City of Elk Grove, Police Reach Tentative Agreement

UPDATED 4:45 P.M. Final action to be deferred, officers want more time to analyze According to information on this week's city counc...

UPDATED 4:45 P.M.

Final action to be deferred, officers want more time to analyze

According to information on this week's city council consent calender agenda, a tentative two-year labor agreement has been reached by the The City of Elk Grove and the Elk Grove Police Officers Association (EGPOA). Although the item was placed on the consent calendar implying it would be approved, the EGPOA has asked the city for more time at the behest of its members who want more time to analyze short term disability insurance coverage.

Give and take; two-tier retirement plan established

Among the highlight of this agreement include elimination of matching contributions 401(a) by the city for non-sworn personnel, no cashing-out of annual leave, no cashing-out of compensated time-off and the establishment of lowered retirement benefits for employees hired on or after July 1,2012. Sworn personnel have not received this benefit.

Under the new retirement plan, sworn personnel will accumulate three percent of their annual salary and well eligible at age 55. Currently they draw three percent and can start collecting at age 50.

For non-sworn personnel new employees will draw two percent and be eligible to draw at age 55. Currently they draw 2.7 percent at age 55.

Also employees will be now be paying the entire nine percent for sworn personnel and eight percent for non-sworn towards CALPERS premium benefits. The city had previously paid the employees portion of this.

The report notes that while the city will not see immediate savings from the retirement changes, it projects long-term savings as current employees retire or leave city employment and are replaced.

In exchange for these concessions, the city has agreed to add six percent to the salary table effective July 1. The EGPOA has also agreed to freeze all merit increases the for the first year of this agreement.

The report says the new agreement is expected to save the city $1.07 and $1.13 million in the next two fiscal years. Not withstanding any changes, the agreement is expected to be considered for approval at the June 23 city council meeting.

See Salary range tables here.

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3 comments

Anonymous said...

It doesn't sound like a salary survey of comparable cities in the region was done to justify the 6% salary range increase, so it seems the arbitrary increase was done to help soften the blow of the pension contribution requirement. Wonder how the Elk Grove taxpayers should feel about this, particularly since we were already at the top of the pay scale in the region?

According to a recent Sac Bee article, Elk Grove was already one of the few cities that was still paying their employees retirement contribution, so finally doing what everyone else was already doing is nothing to brag about. But once again, citizen apathy will likely be exploited and the Council will spin the MOU to make it look like they forced concessions.

Election season is upon us. Roll up your pants legs and hold onto your wallets, we're in for a bumpy ride!

Capt. Benjamin L. Willard said...

Anon,

I do understand your frustration. There needs to be a complete reset of labor rates across the country, especially for those earning above $75,000.

City employees ought to have their salaries cut by 2.5% or at least frozen and have their wages linked to unemployment rates - struggling taxpayers should not have to shoulder the weight of city employees.

Having said that, this agreement is a start. We don't want underpaid law enforcement as that would make them easy prey to organized crime - think RKN.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I see on page 14 of the MOU that a salary survey will be done on April 1, 2014 with a list of cities to compare with. Only thing is, the MOU merely states that the the union and city will meet to "review" the findings. No where in this MOU does it commit in advance to where Elk Grove should strive to be in that list of cities, such as striving to maintain the median level of all cities, or upper 75% or whatever...

So let's kick the can down the road for two years, shell out a 6% salary increase over the next two years for good measure, despite the trend in pay cuts happening throughout the private and public sectors, and let's see if we can grab a few endorsements for election season! Oh, and let's put this on the Consent Agenda and fly under the radar!

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