Commissioners mull salaries during budget work session

Washakie County held their first budget work session for the 2023-24 fiscal year on June 6. County Clerk Lily Rakness Parra reported that the discussion centered around employee salaries.

During their May 16 meeting, the commission heard from Sheriff Austin Brookwell and Worland Police Chief Gabe Elliott regarding increases to the dispatch budget. At the time, Brookwell stated that his goal for the 2023-24 budget would be to increase dispatch salaries to be equal to other divisions, with a 10% raise across the board.

Parra said the Commissioners discussed tweaking the current county wage scale to set all salaries “where we think they need to be.”

“We’ve got a budget scale essentially, and we bumped some of the bottom lines of the scales up to kind of go throughout that step scale. We looked at employees and their years of service and where they needed to be on the step scale, and we moved people up accordingly,” she explained. No final decision has been made.

Parra predicted there would be no major changes from last year in the 2023-24 budget, though she noted that the commission is remaining mindful that funding through the American Rescue Plan Act and Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund will cease in December 2024.

“This year we’ve got the LATCF funds and the ARPA money we received, so we’re sitting great on paper, but if I were to take that out - we’re not going to have it, it’s not consistent income, it’s one-time funding - several years down the road when we don’t have those funds, we want to see if we can sustain the raises that we give,” Parra explained.

Washakie County initially received $1,531,384.90 through ARPA funding. Currently, the funds have been allocated toward a $250,000 air handler for Washakie Medical Center and the purchase of the North Road 11 ambulance station for $531,000.

As far as budgeting for the county life flight program after the expiration of their contract with Guardian Flight, Parra said, “It is a wonderful benefit to the community, but nothing has been set in stone quite yet.”

“We did put out a request for proposal, and we’re waiting to see if anyone responds to it just to see what our options are.” Proposals are due June 19, to be discussed at the June 20 meeting.