On Tuesday, August 16, 2022, during a Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting Town Administrator Miranda Fisher and Town Treasurer Rita Six presented the second draft of a 2022 supplemental budget. The supplemental funds proposed in the budget would be utilized to pay for projects and increase wages across several Town departments through the remainder of the year.

Nederland Police Department (NPD) is just one of Town’s services looking to increase wages in order to retain staff. The supplemental budget proposal would aim to assist not just the NPD but Town Administration and Public Works, which includes Nederland’s Parks, Streets, and Utilities departments, with offering more competitive salary packages to avoid any poaching from neighboring municipalities.

“We realize we’re coming at you with some really heavy numbers,” Fisher addressed the BOT at the August 16 meeting. “There needs to be some sort of financial compensation and recognition of this team.”

“This team has been incredible. They’ve put their heads down, they’ve worked hard and done what they’ve needed to do and I want to compensate them. Of course my goal is in salaries.”

“We also have to take into consideration that for many of our current positions they can go to Gilpin and make twice what they’re making here,” Fisher said.

As indicated in the proposal given on Tuesday, August 16, the supplemental budget would fund the NPD’s budget by $58,760 to continue paying Boulder County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) for extra duty coverage.

Nederland currently is in a contract with BCSO for nightly coverage. Since Marshal Fine-Loven became the only full-time NPD officer on July 20, BCSO has been providing additional coverage with officers who have signed up for “extra duty shifts,” offered at double their normal pay rate.

The $58,760 in additional funds would assist the NPD in continuing to pay BCSO for additional coverage while the NPD attempts to ramp up their recruitment efforts. BCSO coverage could be required through November, 2022, when tax initiatives, presumably to fund the NPD, will be presented to the public as questions on the November 8 election ballot. Though the current goal of the Town is to have NPD staffed with three to four officers by October.

Since it can take up to six months for a new recruit to finish the training required before becoming a full-time officer, the Town of Nederland is looking to hire lateral transfers from other departments.

New recruits must also finish the appropriate background checks, which costs up to $400 per recruit. The proposed 2022 supplemental budget would provide $6,200 to fund these required background checks.

Also covered by the supplemental budget would be $103,374 for wage increases for all NPD officers. The increases, based on Marshal Fine-Loven’s own research and recommendations, feature more competitive salaries of $109,000 to $119,000 for Town Marshal, $85,000 to $95,000 for Sergeant, $65,000 to $80,000 for Police Officer, and $55,000 to $65,000 for Police and Court Clerk.

The Nederland Visitors Center would receive a budget increase of $25,000 if the 2022 supplemental budget were to be approved by the BOT. The funds would provide the Visitors Center the ability to continue purchasing and stocking local merchandise for resale.

The Visitors Center would also receive a $4,623 budget increase to increase the starting pay for representatives from $13 to $16 an hour, and manager pay from $16 to $18 an hour.

The Nederland Community Center (NCC) would utilize their $30,000 budget increase from the supplemental funds to install Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant automatic door features on their front doors, as well as replace their grease trap.

“The failure to replace the grease trap is going to create issues for the Utilities department,” Fisher said at the August 16, 2022 meeting. “We’re looking at about $20,000 for the doors and $10,000 for the grease trap.”

“These are urgent things,” said NCC Manager Dawn Baumhover at the BOT meeting. “With the ADA, once you identify deficiency you are obligated to fix it. And the grease trap, it needs to be replaced now, we have too much going on in that kitchen. It has been specced and will be replaced to the new specs.”

NCC Manager Baumhover also noted that she had a hot water tank fail the day of their meeting, August 16, and that she’s desperately in need of a new computer, having lost remote connection to the meeting due to her computer overheating.

“These are the kinds of daily challenges we’re up against as staff. It happens in every single department every day,” Baumhover continued. “We do our best, we try to put the good face forward when we give you our staff reports, but there’s challenges every day. I would ask the Board to keep that in my mind as you’re making your decisions going forward.”

