Council OKs 5-Year Contract for Police Management

The City Council unanimously approved a new five-year contract with the Ventura Police Management Assn. on Monday night that will raise officers’ salaries by 2% and improve their package of retirement benefits.

The management-level officers covered by the contract--nine assistant chiefs and lieutenants--expressed satisfaction with the pact.

“Short term, 2% is not a whole lot--no one’s gonna go out and buy a new car,” said Lt. Brad Talbot, who worked as a union negotiator to hammer out the contract. “But I think we are pleased with the product we were able to work out with the city.”

In recent years, the city’s budget problems caused it to approve only one-year agreements with the association, Talbot said. The 2% salary increase will be retroactive to June 30, the expiration date of the last contract.

A provision of the current agreement calls for assistant chiefs and lieutenants to receive future pay increases tied to any raises given to members of the Ventura Police Officers Assn.

But both the city and police officers said one of the most positive terms of the contract is its five-year length.

“The benefit to the city is they can do long-range planning with us,” Talbot said. “And we also know that for five years we don’t have to worry about this again--we can worry about what’s going on out on the streets.”

The new agreement also increases supervisors’ retirement pay by shifting part of the pension contribution to the officers themselves in exchange for a one-time salary adjustment.

Currently, the city contributes about 20% of a supervisor’s annual salary toward his retirement. Of that amount, 9% is considered the officer’s portion. Beginning in April, the city will no longer contribute the 9% on the officer’s behalf.

Under the new contract, officers will receive a one-time 7.15% raise, which when coupled with the 2% raise covers the 9% that will now be withheld from supervisors’ monthly paychecks to cover their retirement. The result is that officers will not see a net change in their pay but will be able to collect more when they retire. Retirement pay is calculated on an officer’s base salary, which will be higher under the new plan.

“Now we are in line with the Ventura Police Officers Assn.--which is where we needed to be,” Talbot said.