IAFF and Rock Springs City Council have come to an agreement

Tanya Baer, [email protected]

Rock Springs- At Monday’s special City Council meeting, the City Council and IAFF were able to come to an agreement after a month-long negotiation process.

At first, each proposal from both the City Council and the IAFF was way too far apart for any real decisions to be made. At each meeting, both parties were able to come closer to a middle ground but were still too far apart. It was not until Monday night’s meeting that both parties were able to meet in the middle.

The last topic that was up for discussion was the cost-of-living adjustment. “The biggest thing for us is to keep up with the current rate of inflation,” stated Luke Geffre who quoted the original 8.9% rate of inflation that has been talked about since the beginning of the negotiations. At the start of Monday’s meeting, the IAFF decided that they would be willing to drop down to a 6.5% cost-of-living adjustment, but City Council respectfully declined because this was still too far from what they wanted to offer.

After having a brief talk, City Council countered with a 4.25% cost-of-living adjustment, which IAFF respectfully declined. The IAFF countered with 6% and once again, the City Council respectfully declined. Each party decided to discuss their options again, and after another small break, the City Council offered a 4.5% adjustment. The IAFF declined and gave the City Council their bottom line number of 5%.

“The recent cost of living increase was a shock to everyone, everything has become so expensive but with that being said, all of our employees are an asset and have value, not a person here disagrees with that,” stated Mayor Tim Kaumo. Eventually, the City Council agreed to the 5% cost-of-living adjustment, and now the IAFF will have to take this proposal back to the rest of the members so it can be voted on.

Since the negotiations have gone past the deadline, Mayor Tim Kaumo was chosen as the arbitrator in case any further discussions need to happen.