Cowboy Challenge restart on hold due to staffing concerns

CHEYENNE — Officials from the Wyoming Military Department advised legislators against restarting the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy until sufficient staffing for the residential program for at-risk youth is secured.

Maj. Gen. Greg Porter, the state’s adjutant general, stressed to the Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee that a restart of the program isn’t possible until the staffing issue is resolved.

“What I would offer — and I would tell the governor of Wyoming the same thing — until we are able to solve the staffing issue, hiring 50 personnel to stand this up, I would not recommend restarting it again,” Porter said.

The adjutant general said the department struggled to find qualified applicants for the program’s staff, which required potential employees to be over 21 years old, pass a background check and they are preferred to come with a military background. Porter said it takes a specific skill set to work with at-risk youth.

On the second day of a two-day meeting in Casper, the committee reviewed two bill drafts: one that requests $2.4 million biennially by the Wyoming Military Department to fund six recruiting positions for an out-of-state referral program, and the second that requests funding for Level I and Level II studies, estimated to cost up to $400,000, for a future in-resident program.

The latter bill notes that 2025 is the earliest Wyoming could consider applying to restart the Cowboy Challenge program. 

Chris Smith, director of the commander’s action group for the Wyoming Military Department, told legislators the state would need to be far into the completion of the Level II study before submitting an application to the National Guard Bureau.

However, the Military Department officials told the committee that sufficient staffing has to be a prioritized task. Wyoming, along with many other states across the nation, faces a severe workforce crisis that is evident in the hundreds of job openings seen on job-search websites such as Indeed.com and Monster. com.

“Every Target, Walmart and McDonald’s is looking for people, it seems like,” Smith said, adding this evidence indicates a manpower shortage in Wyoming. “Even in our biggest cities, it seems like an issue.”

The targeted Laramie/ Cheyenne and Casper/Douglas regions are “the only two areas meeting population requirements” of selection criteria; however, data indicates both those areas “lack sufficient workforce qualified to support a Youth Challenge Program,” according to a presentation by the Wyoming National Guard.

Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, said he “respectfully disagreed” with the military officials’ analysis.The senator said he feels “frustration as a legislator” over the executive branch shutting down the Cowboy Challenge program during his time in the Senate.

“I think it can be done,” Boner said. “We have to want to do it, which is clear that we don’t want to right now.”

Other legislators, such as Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, countered in their arguments that sufficient staffing should be a fundamental concern. Pendergraft said he came into the room prepared to vote against the program’s restart, based on the sole question of staffing.

Rep. Ryan Berger, R-Evanston, echoed his colleague’s remarks, emphasizing the importance of safety when working with at-risk youth.

“When you’re working with at-risk youth, you gotta go all in,” Berger said. “If you can’t go all in with these kids, they’re very vulnerable, and it gets very difficult.”

Speculation about Wyoming’s workforce crisis, according to Sen. Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne, was a fault of the state government for not investing more in services such as health care, entertainment venues, recreation and good schools. The senator said that, according to the most recent census estimates, Wyoming suffered a loss in population, while surrounding states gained.

“Folks are not here. They’re voting with their feet, and they’re leaving the state,” Pappas said.

Pappas suggested the Legislature fight to raise the salary, which currently pays $19 an hour, to entice more qualified applicants for the program. Smith confirmed this had been considered in past years, but the request to raise wages was never approved.

Jeff White, the chief of youth programs for NGB, told lawmakers the government program is willing to work with a state “willing to have a plan” that mitigates previous issues, such as facility conditions and adequate employee structure.

“We are not interested in saying no to anybody who’s willing to have a plan,” White said.