Rawlins council adopts new pay schedule, updates public-safety rules and police job levels; council to fund transition from reserves

Rawlins City Council took several personnel and pay actions at its March 18 meeting, approving a revised salary schedule and pay plan, adopting changes to fire civil service rules, and updating police job descriptions to add a Police Officer 3 level. Council also approved a temporary suspension of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) 86-hour overtime rule for the police department, effective with the April 6 pay period, until the city manager deems police staffing sufficient.

Salary schedule and budget implications City Manager Tom told the council the revised step-based salary schedule is the same framework discussed in a prior work session; it includes the enterprise funds in addition to general-fund positions. “The cost of this schedule was approximately a hundred and 12,000,” Tom said, and staff estimated total near-term impact including the police overtime rule would push the budgetary impact to just over $200,000. Council discussed funding options: several members favored drawing from reserves and returning with a budget amendment rather than forcing departments to find offsets within current operating budgets. Tom agreed to bring a budget amendment to the next meeting to backfill payroll costs from reserves if council directs.

Fire civil service rules Council approved updated fire civil service rules after assigned council members reviewed the proposed changes. The discussion noted relatively few substantive edits and emphasized improved training and promotion processes. Online voting recorded the motion as passing with six yeas and one abstention (Council Member Patterson abstained).

Police job descriptions and new Police Officer 3 level Council approved updates to Police Officer 1 and 2 job descriptions and added a Police Officer 3 level, effective March 18. The city presented the updates primarily as changes to the special requirements and promotional processes; councilors requested future editing to reduce repeated wording in long-duty lists and asked that reciprocal licensing and training provisions be clarified for transfers. The motion passed on the online vote with seven yeas.

Suspension of the FLSA 86‑hour rule for police Council approved a resolution suspending the FLSA 86-hour rule for the Rawlins Police Department, effective with the 04/06/2025 pay period, and to remain in effect until the city manager states the department has sufficient staffing to rescind the suspension. Staff and the city attorney explained background: FLSA includes special provisions historically applied to law enforcement and firefighters (the ordinance references an 86-hour threshold for police and a 112-hour threshold for firefighters); the suspension means the city will pay overtime at the more typical threshold (time-and-a-half after a standard 40-hour workweek) while staffing is short. The council asked staff to define the staffing target that would trigger restoration of the prior approach.

Votes at a glance - Fire civil service rules (resolution): motion to adopt reviewed rules — result: approved (online vote recorded as 6 yeas, 1 abstain; abstention: Patterson). - Police job description updates (ordinance/resolution to update job descriptions and add Police Officer 3): approved (online vote recorded as 7 yeas). - Resolution adopting revised salary schedule and pay plan (effective 03/18/2025): approved (online vote recorded as 7 yeas). - Resolution suspending FLSA 86-hour rule for police (effective 04/06/2025 pay period until sufficient staffing): approved (online vote recorded as passed; staff to implement and define staffing threshold).

Implementation steps Staff will identify the total FY2025 payroll impact and bring a proposed budget amendment to the next council meeting to draw necessary funds from reserves to cover the transition pay increases. Department heads were asked to identify internal offsets; the city manager said staff would prioritize a consolidated budget amendment and pursue cash-management steps (investment of reserve funds) to replenish reserves over time.

Council feedback and next actions Several councilors asked that job descriptions be tightened to remove duplicated language and clarified on licensing reciprocity for officers transferring from other states. Councilor Lumen (who moved some of the motions) and others emphasized training pipelines and promotion fairness as positive outcomes of the revised civil-service and promotional processes. The city attorney and HR staff recommended further cleanup of job-description language in coming weeks.

No litigation, contract awards, or immediately binding appropriations were approved at the meeting beyond the adoption of the salary/pay resolution; staff will return with the budget amendment and final implementation steps.