May 10—CHEYENNE — Last week, Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins proposed a $147.6 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year. This week, city departments began presenting their reasoning for their proposed budget adjustments.
Cheyenne Police Department began on Thursday, followed by Cheyenne Fire Rescue and Community Recreation and Events on Friday.
Other departments will present their budgets next week. These presentations inform the City Council of possible adjustments or amendments they may want to suggest for the proposed budget. A final budget will be approved on June 10.
Cheyenne Police Department
CPD funds are split into three divisions: police administration, police patrol and parking. It remains the largest city expenditure and is requesting a $1,525,755 funding increase, bringing it up to $18,871,140 for the upcoming fiscal year.
The administration division is requesting an increase of $393,825 from fiscal year 2024. Like many city department increases in this year's proposed budget, it is largely driven by payroll increases as a result of cost-of-living adjustments made in FY 24. Police administration payroll may increase 8% to $1,846,867 in FY 25, if the budget is approved as it stands.
A budget line items also show a $6,000 increase for employment background checks and a $3,000 increase for printing expenses, double the FY24 budget.
Cheyenne Chief of Police Mark Francisco said they conducted 256 background checks in the previous fiscal year and expect to conduct more in the coming year as they continue to hire more officers. He said the increase in printing is likely due to copier expenses, because they don't do much commercial printing.
The police patrol budget makes up the bulk of CPD's budget. This year, they are requesting a $1,101,465 increase to $13,623,113. The greatest increase will be in employee payroll to satisfy both cost-of-living adjustments and new positions CPD seeks to fill.
"It's been no secret for the last few years we've added police officers each year, and we greatly appreciate the support to that," Francisco said. "It dawns on me that we should probably discuss how we get into these numbers and why we're advocating for increases every year."
He said the two main factors are increases in city population and the number of incidents officers respond to.
In Cheyenne, there are 1.77 officers per 1,000 residents. In Casper, which has a similar population, there are 1.86 officers per 1,000 residents.
However, Casper officers handle 418 incidents per year on average. In Cheyenne, that number is 698 incidents per officer per year. Francisco said he'd like to see that 1.77 number increase to 1.87, which would put the police department size at 122.
In the proposed budget, CPD would be allocated funds to fill two new positions, increasing the number of officers to 115. The budget also allows for salary increases for the current 113 officers.
CPD is proposing a $30,464 increase from the previous year for the parking budget.
The largest item would be funds to eliminate a part-time community service officer position and replace it with a full-time position with a $39,000 salary, plus $9,332 in benefits. This would bring the parking staff to two full-time employees.
The parking rental budget also decreased $15,000 due to the cancelling of the Barnacle parking enforcement contract.
Cheyenne Fire Rescue
CFR is the second-largest city expenditure in the proposed FY 25 budget behind CPD, as it was the previous year. This year, it is requesting an $890,518 increase to $14,627,656.
It was a busy year for CFR, as the fire station construction and fire engine ladder design and manufacturing projects constituted over $25 million in sixth-penny funds being fully executed, nine new firefighters joined the Operations Division through the SAFER Grant and the opening of three new fire stations, and several new apparatuses were put to use.
The fire department is split into five divisions: administration, support, prevention, operations and emergency medical services.
The administration costs decreased by $60,312 from FY 24, largely due to reclassifying the administrative assistant and transferring it to the fire prevention division, creating a hybrid position. This coordinator position will support CFR's efforts to have more community outreach.
The fire support division encompasses training, infrastructure oversight, fleet oversight, and health and safety for the entire fire department. Its requested $31,644 increase includes salary increases and additional fire academies being held at Cheyenne fire facilities.
A proposed $170,613 increase to the fire prevention division is largely due to the salary and benefits of the coordinator position transferred from fire administration.
Fire operations is the largest division, with 89 personnel. It's seeking a 6% increase to a $11,191,539 FY 25 budget. Seventy percent of that increase is to accommodate contract negotiations and cost-of-living adjustments. The other 30% will go toward reclassification of three firefighter positions to the rank of lieutenant and increases in utilities costs with the opening of new stations.
The EMS division is requesting a $12,625 increase, also largely for cost-of-living adjustments.
Community Recreation & Events
CRE is the city's third-largest expense in FY 24, and is slated to remain so in FY 25, with a proposed budget of $10,189,124, up $732,227 from the previous year.
Jason Sanchez, CRE department head, oversees 14 divisions. With so many divisions to discuss, Sanchez reviewed the major changes outside of wage increases for the Cheyenne City Council on Friday.
CRE administration is seeking to hire an office manager, a position that had been filled prior to 2020. This position will handle requisitions, manage vouchers and travel requests, submit forms to the city and other routine office duties at annual salary of $46,309, plus an estimated $37,943 in benefits.
Urban Forestry is seeking $60,000 to continue the tree removal program and $25,000 to assist low-income residents with emergency tree removal in the right of way.
Cheyenne Urban Forestry manager Mark Ellison said that over the past two years, they've removed around 200 large trees, and he expects that to continue to increase as trees reach the end of their lifespan.
In Holliday Park, Ellison said there's just over 200 trees that are in an elderly state and will likely need to be removed in the next five to 10 years.
In the programs and facilities division, the big ask is to hire an events technician with a $40,000 salary, plus benefits, 50% of which would be paid using the Recreations Program Fund.
A $15,430 increase in the aquatics division would support maintenance, and there were no significant increases outside of payroll adjustments in the remaining divisions: recreation, recreation buildings, golf, parks, cemetery, Botanic Gardens, clean and safe, weed and pest, Civic Center and the Ice and Events Center.
Next week, the mayor, municipal court, city clerk, city treasurer, Youth Alternatives, public works, engineering, planning and development, Downtown Development Authority, city attorney, human resources, IT and compliance will all meet with the City Council to present their budgets.
Let the news come to you
Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, sports, arts & entertainment, state legislature, CFD news, and more.
Explore newsletters
Noah Zahn is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's local government/business reporter. He can be reached at 307-633-3128 or nzahn@wyomingnews.com. Follow him on X @NoahZahnn.
