City Council members approved a contract with the Hollister
Police Officer’s Association Monday after the union agreed to
forego salary raises and cost of living adjustments for one year in
order to ease the burden of its increased retirement plan on the
city.
Hollister – City Council members approved a contract with the Hollister Police Officer’s Association Monday after the union agreed to forego salary raises and cost of living adjustments for one year in order to ease the burden of its increased retirement plan on the city.
Hollister City Council members and POA representatives came to an agreement that city officials hope will ease a $1.7 million annual burden the police and firefighters’ retirement plan levels on the city’s $13 million general fund budget for public safety pensions. But both sides are hoping raises for officers can be reinstated in the future.
“We know that the city has real budget constraints, but we came up with a way for everyone to get by for now,” said Sgt. Ray Wood, POA president. “The big issue was 3 percent at 50.”
In June, the City Council approved a pension increase for firefighters and police officers from 2 to 3 percent at age 50. That means if an officer has 20 years of service upon retiring at age 50, those years would be multiplied by 3 percent, giving them 60 percent of their pay as final compensation. At 2 percent, the officer would only get 40 percent of their pay.
While the POA was willing to make concessions and not ask for salary raises this year, Wood and other officers have their eyes on the future.
“We need to put some priorities back in public safety. Salary is what keeps (officers) here in Hollister,” Wood said. “At some place down the road (the city council) is going to have to come back and reinstate raises to keep employees here.”
Officers last got a pay raise in July of 2004, according to officials. The average mid-level officer makes about $4,700 per month, but Wood said that figure was about $1,000 lower than the average salary of officers in Morgan Hill or Gilroy. And while salary negotiations can often become contentious, Wood said things never got heated.
“Once we took politics out of it, negotiations were much easier,” he said.
City Councilman Brad Pike was satisfied with the contract, and expects lifting the sewer moratorium will increase city revenue and eventually enable the Council to give officers pay raises. In 2002, the state slapped Hollister with a sewer moratorium after 15 million gallons of treated sewage spilled into the San Benito River. The moratorium prohibits any new construction that would require new sewer hook-ups. The city plans to have the moratorium lifted by late 2007 barring any hang-ups during state-mandated environmental studies of the project.
“Our public servants deserve everything they get and more, but there is always a compromise,” he said. “The one year contract gives both sides time to see if there are significant (financial) changes.”
The POA also agreed to restructure their pension plan, which will save the city about $60,000 to 80,000 per year, City Manager Clint Quilter said. However, any savings from restructuring will be used to offset the 1 percent pension increase, according to City Councilman Doug Emerson, who was grateful the association chose to concede.
“That 3 percent at 50 is a huge cost factor,” he said. “They realize that and were good enough to bypass any raise.”
In 2002, the city negotiated with the POA to increase retirement benefits from 2 to 3 percent – a deal that took effect on July 1 of this year. A similar deal for Hollister firefighters is slated to begin in July 2006. While council members officially approved the pension increase in June – citing the city’s legal obligation to do so – the POA had to fight to keep it. Last year, Quilter had asked to re-open negotiations to discuss certain cost saving measures, but POA members refused, saying the contract had already been negotiated in good faith.
Despite some savings in the new contract, Pike anticipates that funding the pension plan will continue to pose difficulties for the city, and council members have expressed concern about the impact the increased contribution will have on the city’s budget.
“It’s significant over the lifetime of retirees. We’ll have to find funding as time goes on to offset the costs of (the pension plan),” he said. “But with the moratorium lifting, things will change.”
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 or br******@fr***********.com.
