Police reaped a new labor contract last week that lifts wages by
about 17 percent but omits a fitness program aimed at reducing
stress and burn-out.
Morgan Hill – Police reaped a new labor contract last week that lifts wages by about 17 percent but omits a fitness program aimed at reducing stress and burn-out.
The Morgan Hill City Council unanimously approved the three-year deal – effective immediately – with the Morgan Hill Police Officers Association last Wednesday.
Starting this month, an officer’s starting salary will begin to annually climb from $67,894 to $79,489 by April 2010. The highest pay possible for sergeants – the top wage-earners in the union – will climb from $100,307 to $117,438 a year during the next 36 months.
There are about 30 officers, sergeants and corporals in the union. Its members do not include administrative and clerical workers, nor Chief Bruce Cumming, Cmdr. Joe Sampson and Cmdr. Dave Swing, who are executive and middle management-level employees.
The city and the union saw eye-to-eye on a longer contract that reflects the city’s growing tax base and recent emergence from a string of deficit years. Both sides had similar objectives, namely raising the payroll to the middle of the pack among neighboring cities.
The council included money for the contract when it approved the $25-million general fund budget in June. The contract will cost the city an estimated $301,000 in wage increases during the next three years.
Police union spokesman Sgt. Shane Palsgrove said his team is pleased with the contract that is “at or near average” with other Bay Area departments. Palsgrove issued a statement saying it was not only important to raise salaries for existing employees, “but to also establish a salary that is competitive within the market in order to curb the current attrition rate and attract new qualified police officers.”
Five officers have left for greener pastures since 2004, said Cumming. One went to Palo Alto and one went to San Jose; the other three joined the Roseville Police Department, located about 15 miles outside of Sacramento.
“Pay may have been a factor, but you have to look at the whole package,” Cumming said, alluding to lifestyle changes, commute times and real estate markets.
Cumming said the higher salaries and the growing range of professional opportunities within the department would attract great employees in the future. He described Morgan Hill as a place where experienced officers want to come to.
“We’ve now hired officers from Gilroy, Contra Costa County, Watsonville, San Benito County and Fremont,” he said.
Police said the desired fitness program – including gym memberships, yearly physicals and other possibilities to keep officers in active health – turned up a number of bureaucratic snags that needed more time to be resolved. For example, officers could get hurt while exercising in the program and ask for workers compensation benefits, said Morgan Hill police Cmdr. Joe Sampson.
The union’s statement said the negotiating teams agreed to table the program for further discussion.
There is currently an exercise room at the police station with a weight machine, tread mills, free weights and exercise bikes.
“It’s a good strong contract,” Sampson said. “It speaks to the city’s awareness that we are in a competitive market.”
