My Town

Mountain View's fire department to get pair of 2 percent raises over two-year period

By Rhea Mahbubani

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted:
07/03/2014 07:11:09 PM PDT

Updated:
07/03/2014 11:59:58 PM PDT

The Mountain View City Council has unanimously approved a 4 percent cost-of-living pay raise for 63 firefighters that will stagger over a two-year period.

The salary adjustment was listed on the consent calendar, which contains items considered so routine they're usually approved in one motion, as the council did Tuesday with a 7-0 vote.

While the fire department has 82 employees, Assistant City Manager Melissa Stevenson Dile said the memorandum of understanding only covers sworn workers represented by the Mountain View Professional Firefighters, Local 1965.

Under the new contract, salaries will increase 2 percent starting on July 1, 2015, and another 2 percent on July 1, 2016.

The agreement also slightly reduces employer pension contributions and requires employees to chip in a little more for their retirement benefits.

According to Mountain View's information, base salaries last year ranged from $92,238.59 for the lowest-paid firefighter to $137,963.85 for the highest-paid fire captain.

This new contract creates "a more gentle slope from a financial perspective," Dile said, explaining that it's easier for the city to "absorb the increase over two years and for the employees to absorb the additional contributions they are making."

Advertisement

Employees hired in 2013 and afterward contribute 11.6 percent of their pension and will kick in 2 percent more in each of the following two years under the contract's terms. They can retire at age 57 with 2.7 percent of their average compensation over the last three years multiplied by the number of years they have worked for Mountain View.

"Because part of their pension contribution is set by the California Public Employees Retirement System, and we do not know for certain what that contribution will be in 2015 and 2016, we estimate that the employees on this formula will pay 13.616 percent as of July 1, 2015, and 15.616 percent as of July 1, 2016, but it could be higher," Dile wrote in an email.

Employees hired before 2013 who now contribute 15.3 percent of their pension will kick in 17.3 percent on July 1, 2015 and 19.3 percent by July 1, 2016. They can retire at age 50 with 3 percent of their average compensation over the last three years multiplied by the number of years they have worked for the city.

Although 62 of the 63 represented fire department employees fall under the 50 at 3 percent plan, Dile said "this mixture will likely change over time, as employees on the Classic formula retire and are potentially replaced with employees new to the CalPERS system."

In addition, the contract allows employees to be reimbursed up to $2,000 a year in tuition for professional development courses, up from $1,500 before.

"When we adopt a budget, we make certain assumptions for a 10-year-period," Dile said. "We made revenue forecasts in April and at that time we made projections about their being a cost of living increase in 2015-16. But we didn't expect that our firefighters would be paying more toward their pensions. So, for 2015-16, the city would save about $100,000 with this change.