Rawlins staff and police face high turnover; city managers propose new stepped pay schedule and targeted funding

City Manager Tom Sarvey told the Rawlins City Council on March 4 that salaries and wages account for roughly 60% of the city’s expenditures and that the city’s four‑year average turnover rate is 25.65%, meaning the city replaces roughly one in four employees each year.

Sarvey presented staff’s analysis and a hybrid pay‑schedule proposal that combines a consultant salary study completed in February 2022 with the city’s current pay grades. He said the city’s last audited payroll and benefits total for general and enterprise funds was $9,432,000 and that reducing turnover is a priority because CultureMonkey (the website cited in staff materials) estimates turnover costs between 1.5 and 2.0 times an employee’s annual salary. Using the city’s turnover payroll estimate, staff calculated turnover costs of roughly $3.6 million annually.

The proposal would (1) insert annual “steps” into existing pay grades so employees can move consistently through a range; (2) place all current employees on the reorganized schedule; and (3) create clearer job‑based advancement criteria (for example, certification and education benchmarks for police tiers). Sarvey said a full implementation would cost about $250,000 the first year to place current employees on the new schedule, add minimal increases to vacancies, and cover associated benefits; migrating currently employed staff alone is estimated at about $111,000.

Why it matters

City officials said recruitment, hiring and retention are the three principal drivers behind the proposal. High turnover raises costs (recruitment, training, lost productivity) and undermines service continuity; several city departments showed much higher turnover than the national average cited in the packet (3.5%). Building maintenance and public works showed especially high turnover in staff materials (for example, building maintenance over the four years had turnover reported near 76%).

Police staffing: a priority within the proposal

Chief Ford (Rawlins Police Department) and Lieutenant Rick Hooper briefed council on the police department’s staffing shortages and how the pay plan would be applied there. Ford said the department had 11 authorized officer positions and eight vacancies at the time of the meeting and that dispatch had multiple vacancies as well. Ford and Hooper presented a three‑tier structure for officers (Police Officer 1, 2 and 3) tied to Wyoming POST certifications, instructor/field‑training duties, advanced skills (K‑9, instructor roles) and education. The police presenters said they favor folding existing certification pay into base pay progression so pay is clearer and less likely to produce pay inversion (where line officers with certification stipends out-earn supervisors).

Hooper described a placement method for existing staff that favors equity and limits a one‑time “jump” cost. He said the department simulated career progressions through the proposed schedule to check where employees would land over time. Sarvey told council staff recommends limiting the up‑front placement cost range from about $150,000–$200,000 rather than a larger amount the city could not afford.

Questions from council and staff clarifications

Council members asked how steps would be created and how the schedule would retain the same overall spread (the city intends to keep the same percentage spacing between minimum, midpoint and maximum pay but remove out‑of‑use very low initial steps). Sarvey explained staff shifted what had been “step 5” to the new step 1 and renumbered the schedule so there are still 21 used steps but without nine unused levels below poverty wages.

Council Member Derek Elliott asked whether the new plan would apply to hourly and salaried employees alike; staff said it would be citywide and that converting some high‑overtime hourly roles to salaried positions is an option to reduce overtime expense (subject to FLSA rules). Several council members asked that human resources and department heads finalize measurable promotion and evaluation language quickly so supervisors and employees know how to qualify for step increases. Council members and staff repeatedly emphasized the need to balance fairness, recruitment impact and fiscal responsibility.

Funding options

Sarvey suggested an interim financing approach: earmark $10 million of the city’s cash reserves into a restricted fund invested to yield roughly 5% (he estimated about $500,000 interest annually) and use interest to support step implementation in the near term while the operating budget is adjusted. He acknowledged the proposal would use roughly 33% of general‑fund cash reserves in the short term and that council would still need to address operating budget imbalances.

Next steps and caveats

Staff recommended (a) adopting a stepped pay schedule and clear evaluation standards, (b) a placement method focused on equity and capped near‑term placement spending, (c) rewriting job descriptions to codify step criteria where appropriate and (d) returning to council with specific ordinance or policy language, budget amendments and a timeline for implementation. Sarvey and police leaders said implementation details — including final placement, whether to convert some hourly posts to salaried and how to merge certification pay into base steps — would come back to council for decision.

Ending

Council members praised city staff and the police department for their work and urged quick follow‑up. Multiple council members said police starting wages and immediate police recruitment are urgent; at least one council member suggested moving the police component forward first while staff finalizes citywide implementation details.