City will give pay hikes to workers
By Katie Roenigk
Staff Writer

With costs up and revenues down for the City of Riverton’s next fiscal year, some may wonder how employees at City Hall will be affected.
City administrator Carter Napier said during a recent budget meeting that there will be a small increase in salaries from this fiscal year to the upcoming one that will begin in July.
“We place a lot of importance and emphasis in this organization on our people,” Napier said.
During the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, the city anticipates spending about $3.6 million on salaries, deputy city treasurer Gloria Hardman said. That number is up 1.06 percent from last year. General personnel costs, including benefits, withholdings and retirement, are expected to reach about $1.75 million next year — an increase of about 0.2 percent.
Napier attributed the lack of a substantial change in salary costs for next year to the fact that several positions within the city organization were vacated this year and will not be filled. For example, he said two patrol officer positions within the Riverton Police Department and one street labor position in the city’s public services department will not exist for this fiscal year. In addition, the city no longer has need for a recreation supervisor, as public recreation in Riverton now is administered through Central Wyoming College.

Market analysis
This year, Napier said his staff had committed to doing a market analysis to compare the wages Riverton employees receive and the salaries paid by similar city governments throughout the state.
“We identified eight cities that we thought were fairly close in population ... as well as potential markets we would identify as attractive for hiring people,” Napier said.
The cities surveyed included Lander, Rawlins, Evanston, Green River, Cody and Powell, he said.
“While there certainly is some difference ... we think we are pretty tightly associated with what the market pays currently for similar employees in our organization,” Napier said.
Riverton City Council members previously had said they would like city employees to earn a mid-market salary, and Napier said that has been accomplished.
“We probably could not calculate a tighter fit right now with our positions as it compares to mid-market,” he said.
The city spends an average of $50,000 on each employee each fiscal year, Napier said, and salaries at City Hall range from $9.78 per hour to $32.53 per hour.
“We were right along that (mid-market) trend line, so I have to assume that the mid-market average is probably not that different from $50,000,” he said.
However, even if employee payment in Riverton varied significantly from mid-market numbers, Napier said the city most likely would not be able to adjust its employee wages at this time due to a tight budget for the next fiscal year.
“We wouldn’t be able to do anything about it,” Napier said.
With regards to end-of-year benefit increases, Napier suggested the city maintain its traditional merit-based wage increases of 5 percent for deserving and eligible workers.
But although some cities in Wyoming are anticipating small Cost Of Living Adjustments (COLAs), Napier said he does not think Riverton can afford a COLA this year. In the past, he said city employees have received adjustments of 3 to 6 percent.
Instead of a COLA, Napier said the city council decided municipal employees should receive a one-time payment of $1,000 in July 2009 for this fiscal year.
“I think that’s a good thing to do, (and) I certainly don’t think it’s inconsistent with the way we’ve treated employees in the past,” Napier said. “There isn’t much we can do this year for the employees given the concerns we have for the next year, with the declining revenues as they are right now.”
The one-time payment does not elevate an employee’s wage range, Napier said, but it does give him or her some extra cash for the year. The one-time payment only will go to regular full-time employees who are not on probation, Napier said.
“It’s not a lot of money and not very expensive to provide, but I think it would go a long way to helping employees understand we value them,” Napier said. “It could help defray costs they are going to see with insurance and help deal with other issues they may be having in reference to the slowdown of the economy nationally.”
This year, Napier said most employees would see about a 10 percent increase in their health insurance rate costs.