Town Staff is hoping to utilize $16,250 from the proposed supplemental budget to fund any of Nederland’s current and future legal coverage, provided by Town Attorney Jennifer Madsen. The supplemental budget would also cover $38,508 for wage increases for the Town Finance and Administration department and also to create a new Billing Support Specialist position. The position covers all Utilities billing, payroll, and accounts payable matters for Nederland and would pay starting at $22 an hour.

Additionally the Town Clerk’s Department would receive a budget increase of $1,700 and the Planning & Zoning Department an increase of $1,800 to fund salary increases, as well as cover the payroll cost of the Administrative Assistant position. The position, currently held by Peter Cacek, starts at $20 an hour and is responsible for managing the Town Hall front desk and supporting all Town departments in their day-to- day operations. Town Staff hopes to have Cacek utilize his skills towards community outreach efforts.

The Parks department requires $3,500 from the supplemental budget for sidewalk repair in the Central Business District that is legally required by the Town of Nederland due to a liability issue.

“The city of Boulder was called out in a lawsuit and the person that sued won because the city knew about some problems in their sidewalks,” Parks Manager Nicki Dunn spoke to the BOT at the August 16 meeting. “We were told at the beginning of this season that if we knew about problems with our sidewalks and didn’t do anything about fixing them then we would be held accountable.”

“I was given until the middle of June to come up with some solutions and what we did is, we marked the problems with some spray paint and made them obvious. That was one of the important first steps,” Dunn said.

“I’m in contact with this vendor; they put a spot in their schedule for the end of August, beginning of September to repair all of the sidewalks around the 1st Street area and all the way up to Eldora, putting us into ADA compliance.”

“I think it’s a fabulous deal. I think $3500 is a drop in the bucket compared to what a lawsuit would cost us,” Dunn concluded.

The Streets department requires $30,000 for asphalt replacement in the Visitors Center parking lot and $20,000 for installing a dust suppressant on two miles of road in the Big Springs neighborhood.

The Utilities department requires $25,000 each for Water and Sewer to cover services provided by Direct Discharge LLC, Nederland’s water and wastewater treatment consultants.

Fisher highlighted in her Staff Report for the August 16 meeting how the Utilities department had bounced back from a staffing “crisis.” The Utilities department went from a staff of one to a staff of nine in just three weeks. Fisher gave a shout out to the dedicated staff on the Town Works departments and also noted that the Parks and Streets departments were now fully staffed.

The 2022 supplemental budget proposes a 6% cost of living increase for the Administrative, Finance, Clerks, Planning & Zoning, and Public Works departments, including for Visitors Center and NCC employees. In addition, the budget proposes a 4% merit increase for employees who did not receive at least a 4% salary increase in 2022 separate from a promotion.

The figures in the supplemental budget concerning wage increases are based on the pay periods left in 2022. Fisher noted to the BOT that this draft supplemental budget does not include the effect the proposed wage increases and capital project budgets would have on the 2023 Town budget.

At the August 16 BOT meeting, Trustees were tasked with reviewing the supplemental budget for approval as well as approving September 6, as the date for the public hearing concerning the supplemental budget.

“The reason we would do this is because it’s a retention issue,” Trustee Eric Coombs-Esmail said at the August 16 meeting. “It’s also to recognize that we don’t want to create a situation like we have with the police department again by essentially underpaying and then losing people and then not being able to replace them.”

Coombs-Esmail wished to see figures for both a merit-based salary increase and a one-time bonus for Town Staff.

“Maybe it keeps people around a bit longer and in 2023 we can talk about these larger numbers,” Coombs-Esmail added.

“Different municipalities have done it,” Fisher responded to the prospect of staff bonuses. “Boulder County just did $1,200 for their employees.”

“I’m not looking at a couple hundred dollars, I’m looking at large scale bonuses to at least acknowledge and appreciate this team while we go into 2023 salary discussions.” Fisher said.

Trustees also dissected the priority- level of the Streets department doing dust mitigation on two miles of road in the Big Springs neighborhood.

Parks Manager Dunn fielded questions about the particular dust suppressant product, which costs $7000 a mile to apply. Dunn also detailed to the BOT how properly grading roads and maintaining drainage and road culverts is a priority for the Streets department before the winter, and would be the ideal time to apply the dust suppressant.

