Good work. The new contract between Gilroy firefighters and the
city, which took two years to fashion, is a significant progressive
step. Each side deserves to be commended for hammering out an
agreement in difficult times that deals with the economic
reset.
Good work. The new contract between Gilroy firefighters and the city, which took two years to fashion, is a significant progressive step.
Each side deserves to be commended for hammering out an agreement in difficult times that deals with the economic reset. Hopefully, this will truly pave the way for reasonable agreements beyond the three-year scope the new contract covers.
Gilroy’s firefighters agreed to pay 9 percent into the CALPERS retirement fund, thereby assisting the city and ultimately the taxpayers with the obligation.
That represents cash into the city coffers now.
Firefighters also agreed to a reduction in retirement benefits for new hires, hopefully setting a reality-check trend. The second tier retirement benefit is still defined and nothing to sneeze at, but the 2 percent at 55 is far more reasonable long-term than the present, 3 percent at 55. For comparison purposes, Gilroy’s contract with police officers calls for the “3-percent-at-50” retirement plan, meaning that officers who retire at age 50 can get 3 percent of their highest salary times the number of years they have worked for the city up to 90 percent.
A Gilroy officer who started at age 25, topped out at $115,000 per year, worked 25 years and retired at age 50, would receive $86,250 each year of retirement. It’s an absolutely incredible and unsustainable benefit. Reducing the factor to 2 percent and hiking the minimum retirement age to 55 is a step in the right direction.
That’s the direction police officers, currently in negotiations with the city, absolutely need to take.
Firefighters also agreed to eliminate the requirement, won in binding arbitration, that mandates four firefighters per engine and agreed to no new wage increases while also eliminating scheduled wage increases.
The city, meanwhile, agreed to a minimum staffing level of nine firefighters. With the contract terms being reset to mandate only three firefighters per engine, the city’s third fire station, the Sunrise Fire Station, can be re-opened. Thus, more protection at a more reasonable cost.
The 9-firefighter minimum staffing level will increase city overtime expenditures, but the trade-off is that the third fire station in the city’s Northwest Quad will remain open.
City Administrator Tom Haglund estimates the cost reduction to the city for the next fiscal year to be $380,000.
As significant, perhaps, is the recognition by the union that the future is now, and that future means that the days of cup-runneth-over pay and benefits have come to an end.
Ultimately, that’s a good thing for firefighters and for the community.
It means renewed respect for firefighters, it means a city budget that should become more and more balanced so there’s money available for recreation programs and capital projects, it means better protection for residents and it means that jobs will be preserved.
Thank you all for putting the community first.
