The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – April 3, 2026

Published on April 03, 2026

Question. When did housing – one of the most basic building blocks of a strong workforce and a functional economy – become so political?

I spent Thursday at the Capitol attending the State Loan and Investment Board meeting because the City of Cheyenne had four project applications up for approval. Chief among them was the affordable housing project I have been writing about for months.

Cheyenne partnered with an experienced housing developer to build 184 affordable housing units, made possible due to the amazing $3.5 million gift from Related Digital. To build on that momentum, the City requested $2.175 million from the Wyoming Business Council – funding that would have leveraged the initial investment and expanded the project to 444 units, an increase of 260 units for working Wyoming families.

The Wyoming Business Council, and its board of directors, did exactly what we ask them to do: they thoroughly vetted the project and unanimously approved it, recognizing housing as a binding constraint on Cheyenne’s – and Wyoming’s – economic growth. We cannot recruit, retain, or grow a workforce if people have nowhere affordable to live.

Yet despite that consensus, the additional funding was voted down by the Secretary of State, Auditor, and Superintendent of Public Instruction – effectively halting the expansion and eliminating 260 future housing opportunities.

To be fair, I don’t sit in their offices, and I don’t carry the weight of every issue they face. But it is hard not to be disappointed when a problem we all acknowledge – workforce availability – runs headlong into politics.

Housing shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s not ideological to say that teachers, nurses, police officers, tradespeople, and young families need places to live. When we allow housing to become polarized, the real cost isn’t political – it’s human. 

And unfortunately, that cost will be felt by 260 families who won’t have a place to call home.

For 130 years, Cheyenne Frontier Days has welcomed rodeo fans to Cheyenne, earning the reputation as the “Daddy of Em All.”

I have been concerned about the future of CFD for a few years now. The CFD parking lot land is owned by the Air Force, and they are completing a decade long process to partner with a local developer to build housing and a commercial component – a great benefit to the base and our city. Losing the parking next year would be devastating for the CFD visitor experience.

Thursday, the State Loan and Investment Board voted to award the City just over $3.9 million – from funding appropriated by the Legislature – to improve pedestrian safety at rodeos. It will help fund a bridge over I-25 that will connect a future parking lot on the base property directly into CFD.

Cheyenne Frontier Days has a $50.4 million economic impact in Laramie County each year and supports 660 jobs, resulting in $2.6 million in local and state taxes. It is the number one destination tourism event in our state.

CFD is at a competitive disadvantage. Competing rodeos, large and small – are mostly housed in publicly-funded facilities and receive public funding. CFD is built on City-owned property but they have privately paid for all the improvements.

I am excited by the partnership between the City, Laramie County, and Cheyenne Frontier Days to invest in the visitor experience for our rodeo patrons, and I appreciate the Legislature and SLIB for making the funding available.

Judy and I love attending concerts. “Thanks for the Memories” is a concert series put on by Cheyenne Presents this winter at the Civic Center. We have had a blast each week, and I want to invite you to the last two FREE concerts. WAR is playing April 17, and Chamillionaire is on May 8. It’s free and so much fun – join us!

The Police Protective Association advocates for the police officers working in our city. We met this week to talk about wages, benefits, and recruitment of new officers. Finding ways to incentivize officers to complete a career and retire as a Cheyenne police officer was a primary conversation. We are blessed to have a community that supports our police department – and to have a department worthy of the community’s support.

I brag all the time about groups making a difference in Cheyenne. Add local dentists, hygienists, and LCCC Hygiene students to the list. 70 kids received free dental exams and treatments – amount that’s worth over $74,000. Thank you to the 17 local dentists and their teams for recognizing the need and choosing to meet it.

This week has been dominated with budget discussions with our department directors.

• Public Works is such a diverse department. Sanitation, Street & Alley, Fleet Maintenance, Landfill, Transit, and our Building Facilities are all in Public Works. With the addition of new buildings and increased fleet size, the need in this budget is additional help to manage the workload.
• Cheyenne Fire & Rescue is facing a financial challenge as grants that fund Hazmat, Technical Rescue, Wildland, Community EMS, and Tactical EMS are drying up. Making sure our department is well-trained and equipped is the biggest request of the department.
• Police Department budget requests include adding two Community Service Officers who help support our patrol officers and the potential of adding a new rank – Corporal – to help with leadership. The PPA is also asking for a new rank – Master Police Officer – to acknowledge officers who have invested time in specialized training.
• Finance asked for a new debt collection specialist to address City Council concerns. I am not inclined to support a new $95,000 position to collect $50,000 in debts each year. The ROI doesn’t work.
• Human Resources is asking for a recruitment specialist. Hiring some essential positions has become very challenging. A dedicated recruiter should help.
• Youth Alternatives and City Clerk divisions did not ask for any new positions, just small increases to keep up with inflation for supplies and utilities.
• City Engineering shared the need for a full-time surveyor and an additional GIS technician. The increased cost of computer software each year is something we face in every department.
• Community Recreation and Events is a department made up of 12 divisions. Adding an additional deputy director to help manage the diverse divisions was the main request. An arborist, marketing, and part-time field supervisors round out the additional personnel requests. An interesting reorganization was also proposed.
• Information Technology was the last meeting this week. A team of 6 people manage our network and protect our systems from cyber-attacks. As our system grows with new buildings and the increased use of technology – we will need to address adding new positions in the future.

I fell for an April Fools joke from Councilman Esquibel on Wednesday. I hope you all were more in tune with the day than I was.