Early retirement program approved

Some city employees will have an opportunity to retire a little sooner than usual through an early retirement program approved by the Green River City Council last night.

The program is targeted to specific employees who have a full time position at the city with 20 or more years of full time employment and are eligible for full-time retirement through the Wyoming Retirement System.

The program gives the city an opportunity to reduce its workforce and evaluate positions to determine if specific jobs can be cut.

The program also gives the city a means to save money through vacating positions without forcibly laying off employees.

City Administrator Reed Clevenger said the program is available to 23 employees, but will be capped at eight positions to prevent a major loss of experience. The program also is based on seniority, meaning the longer-serving employees will get the first option to take the early retirement.

“We won’t decimate a department by any means,” Clevenger said.

With city working to finalize its yearly budget for approval next month, cutting some employee costs could help departments fit into an expectably tight budget during the next fiscal year. Green River’s revenues have slowly decreased during the past several years as a result of lowered sales tax revenues, as well as a change in the sales tax revenue split. The change is due to the tremendous growth Rock Springs experienced in the last decade and the resulting increase in its population.