The Riley County Police Department’s 2020 budget will be short by nearly $125,000 because of an error in calculating cost-of-living allowances, Director Dennis Butler revealed Monday at a Riley County Law Enforcement Agency meeting.
This is about a half-percent of RCPD’s $22.1 million budget for 2020.
To calculate COLA changes, the department uses an Excel spreadsheet that lists base salaries for non-sworn and sworn staff members, which are differentiated in the table. A 1.9% COLA had been entered for non-sworn staff, which automatically updated the rest of the salaries in that category. Butler said staffers believed they would also adjust the amounts for sworn staff as well, but it was later found that a similar but separate entry had to be included to update the second section.
“What we didn’t realize until after the fact is that we thought we were dealing with one set of calculations so if we made this entry in (field) 1A, not only would it update this field in non-sworn, it would automatically update this field in sworn,” Butler said. “That was something we did not know was not connected. There are two sets of calculations here where entries have to be made for both of them to update correctly.”
Butler said the department will operate knowing it has about $10,000 less each month and discussions for the 2021 budget will begin with an upward base salary adjustment of about $125,000. Capt. Josh Kyle said the shortfall will not affect employee salaries in 2020, and RCPD plans to reduce its expenditures in other areas to accommodate the difference.
Butler said he doesn’t foresee an impact on the three correctional officer and one detective positions the board approved or the ability for him to award merits and COLAs as the department expected.
“The effect on our budget is something we’re going to have to watch next year,” he said. “As we progress through the year, sometimes staff request items that weren’t funded and we’d have to come to you for approval, so there will be less flexibility with that. … If it looks like it will be tight or tighter than we thought then I will make decisions internally to keep our spending in check to make sure we operate within our budget for 2020.”
The department has also made changes to its COLA spreadsheet to highlight areas that must be updated each year. The document also will include the previous year’s lowest base salary for non-sworn and sworn staff for comparison. Butler said RCPD is also working on written guidelines for internal review and verification processes.
“This is such an important amount of money obviously that we don’t want to make a mistake like this again,” Butler said.
Law board member Linda Morse thanked the department for its transparency in the matter.
“I do appreciate you talking about this so there are no surprises at the end of the year,” Morse said. “It’s very meaningful that you’re communicating with us.”
Corporal promotion
Detective Samuel Shubert was recognized as a new corporal during a promotion ceremony at the meeting.
A corporal is below the rank of sergeant.
Shubert has served at RCPD since November 2010. He started in the patrol division before moving to investigations, where he has since worked.
During his law enforcement career, Shubert has been a member of the honor guard, certified as a police training officer, and become a defensive tactics instructor and member of the Emergency Response Unit tactical team.
“You’re a role model now,” Butler said to Shubert. “Whether you’re on duty or off duty, (you have) an impact on the people around you seeing you every day in every aspect of your life, and you always have to keep that in mind how important and significant that is.
“When someone is promoted to the first rank within the department, that’s a signal to them that they are on a leadership track and they should continue to look forward.”
