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Natrona County commissioners decline sheriff's immediate 3% COLA request, approve statutory pension change and seek $100,000 in cuts
Summary
On June 24 the Natrona County Commissioners reviewed the Sheriff's FY2025 budget; they agreed to absorb a statutory 0.9% employee pension contribution increase, declined to approve a 3% cost-of-living raise now, and asked the Sheriff to return with $100,000 in proposed reductions.
Natrona County Commissioners continued their FY2025 budget work session on June 24 with a sustained discussion of the Sheriff's Office budget, including a requested 3% cost-of-living adjustment and a statutory change to pension contributions.
The sheriff sought a 3% COLA to keep wages regionally competitive and to avoid staff turnover, saying the department did not conduct a new market analysis this year but that "we don't want to continue to slide down" in regional pay rankings. Commissioners acknowledged the department's recruitment and retention pressures but expressed reluctance to grant a department-specific COLA in the current fiscal year.
Why this matters: the Sheriff's Office is the county's largest and most complex budget, and wage decisions affect hiring, overtime and long-term staffing costs. Commissioners said they were willing to absorb a statutory retirement contribution change but wanted to avoid setting a precedent for unilateral department COLAs.
The commission and the sheriff discussed two related items. First, the state statute will increase the law-enforcement pension contribution by a combined 1.8% over the next three years, which the parties discussed as a 0.9% increase on the employee side this year. Commissioners agreed to include that statutory change in the sheriff's FY2025 budget so employees do not bear the full effect immediately.
Second, the sheriff's separate request for a 3% COLA (presented as roughly a $440,000 addition) drew concern. Commissioners proposed a compromise that would not approve the full COLA now but would ask the sheriff to identify roughly $100,000 in discretionary savings or reprioritized spending that could be trimmed from the department's bottom line. The sheriff said some requests (for example, an intercom replacement at end of life) cannot be indefinitely deferred; he also volunteered to remove or postpone smaller discretionary increases such as a requested $2,500 community-outreach line.
At the end of the discussion the commission asked the sheriff to return with a line-item breakdown that reflects $100,000 in reductions and left the broader COLA question to be considered later, with the countywide wage study and HR recommendations noted as follow-up items. Commissioners said they would not commit to a multi-year COLA schedule but signaled interest in a comprehensive, countywide approach handled by HR and an upcoming wage-committee process.
What happens next: the Sheriff agreed to prepare a breakdown of proposed cuts and return for further discussion. Commissioners recorded the statutory pension contribution change in the FY2025 figures and deferred the separate COLA decision pending further analysis.
Quotes from the session included the Sheriff's reasoning for a market-based increase—"we don't want to continue to slide down"—and a commission member's caution that "this year I don't think is the right year to ask for a cola increase."
