GILROY
– With a recession-deflated city budget tying the hands of
negotiators, Gilroy firefighters accepted an 18-month contract that
gives union members an 8 percent pay raise, but falls short of
matching the retirement deal Gilroy police officers already
receive.
GILROY – With a recession-deflated city budget tying the hands of negotiators, Gilroy firefighters accepted an 18-month contract that gives union members an 8 percent pay raise, but falls short of matching the retirement deal Gilroy police officers already receive.
Firefighters will have to settle for the retirement deal they get now which allows them to retire at 50 years old and pays them a pension ranging from 50 to 90 percent of their annual salary each year.
“Yeah, it’s a difference between our contract and the police contract, but we’ll just have to look at it again in 18 months, hopefully when the economy is better and the city has more funds,” Gilroy Firefighters Association Vice President Mark Ordaz said.
The deal was ratified Wednesday when the vast majority of Gilroy’s 35 unionized firefighters gave their nod of approval. It took union reps and the city more than five months to reach an agreement and avoid their second round of binding arbitration in the last five years. The city paid a law firm roughly $28,000 to broker the deal.
“I never got to a point in my thinking that we’d reach an impasse, but with the economy the way it is and with the way the state is taking local money there isn’t a worse time you could be negotiating for something,” City Administrator Jay Baksa said.
Nonetheless, Gilroy firefighters won what was described as a major sticking point by those close to the negotiations – firefighters now can take vacations at the same time.
Previously, due to staffing considerations, only one out of 35 union firefighters could be on vacation at the same time, preventing friends within the fire department to go on trips together and making holiday time off even more precious.
Allowing more than one firefighter the same vacation period does not come without a cost to the city. Fire Chief Jeff Clet estimates overtime costs will increase by $75,000. Firefighter overtime costs the city $350,000 per year.
The vacation concession was easier for City Council to accept due to the recent hiring of nine additional personnel. The extra crews make it possible to meet staffing requirements of four firefighters per truck even when two firefighters are not working.
“It was one of the high-priority items the union brought forward,” Clet said. “This is a morale booster for (the firefighters), but there’s no doubt it will increase overtime expenditures.”
Officials are not releasing specific details of the agreement until the end of the month when contract documents are finalized for City Council review. On Nov. 3, City Council will receive those documents and will likely approve the final version of the deal.
“We just have some (contract) language to work out,” Baksa said. “I feel very comfortable the (contract) will be ready for Council approval Nov. 3.”
Ordaz would not say how many of the 35 union members supported the deal. At least 18 did since it requires a simple majority to approve a contract negotiation.
“All I’m comfortable saying right now is that it was overwhelmingly ratified,” Ordaz said.
The raise
What is known is firefighters will receive a 3 percent raise for the first six months of their contract, followed by a 2 percent raise the following six months and another 3 percent raise in the final six month period of the deal.
The deal means that salaries for entry-level firefighters to fire captains will be 8 percent higher 18 months from now. Entry-level firefighters currently receive $57,852 per year. Under the new deal, they will eventually get $62,480.
Captains’ pay will elevate from $87,692 to $94,707.
Current salaries for police officers range from $55,733 for entry level officers to $86,644 for sergeants.
Firefighters were asking for a 10 percent increase, but settled on the cumulative 8 percent deal.
According to Ordaz, the deal was acceptable since the city made other concessions on issues like working conditions and grievance procedures.
“After negotiations people usually ask ‘What did you get?’ ” Ordaz said. “But it’s not always about the money. There are other issues.”
The pension gap
As it stands now, police have the sweeter version of two sweetheart retirement deals.
For example, when a 50-year-old police officer retires after serving 25 years, the city gives the officer a yearly pension worth 75 percent of his annual salary. For a 50-year-old firefighter with the same amount of years of service, 50 percent of the annual salary is paid.
Officials close to the talks say the reason firefighters and police do not have equal retirement plans is due to the timing of their unions’ negotiations.
When police bargained with the city roughly two years ago, Gilroy coffers were flush with funds and had safe harbor from the state. After California’s $38 billion revenue shortfall became known, state lawmakers began discussing, and in some cases approving, new means of generating revenue that pulled dollars from cities.
“The difference in the police and fire contracts are just another sign of the times,” said City Councilman Roland Velasco, who in his current campaign bills himself as a prime advocate for public safety. “There’s been a downturn in the economy that Gilroy has felt and the city’s not as flush with funds as we’ve been in the past. But this is a good contract and a fair contract for our firefighters, and I think that’s why they ratified it.”
Firefighters will negotiate a new contract in the summer of 2005, before police and other unionized city employees come back to the bargaining table.
Let’s hope the economy is more in our favor by that time,” Ordaz said. “It’s all about good timing.”