“It is necessary to prepare a road before winter. It creates a heck of a maintenance nightmare on your plow trucks when you’re hitting those ruts and potholes,” Dunn said in the August 16 meeting. “We have to open up all of our drainage and all of our culverts before winter time or every time we have a melt it’s going to create an icy mess.”

“You also have problems with that water flowing underneath the surface of the road and that is going to create crocodiling of your asphalt,” Dunn continued.

“The product does have a little bit of polymer in it and so it does help bind the road together,” Dunn said of the particular dust suppressant used in the process. “After you do your grading operation you put this product down and it does give you that longevity.”

The BOT continued the discussion on the 2022 supplemental budget at their special meeting on Tuesday, August 30. The proposal, presented by Town Administrator Fisher, featured some changes from the proposal presented on August 16.

Figures for pay increases and for bonuses were provided, as per Coombs- Esmail’s request. The proposed numbers were a 5% bonus for department heads, a 4% bonus for full-time employees, a 3% bonus for part-time employees, and a 2% bonus for employees who started within the last 90 days.

According to these new developments, Town Administrative and Finance would receive $17,645 from the supplemental budget to fund wage increases, in addition to $11,469 for staff bonuses, as opposed to the $38,508 originally proposed on August 16.

The Town Clerk’s department would receive $692 for salaries and $1,848 for bonuses from the proposed supplemental budget. $1,700 was the original proposal.

The Planning & Zoning department would receive $725 for wage increases and $2,056 for bonuses, as opposed to the original proposal of $1,800.

The Visitors Center would receive $4,504 for salaries and $1,139 for bonuses, as opposed to the original proposal of $4,623.

NCC would receive $2,511 for wage increases and $6,937 for bonuses. $5,823 was the original proposal. Additionally, the August 30 draft supplemental budget asks for $13,000 on top of the original proposal of $30,000 to the NCC for a new hot water heater, as well as a new grease trap and ADA compliant front doors.

Public Works would receive $7,697 for salaries and $12,337 for bonuses. The August 16 draft supplemental budget originally proposed $13,736 to Public Works.

“As a brand new person coming into Public Works we’re pretty competitive,” Parks Manager Dunn said of the starting wages for her department. “But you’re looking at us spending hundreds and thousands of dollars training people to get them to a point so they’re capable of maintaining our roads, our parks, mitigating forests and all these things, and they jump ship because the guys that are literally right in the same yard as us will pay $10 an hour more plus a better benefits package.”

The August 16 draft also had allocated $30,000 to the Streets department for repaving the Visitors Center parking lot and for dust suppression in Big Springs, however neither capital project was included in the August 30 draft. Instead the supplemental budget proposed reallocating $30,000 from being used to purchase a new Ford Lightning for the Streets department to instead purchase another plow truck.

The Town Utilities department would receive $8,144 for wage increases and $5,236 for bonuses, as opposed to the $16,500 (total for Water and Sewer combined) that was originally proposed. The August 30 draft supplement budget also proposed reallocating $30,000 from being used for Inflow and Infiltration repairs to instead being used to purchase proper sand for their sand filters and purchase the equipment needed to rebuild their headworks (where wastewater enters the wastewater treatment plant).

The NPD would receive $2,177 for staff bonuses according to the August 30 draft supplemental budget, but would not receive any funding for wage increases. The Town of Nederland expects to only hire two to three officers before the end of 2022 and there is enough money in the savings to cover those salaries, based on the increases proposed in the supplemental budget on August 16.

The NPD would also receive an additional $2,000 on top of the originally proposed $6,200 for officer background checks. This budget increase would help the NPD fund the background checks, as well as the psychological exams, polygraph tests, and physical assessments necessary for new recruits.

The matter of approval of the 2022 supplemental budget is scheduled to be brought up in a public hearing on Tuesday, September 6, 2022, though Town Staff has recommended to the BOT to reschedule it. This meeting can be attended online or in person at the Nederland Community Center. For more information go to: https://townofnederland.colorado.gov/ board-of-trustees