GARDEN GROVE : Pay Raise for Police Officers Is Approved

The City Council this week unanimously approved a 5% pay raise for the city’s police officers and a 7% increase for police sergeants, effective immediately.

The pay agreement also calls for officers to receive an additional 5% increase next year and for sergeants to receive another 6% raise.

Last year, the city and the Police Department entered into a three-year agreement on how salaries, wages and fringe benefits will be determined.

The agreement calls for the use of a formula that takes the lowest salary among Santa Ana, Huntington Beach and Anaheim police departments and places Garden Grove’s pay between that and the salary of the next lowest department, said Linda Cahill, personnel services manager.

“Since one of the key cities has not yet settled their contract, our officers would have only received a 1.4% increase this month, then a 13% or 14% increase next January,” Cahill said.

Instead, officers opted to accept a 5% increase this year and another such increase next year, which will save the city more than $100,000.

“This is a pretty good raise for us,” said Sgt. Bump Willis, president of the Garden Grove Police Assn., which represents the department’s 167 sworn officers. “The atmosphere during negotiations between the city and the association was real positive.”

Officer salaries will now range from $2,859 to $3,473 a month. The median salary will be $3,149 a month. Sergeants will be paid between $3,482 and $4,233 a month and have a median salary of $3,838 a month.