It is recommended that the City Council take the following actions:

1.     Adopt a resolution approving the attached Roseville Police Officers’ Association (RPOA) Memorandum of Understanding.

2.     Adopt an ordinance to approve the attached RPOA Salary Schedule A and Salary Schedule B (Appendix A) reflecting a 3% general wage increase and Salary Schedule B compressed salary range for Police Sergeant from 13 steps to 10 salary steps.

3.     Adopt an ordinance to approve the attached budget adjustment.

The current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Roseville Police Officers’ Association (RPOA) expired on December 31, 2021. During the last few negotiations and the current cycle with the City of Roseville employee bargaining units, the City’s goal has been to ensure it is competitive in the marketplace on recruitment and retention among comparable agencies while remaining fiscally responsible.

As a service organization, labor is the City’s biggest expense and the City has taken steps to control costs in this area.  In the past eight years, the City has implemented policies to slow payroll growth, reduce retirement benefits, set total compensation (salaries and benefit packages) at median in the labor market (except for Electric Department positions), and control pension costs by transferring the responsibility to employees to fund 100 percent of the employees’ share of pension costs.  During the time the City was implementing these cost-control measures, services were expanded to meet the needs of our growing population, yet staffing was reduced by 40 percent per capita from FY2007-08 to FY2021-22.

Maintaining the quality of services along with the integrity of the City’s more than $4 billion worth of infrastructure requires balancing our ability to attract and retain a high-performing workforce while living within our means. To this end, the City has strived during this round of bargaining to recognize the exceptional efforts of City staff through the COVID pandemic by providing outstanding service to the community which has been substantiated by the recent community surveys.  This resulted in recommending the City salary philosophy align to the 55th percentile of the market, which is estimated to increase compensation by about 1.5 percent to recruit and retain highly engaged employees to continue great service to the community.  The City also created a tiered benefits structure to provide a different contribution at the Employee only, Employee plus One or Employee plus Family benefit levels to be used by active employees to remain competitive and cost effective in the market.

Ultimately, the City’s compensation philosophy seeks to maintain internal equity among employee groups’ medical benefits for current employees and to compare its total compensation with jurisdictions that are similar in size, services, and geographical location to remain competitive and retain our talented City employees who have produced high service levels affirmed by the community.

RECOMMENDATION

After numerous bargaining sessions since September 15, 2021, Roseville Police Officers’ Association membership ratified the City’s Last, Best and Final Offer on January 27, 2022.  The significant provisions of the agreement are as follows:

Term

The term covers four years from February 12, 2022, to December 31, 2025.

Salaries and Benefits

Adjustments to the salaries fall in two categories: those that address general salary increases across the group and labor market adjustments.

1. General Wage Increase:

Year 1:  A 3.0% general base wage increase is recommended for all classifications in the bargaining group (both Salary Schedule A and Salary Schedule B) effective February 12, 2022, which will offset labor market adjustments in 2023.

Year 3: A 2.5% general base wage increase is recommended for all classifications in the bargaining group (both Salary Schedule A and Salary Schedule B) in the first full pay period in January 2024.

2. Labor Market Adjustments

A total compensation study will be conducted in July 2022 and 2024 to determine the job classifications in the bargaining group behind the labor market.  The City will provide a salary increase for each classification falling below the 55th percentile of the total compensation market by an amount to match the 55th percentile of the market.  Staff will present the results of the study to Council in December prior to the effective date, for review and approval of the updated salary schedules to be effective the first full pay period in January 2023 (Year 2) or January 2025 (Year 4). 

3.     Salary Schedule B Police Sergeant Salary Range:  Reduce from 13 steps to 10 steps

To promote retention of staff and stay competitive in our market, the Schedule B salary ranges will be reduced from 13 steps to 10 steps, using the same top salary step, establishing 3 percent between salary steps, except for the difference between salary step A to B at 4.7% below the new step B. 

4.     Health Benefits

To address increasing premium costs, the Flex Credit benefit will be revised to provide a different level of contribution for those enrolled in Employee Only versus Employee Plus One or Employee Plus Family medical plans, to cover approximately eighty percent of the premium costs for medical, dental and vision at the family level.  The following includes a summary of the recommended Flex Credit benefit adjustments to create a 3 Tiered benefit contribution:

5.     Overtime

To be consistent with all other labor groups, sick leave time off will be counted as time worked for purposes of paying overtime.

6.     Shift Differential

To support retention, staff recommends an increase to the graveyard shift differential from 2.5 percent to 5 percent and to add a 2.5 percent swing shift differential.

7.     Holiday pay

To support operational needs, employees may request to cash out up to 110 holiday hours in the calendar year, as specified, without being required to seek time off first.

8.     Non-recurring Holiday

The bargaining group will no longer observe non-recurring holidays as appointed by the President of the United States or the Governor of the State of California. This will remove the unanticipated loss of productivity and disruption of services to the City.

The current total annual salary and benefit cost to the City for the 134 full-time positions in the RPOA bargaining group is $18,339,903, which is fully funded by the General Fund (GF).  The additional ongoing incremental cost for each calendar year of the 4 year term of the successor MOU is as follows:

*This incremental pension cost results only from the negotiated wage increase and does not include the cost of anticipated PERS rate changes. The terms and conditions of the pension benefit plan remain unchanged.

**The value of 1% of total compensation is $183,399.

While the incremental cost of the negotiated agreement for calendar year 2022 is projected to be $637,562 (3.48% of total compensation), $161,460 (.88% of total compensation) in 2023, $695,205 (3.79% of total compensation) in 2024, $275,580 (1.5% of total compensation) in 2025, the increases are compounding and therefore the projected total salary and benefit cost increase for the items specified above is $4.7 million for the General Fund, not accounting for the cost in calendar year 2 and 4 of the labor market adjustments to maintain salaries at the 55th percentile of the market consistent with the City’s new salary philosophy. Prior to implementation of the labor market adjustments in year 2 and 4, the cost to maintain salaries at the 55th percentile will be presented to Council with the updated salary schedules.

The cost to the General Fund of the successor RPOA salary and benefit adjustments for the FY2021-22 is $260,831 based on 9 pay periods remaining.  Staff recommends City Council approve an adjustment to the budget to fund the added salary and benefit costs for the remainder of FY2021-22 budget.  The estimated impact of this agreement and the other recently negotiated agreements on the FY2021-22 General Fund budget is $1,734,753. The General Fund has existing appropriation authority available to fund $850,000 of this increase. Staff recommends that the City Council authorize a budget adjustment of $884,753 from additional forecasted Bradley-Burns sales tax revenues to fund the remaining balance. These additional funds will be budgeted in the General Fund contingency budget and then will be reallocated to the appropriate General Fund Departments. The ongoing costs will be incorporated into the FY2022-23 budget.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) does not apply to activities that will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, or is otherwise not considered a project as defined by CEQA Statute §21065 and CEQA State Guidelines §15060(c)(3) and §15378.  Adoption of a Memorandum of Understanding meets the above criteria, and therefore is not subject to CEQA.  No additional environmental review is required.

Goal C - Maintain a safe and healthy community

Goal E - Deliver exceptional city services

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Dominick Casey, City Manager