The Riley County Law Board ended its meeting Tuesday without a finalized budget as board members worked through how to fund cost of living adjustments requested by the Riley County Police Department.
The initial proposal by RCPD in April was for an 8% COLA, with a realized budget increase of almost 9%. Over the past two months, the board has scaled that back to a 6.5% COLA and 7.4% overall increase, totaling $26.9 million.
The city’s delegation on the board favored pushing the COLA down to 4%, with an overall realized budget increase of 6%, but were swayed by RCPD leadership and County Attorney Barry Wilkerson, who advocated that further cuts to the COLA could jeopardize RCPD’s ability to recruit staff.
RCPD Administrative Captain Brad Jager responded to how RCPD is trying to stay competitive in the market with other law enforcement agencies.
RCPD Human Resources Specialist Nicole Douthit noted RCPD is currently 12 down in Corrections staff and is looking to lose 30% of its staff to retirements alone.
Board member Betty Mattingly-Ebert agreed with Wilkerson that the 6.5% increase should be implemented.
The Manhattan City Commission delegation of Wynn Butler and John Matta, both initially favored a 4% COLA to be consistent with what city staff are likely to propose for its employees. Citizen-member Kaleb James also favored the 4% COLA. Butler noted that he’d be fine with a higher COLA, if additional cuts were made elsewhere.
James later stated where he believed cuts could be made to maintain a 6.5% COLA, while trimming the realized budget from 7.4% to 6%.
A special meeting will take place before the end of the month, at a date to be determined.
