The City of Los Alamitos approved a pay increase for non-union employees at its city council meeting on Jan. 22.
The pay increase will give raises of nine percent to employees who have not had a pay increase since 2006, due to budget problems, a city staff report states.
The increase will be for non-represented employees such as the police chief, director of public works, director of recreation and community services, city clerk and others. The increase also comes with a new agreement that the employees must pay the eight percent into the pension fund that was previously paid by the city.
The net increase on the city’s budget balances out to about 1 percent and is expected to cost the city between $30,520 and $31,520 annually.
There are other factors that have been addressed by the new contract, including creating equity in benefits that have been added to union represented employees in recent years. The contract provides an increase in medical benefits that union employees have received and also adds Veteran’s Day as a holiday, which is currently provided to all other city employees.
The contract also establishes a market adjustment policy that allows the city manager to adjust individual salaries based on market surveys and actual performance, so long as the adjusted compensation does not exceed the compensation provided to the lowest top step of a comparable position in Orange County and all adjustments are within the council-approved budget, the staff report states.
Council member Gerri Graham-Mejia did not agree with the market adjustment policy and during the meeting she made a motion that the item be withdrawn and approved without the policy. The motion failed by a 2-3 vote.
The motion to approve the item eventually passed by a 4-1 vote.
According to the staff report, some of the positions that will receive the increase include:
- City Clerk
- Chief of Police
- Director of Community Development
- Director of Recreation and Community Services
- Director of Public Works
- Director of Administrative Services
- Community Services Manager