Whittier : Police Get 3 1/2% Pay Raise; Other Employees Given 2%

The City Council ended six months of negotiations recently by approving the first pay raise for Whittier employees in two years.

The council voted 4 to 0 to give a 3 1/2% pay raise to the city’s 93 police officers and a 2% pay raise to the other 290 employees. Councilman Michael Sullens was absent.

The wage increases will be retroactive to Nov. 1 and will cost the city about $320,000 a year. Police and employee union negotiators had asked for a 5% to 6% raise.

City Manager Tom Mauk called the negotiations tense and difficult. “It was a tough process, but everyone came to the conclusion in December that we had done the best we could,” he said.

Money for the police officers was available from Proposition 172 funds, the half-cent sales tax initiative for public safety that was approved in November, Mauk said.