GARDEN GROVE : City Workers to Get Their First Raises in 3 Years

For the first time in more than three years, city employees will receive salary increases under the terms of new contracts approved by the City Council this week.

Maintenance employees belonging to the Garden Grove Employees League and professional, technical and clerical workers in the Garden Grove Employees Assn. will receive 2% pay increases. Members of the Garden Grove Firefighters’ Assn. will receive 5% merit increases.

The salary increases will take effect Dec. 31, except for firefighters, paramedics, fire engineers and fire captains, who will be eligible for pay raises July 1.

Personnel Services Director Steven Larson said a seventh step was added to the firefighters’ salary range, and about 65 of the Fire Department’s 93 sworn officers, who have worked at least three years, will be eligible for the pay hike.

He said the additional step was intended to reward employees for good performance over a long period of time, and to keep the salaries of “people at the top” competitive with those from neighboring cities.

The employees received their last increase in April, 1991, Larson said.

The council unanimously approved the contracts Tuesday for the Garden Grove Employees Assn., which consists of 190 professional, technical and clerical employees, and the Garden Grove Employees League, made up of 87 maintenance workers.

Councilman Robert F. Dinsen voted against the firefighters contract, saying the additional step in the salary range was wrong. He said the new step is an attempt to hide pay raises for firefighters.

“If there’s going to be a pay increase, it has to go to the council, and the public made aware of it,” Dinsen said in an interview.

But Larson said that the merit increase would cost the city less than across-the-board raises.