Police Officers to Get 7.5% Pay Raise

Orange County’s lowest-paid police officers will receive a 7.5% salary increase as part of a 15-month contract, paid for in part by reduced holidays and overtime pay.

“It’s something the city should be able to afford, because we want to keep the Police Department running well,” Seal Beach Councilman George Brown said Tuesday. “They are the lowest ones on the totem pole.”

The starting pay for a Seal Beach police officer is currently $38,532 a year, according to city officials, with a top salary of $46,800 for officers with a minimum of five years of seniority.

On Monday night, Seal Beach council members approved the 15-month contract, which will cost the city about $106,000.

“There were concessions made that take the sting out of it,” Councilman Bill Doane said. “There aren’t quite as many legal holidays as there were, and overtime pay is based on a two-week schedule now instead of a one-week schedule.”

The new contract reduces the number of recognized holidays for officers from nine to five each year.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Seal Beach Police Officers Assn. President Bob Mullins, who said the pay increase brings the city up from “dead last” to 20th out of 23 county police agencies.

“We are pleased at the effort that the city made to bring us closer to the county norm. We realize that times are tough economically.”

Seal Beach officers will get a 2.5% “general increase,” along with a 2.5% “equity adjustment,” retroactive to Feb. 21. An additional 2.5% increase will become effective in July, at the start of the new budget year.