Benicia City Council has approved memorandums of understanding with all but three bargaining units representing city employees, and the bargaining units have ratified the agreement proposals. Those MOUs will modify their contracts through June 30, 2017.
The Council voted unanimously Tuesday on decisions affecting senior managers, Benicia Police Officers Association, Benicia Public Service Employees Association, Benicia Dispatch Association and Local One.
The panel also approved a similar three-year modification for City Attorney Heather McLaughlin, City Manager Brad Kilger and unrepresented employees as well as a two-year MOU that ends June 30, 2016, for mid managers.
By the same vote, the Council approved a $293,469 adjustment to the 2014-15 budget to accommodate the changes.
The estimated cost in the 2015-16 fiscal year is about $378,734, and for 2016-17, the additional cost would be $474,744, of which 75 percent will come from the General Fund, the Council was told.
Since 2010, city employees have been asked to accept cuts to their compensation, and by 2011, that amounted to a 10-percent reduction in pay and benefits.
The Council decided it needed those concessions to keep its budget balanced amid financial upheavals in the wake of the 2008-09 recession.
The new MOUs are what Assistant City Manager Anne Cardwell called “status quo one-year extensions” with no salary increases, but “minimal” increases in leave time and pay in the latter part of the agreements.
The agreements have 32 hours of annual leave for employees. Any unused time must be exchanged for cash at the end of the year.
Under the agreements, Benicia increases its contribution to employee medical benefits. For individual employees, the amount is $20 a month; an employee plus one dependent receives $50 a month, and employees with two or more dependents get $75 a month, all for each year of the agreement.
No increases in pay take place during the first two years.
By the third year, those with three-year contracts get a 1-percent salary adjustment effective July 1, 2016, and another 1-percent adjustment Jan. 1, 2017.
As a reward for the bargaining units cooperating with the city, the MOUs include four working days of holiday leave each year, though those days have no cash value.
Mid management agreed to a similar two-year MOU that covers both types of leave and medical contribution, but doesn’t include the third year changes for salary, benefits and holiday closure leave.
In other matters addressed Tuesday:
• The Council responded to a Solano County grand jury report that analyzed the Geographical Information System that said Benicia’s upper management doesn’t support the program, and that attendance at the system’s meetings has been poor.
The city has responded that Benicia’s management receives briefings regularly about the system; that Benicia has hired Naveed Ashraf as an information technology manager who has been attending system meetings; and that information technology analyst Sandra Ayala had been communicating with those who had the authority to agree or disagree on board matters.
• The Council awarded MCK Services, Concord, a contract worth $582,216.90 for an East Second Street overlay project from East O Street to Military East; East S Street about 300 feet north of the Corporation Yard entrance; and the eastern abutment of the East Second Street bridge over West Channel Road to east of Reservoir Road in Benicia Industrial Park.
An earlier version of the contract was approved, but the scope of work was expanded to use a federal grant the city has been awarded.