? And if somebody brings them by, is P going to just sit there and say, "No,

they're not just going to refuse to take them if they have room, you know?" So that's and that's just it is it's a it's a it's a situation where I think this is partly why I was wanting to have a committee to look at what are we really looking for with these funds? Why are we, you know, what is the goal? If we sat there and just said we think that these funds should go to X, Y, and Z, then why are we sitting here and cussing and discussing about it every year, right? Mhm. Why have it be a a kind of a grant sort of thing where you're having to come with a proposal? Why not just have it be something that says this is the amount you get? Mhm.

And that could be a way to do it, too. Um, so it's it's it's interesting. We've turned it into something that's a little bit competitive where if one gets it, the other doesn't. And does it have to be that way or could we just say this is what we're going to be as the funding going forward and it's not going to go up or down or whatever? Another idea that Councilman Carr brought up I thought was unique is a request for proposals where we say you actually come in with what you say you're going to do and what the contract will be what you're going to provide

and um we would have it be set and that's how we would do it and it's a it's another way we could do it. So, I I don't know. To me, the the process always is a little bit weird. I've always thought it's weird because it's not really very well delineated. And I I think we could use some better way to figure that out.

Well, and I I don't want to be misconr misconstrued here because there's not one entity on this list that doesn't deserve everything they've asked for. We've got entities helping children, um, homeless people, um, the community at large, and how do you pick and choose the priorities? It's really, really tough. And I don't want people to think that I'm just a pause advocate. I am, but um, everything else is important, too, right?

And I wish we had the money. We could just fund everybody. That would make things a lot easier. I think that's what Mr. Bailey says just about every time we talk about this every year. Yeah. So, anything else? Okay. All right. Well, that's all we have on the agenda. I'd consider a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. A second. Motion by Councilman Larson, second by Councilwoman Johnson. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. adjourned at 8:11 p.m.