Laramie City Council Is Running ‘Lean And Mean’

Vice Mayor Pat Gabriel Says Doing More With Less Is Efficient Government

LARAMIE -- Unlike many municipal and state governments, the City of Laramie is setting a fiscally-responsible example by doing more with less.

During Tuesday’s city council meeting, Vice Mayor Pat Gabriel presented some facts about the ratios between city positions compared to the number of residents served.

Gabriel said like most customer-driven organizations, municipal corporations typically require additional human capital resources when the customer base – or in this case, Laramie residents – and the demand for services increases.

“The population of the City of Laramie has increased almost seven percent from the fiscal year 2010 to FY 2019. During that same period, the city workforce decreased by five and a half percent,” Gabriel said.

Public safety positions within the city were reduced by seven jobs, and non-public safety positions decreased by 14 jobs in the same period.

Gabriel said with revenue and staffing projections looking into the next fiscal biennium, each city full-time equivalent employee will serve more residents, indicating an increased workload on city staff.

In FY 2017, each city employee provided service to 118.8 residents on average. Looking at FY 2018 and projections for FY 2019, each city employee will provide service to 121 to 125 residents.

“So we’re lean and mean for sure at the City of Laramie,” said Gabriel.

“We’re doing a lot more with less.”