Healdsburg OKs raises for police officers, firefighters

After several years with no salary increases, Healdsburg police and firefighters are getting a raise.

The City Council on Monday unanimously approved a cumulative 9 percent pay increase for both groups over the next three years.

The first year of the contract, which goes into effect immediately, calls for a 5 percent increase, followed by a 2 percent hike in the second year and another 2 percent raise in the third.

Council members approved the new salaries with little comment.

“We’ve had countless meetings in closed sessions,” City Councilman Shaun McCaffery said of the months of talks and negotiation over the past six months that led to the new labor agreements. After the vote, he expressed satisfaction with the outcome, saying it was a good result.

The city was able to gain concessions with the two employees groups on health insurance, compensatory time off and uniform allowance.

Overall, the new salary and benefit packages are projected to cost the city about $675,000 over three years.

City officials said police employees have not received a cost-of-living or salary increase since 2008.

Firefighters agreed to forgo a salary increase in 2009 and deferred another increase from 2010 to 2011, the last time the group received any pay hike.

“We appreciate the Police Officers Association and the fire department and all the work they do,” Councilman Gary Plass, a retired Healdsburg police sergeant, said Monday after approving the new agreements.

The salary range for nonranked police officers in Healdsburg starts at $61,008 and tops out at $78,240 annually. After three years under the new contract, the range will be between $66,646 and $85,471.

A fire department engineer currently makes between $66,072 and $80,616, depending on experience. In the third year of the contract, the range will be from $72,178 to $88,067.

The fire department, with 11 full-time employees, relies on 26 reserve firefighters who are paid stipends, as well as the equivalent of the lowest step for a fire engineer when called to duty.

Healdsburg officials said they want to fall somewhere in the middle when it comes to compensation.

“One of the premises we work with is we don’t want to be the highest and we don’t want to be the lowest. But we want them (employees) to make a good wage,” said Mayor Jim Wood.

“Our salary and benefit packages are fair. We are not at the top, not at the bottom. We’re in the middle, competitive with other jurisdictions in this region,” City Manager Marjie Pettus said prior to Monday’s council meeting.

When it comes to health care coverage, the city until now has provided 90 percent of the medical premium for Anthem Blue Cross and Kaiser. But the new benchmark compensation will be for Kaiser, rather than Anthem Blue Cross, which costs ?19 to 26 percent more than the Kaiser premiums.

The employee and employer will also share equally in any health insurance rate increases although there is a cap on the maximum employees have to shoulder.

And police and firefighters will no longer be able to accrue overtime hours while covering someone else’s shift.

Pettus said many of the city’s ?110 full-time employees are still without a new contract. Negotiations are continuing with mid-managers and members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents the largest segment of city workers.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.