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CHEYENNE, Wyo. — In an unfortunate sign of the times, my first meeting this week was to discuss security in city buildings. It is our responsibility to provide our employees with a comfortable and safe working environment. Over the past few years, there have been numerous situations where people have come into our building and posed a threat to our employees. We continually balance the need for the public to access buildings to conduct City business with the need to provide a safe workplace. This will continue in the future.
The department budget work session presentations to City Council continued this week.
- Community Recreation & Events has 12 departments requesting to fill office manager positions lost due to COVID-19 layoffs.
- The Mayor’s Office has grown with grant writers and community development directors moving into the office.
- The number of district court employees is eight, and there will be no substantial changes next year.
- City staff requested a code compliance officer, which would be shared with the compliance department.
- The treasurer confirmed the recently hired procurement specialist, but there were no other changes.
- Youth Alternatives employs 15 people to support children and families in the city. $10,000 was needed to update the worn-out ropes course.
- Public Works is one of our largest departments, and their primary need is for another traffic engineer to support their expanding road network.
- City Engineer needs additional engineers to keep up with the tremendous growth seen across the city.
- Our planning department has grown over the past few years. There are no major additions or requests this year.
- As well as planning, our City Attorney’s Office is fully staffed and working hard.
- Human resources departments asked for more resources to attract and mentor employees. Our company is almost full, but there are only a few open positions.
- Our IT department is also fully staffed and working to connect new fire stations and BEAST facilities to our systems.
- The architecture department has grown to meet the needs of the development community and has become accustomed to new team members.
- Nuisance is seeking two new positions to help manage the homeless populations that all cities across the country are dealing with.
- The last announcement this week was Risk Management. The big challenge is building a culture of safety among our employee groups.
I appreciate the City Council’s interest and great questions. The next step is Wednesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.
Another employee celebrated a memorable anniversary with the city. Dennis Fanning has worked for the city for his 40 years. oh! He worked in the Facilities Department for a year, but unfortunately there were downsizing and he thought this would be the end of his service to the city. A post in the traffic department gave him a chance to stay with the city, and the rest is history. Currently, he manages the traffic department, where his crew of five full-time and his four part-time do all the signs, signals, and road painting in the city. Having long-term knowledge of your employees and their organization is a blessing. Thank you, Dennis!
Another LEADS board meeting at 7am. Ha! We know it’s still early, but we’re excited to hear from companies looking to invest in Cheyenne or expand their existing Cheyenne businesses. This month, they added eight new companies to their prospect list. One thing that LEADS is looking at is the potential creation of a Firearms and Ammunition Manufacturing Center (FAME). The idea is to consider creating an agency that is a natural fit for Wyoming to determine best practices, professional development and quality. The University of Wyoming School of Law has done great work on the Second Amendment for many years. We don’t know what direction this initiative will take, but with the state’s expanding firearms and ammunition industry, finding ways to innovate and improve safety seems like a worthwhile endeavor. I think so. LEADS is leading the way in exploring this opportunity. We have great partners on board and are excited to see where this initiative takes the firearms industry in the future.
I spent time with the Casper team and learned how they work with abandoned buildings. Councilman White and I learned about his use of the 1988 Uniform Code for the Abatement of Hazardous Buildings. All councils are struggling with how to deal with these dangerous buildings and we are trying to learn best practices used in other areas. Casper sent us their code, and we’ll compare it to ours to see if we can find new tools in our efforts to protect dangerous buildings. I am forever grateful to the people of Casper and their active engagement with us.
This week was the last meeting of this year’s Mayor’s Youth Council. Just a little bit of bouncing tells you that school is nearing its end. It could have been ice cream, cupcakes, or sweet drinks. It was a great group of students and I enjoyed the discussion. We encourage all high school students to apply to serve on the council. It’s a great way to learn about local government work and meet a great group of colleagues.
Enjoying the warm spring weather. The other morning I was at my favorite coffee shop and the birds were singing very loudly. it was beautiful!
