Effective Friday, July 1, all full-time Seal Beach employees will be given a 3.3 percent cost-of-living pay raise. This figure matches the increase in the LA-Riverside-Orange County Consumer Price Index for the period of April 2010 to April 2011, as reported on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site www.bls.gov.
The COLA will increase Seal Beach’s operating expenses by $295,000 for the upcoming fiscal year and contribute to a narrowing budget surplus that is currently projected to just over $200,000.
City Manager Jill Ingram said the CPI had been factored into the projected budget.
Under the labor contracts with the city’s police officers approved by the City Council last November, Seal Beach officers are eligible for another COLA in 2012.
The COLA will range from a minimum of 2 percent to a maximum of 5 percent depending on next year’s increase in the local CPI. Contracts for other city employees will expire in 2012. Any future COLA’s will be subject to labor negotiations that expected to start later this year.
