Thursday, January 29, 2026 |
Photo – Laura Malone, Rawlins Finance Director – Courtesy City of Rawlins
The Rawlins Finance Director delivered a positive report to the City Council.
In May of 2022, the City of Rawlins hired Tom Sarvey as Finance Director. Several months later, he was selected as Interim City Manager, a position he held for nine months before being appointed to the role permanently, leaving the Finance Director position vacant.
Last August, Sarvey began an extended medical absence. After exhausting his approved Family and Medical Leave Act time, the governing body officially dismissed the City Manager on November 4th. Former Cody mayor and Interim City Manager Matthew Hall was chosen as Sarvey’s successor.
Soon after Hall was appointed Interim City Manager, the city hired Laura Malone, former Chief Financial Officer for the Laramie County Department of Health, as its new finance director. Malone’s first task as finance director was to ensure the city completed a legally required annual audit.
Speaking at the January 20th Rawlins City Council meeting, Malone said that with the audit now complete, she was able to update the governing body on the city’s finances. The finance director began by announcing that the general fund contains a little over $1 million roughly halfway through the fiscal year, which began in July. Malone said the total shows the city is on track to meet or exceed the previous year’s budget.
Malone discussed the city’s various enterprise funds. An enterprise fund is a government service, such as sewer and water, that’s run like a business, meaning the service must charge enough in fees to support its operations. The finance director said the funds are higher than they were at this time last year. However, costly infrastructure projects may draw them down. Even so, Malone said the accounts are expected to match last year’s totals.
During the January 6th City Council meeting, Jason Lund of Carver, Florek, and James, Certified Public Accountants, presented the 2025 Financial Audit Report. In his presentation, Lund outlined five areas for improvement, including separation of duties, misclassified revenue, a bank signor discrepancy, missing council approvals, and insufficient insurance and deposit collateral.
At the January 20th meeting, Finance Director Malone said she’s taking steps to address the auditor’s concerns.
Malone said on December 24th, she began investing the city’s money per the state’s updated investment policy. During that time, the finance director said she located approximately $20 million sitting in various bank accounts, earning just .45 percent interest. Money expected to be spent within six months was reinvested into short‑term accounts. Funds earmarked for projects more than a year out were invested with WyoClass, a state-approved government investment pool, where they can earn nearly nine times the interest offered by local banks.
Malone said in total, she moved $8.1 million, split evenly between the city’s general fund and the Edinburgh Street Rebuild Project, into short‑term investments. After six months, the principal is expected to return approximately $119,000.
Malone said the remaining $9.6 million, which was earmarked for longer‑term projects, was invested with WyoClass. In the three weeks since she deposited the money into the government investment pool, it has generated nearly $18,000, putting the city on pace for a 44 percent increase in investment returns this fiscal year.
Malone said she has begun working on the 2026 through 2027 budget and will start meeting with department heads in the near future.
