The City Council approved an agreement among the city, the Seal Beach Police Department’s union and SBPD management at the Monday, March 24, meeting.
As part of the labor agreement, police officers and their management have agreed to start paying the full cost of their retirement benefits. Employees will receive a 7 percent pay raise in July.
The vote was 4 to 1, Councilman Gary Miller dissenting, to approve a Memorandum of Understanding between between Seal Beach, the Seal Beach Police Management Association and the Seal Beach Police Officers Association.
According to a staff report by Patrick Gallegos, the city’s administrative manager, reached a tentative agreement on Feb. 19.
Gallegos, City Manager Jill Ingram and Management Analyst Nancy Ralsten represented the city during the labor negotiations.
Gallegos’ report said that police managment and the union agreed “to begin paying the full cost of their retirement contributions. Should the proposed agreements be approved by Council, the SBPMA and SBPMOA would begin to contribute toward the cost of retirement as a percentage of pay as follows: a total of 6 percent as of July 2013 and a total of 12 percent as of July 2014.”
According to the report, the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2012 changed benefit formulas and increased the retirement age for new members of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. But the new law did not require old CalPERS members to pay full benefits (12 percent) until 2018.
“In addition, to help ensure the city is able to recruit and retain a highly qualified workforce, employees will receive general salary increases of 7 percent in July 2013, 7 percent in July 2014, 1 percent in July 2015, and between a minimum of 1 percent to a maximum of 3 percent in July 2016 (based on the Consumer Price Index, CPI),” Gallegos wrote.
