No raise this year for Suisun City police

From the Daily Republic // December 8, 2005
By Ian Thompson

SUISUN CITY – Suisun City police officers will be going without a pay raise in the one-year contract the Suisun City Council approved Tuesday night.

The rest of the city’s employees have gone without pay raises since 2004 as part of the city leadership’s efforts to cut costs and balance a fiscally ailing budget.

“It is a reflection of our ability to pay,” Suisun City Assistant City Manager Ronald Anderson Jr. said of the contract that runs from July 2005 to June 30, 2006.

Suisun City has been struggling with a weak budget for several years and repeatedly cuts costs with measure that included closing City Hall on Fridays.

The contract comes at a time when the city is in its third year of contracting with the Solano County Sheriff’s Department to patrol Suisun City during the early morning hours.

The city also recently accepted a study on police staffing that said it doesn’t need to hire more officers to maintain its level of service once vacant positions are filled and some officers recover from injuries.

“We are glad we have the contract,” said Suisun City Police Officers Association representative John Noble of Rains, Lucia and Wilkinson of Pleasant Hill.

Noble called the contract “a holding pattern so the city can do a compensation survey that can be used in the next negotiations.”

“We understand the city’s fiscal constraints and want to work with the city to establish a stable police force,” Noble said.

Anderson hopes the city will be in better fiscal shape next year when negotiations start again.

“The council indicated that they have a strong interest in trying to do that next year,” Anderson said. “That is why we are working hard to improve our fiscal situation.”

It was January 2004 when members of the Suisun City Employees Association, which represents the rest of the city’s workers, got a 1 percent raise.

Their current contract states that if anyone in the city gets a pay raise, the SEIU contract will be reopened for negotiations.

Reach Ian Thompson at 707-427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net