Riley County commissioners weigh COLA, department requests and $1 million cut to CIP transfer

Riley County commissioners spent the bulk of their July 14 meeting reviewing proposed 2026 budget changes, discussing cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) requested by departments, and agreeing to a $1 million reduction in the planned transfer to the county's capital improvement program.

The discussion opened with public comment questioning why different local governments and agencies arrive at different COLA rates. One speaker cited a draft worksheet indicating a countywide COLA of 2.7 percent while the Riley County Police Department (RCPD) was shown at 2.4 percent. The county clerk, Richard Bargo, told commissioners that the county had followed policy to reach the 2.7 percent figure but noted that other entities, including the city, had chosen different approaches: "The city's gone through some tough financial times ... they did a pay study ... and so they did a pay study in the not too distant past," Bargo said, explaining divergence in local decisions.

Why it matters: COLA choices affect personnel costs countywide and can change the mill levy needed to balance the budget. Commissioners were told Riley County started the process with a material revenue shortfall and have relied on one-time accounting changes (moving CIP interest to the general fund) to reduce the immediate mill increase. Bargo warned that repeatedly relying on one-time changes erodes capital plans and could force service cuts later.

Among the budget items discussed: reclassification and reduced grading in the county appraiser’s office (presented as a net reduction), proposed staffing changes in public health (a conversion to a seasonal RN position discussed separately), removal of a custodial request for public works at the department’s request, and requests from the museum, community corrections and the county attorney. Commissioners approved some adjustments by consensus and asked staff to return an updated worksheet reflecting the decisions.

Key decisions and directions - Appraiser staffing reclassifications were accepted by the board as described by staff; the reclassification reduces the appraiser division budget in the current worksheet. - The board agreed to convert one full-time public health RN slot into a seasonal position (budget details addressed in a separate article), and to add a budgeted equivalent of $15,061 tied to that change. - Public works asked to withdraw a new custodian request; commissioners agreed and removed the position from the budget pending further review. - The commission approved restoration of the museum's as-needed hours at a reduced level (see separate article on the museum item) and accepted the community corrections request to restore on-call/extra hours that had been under-budgeted in a prior cycle; community corrections had already accounted for the higher hours in its FY submission. - Commissioners agreed by consensus to cut the transfer to the CIP by $1,000,000 and, separately, to reduce the public works projected surplus by $250,000 to help balance the budget. Staff said those changes would leave limited remaining CIP capacity but would lower the immediate mill levy pressure.

Budget context and next steps Budget staff said the commission must file a “notice of intent to exceed revenues” (the statutory step that initiates public notice of a possible mill increase) on Thursday to preserve flexibility; the clerk and budget officer warned that Thursday was the hard deadline for that statutory filing. The county will publish an updated worksheet reflecting the decisions, and staff will circulate final departmental budgets to department heads before public hearings.

Ending Commissioners recessed after finalizing the list of adjustments to be published in the notice of intent to exceed revenues. The county finance office will return the updated numbers and the revisions will appear in the formal public notice and subsequent budget hearings.