Contracts approved for police, firefighters

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 8:37 a.m.

Boulder City employees, except for police and firefighters, will receive a 1 percent raise this year and see bigger paychecks thanks to larger city contributions to employee health insurance, which were unanimously approved by the City Council on Tuesday.

The police and firefighters unions are still negotiating their new contracts, acting City Manager Vicki Mayes said.

The council also approved formalizing a longstanding city tradition of giving employees a half-day off on Christmas Eve.

The pay raise and health insurance payment increases, which were part of new three-year contracts for bargaining units except police and firefighters, will cost the city about $337,600 this year.

The contracts approved Tuesday included provisions to negotiate pay raises again for the second and third years of the contract.

The health insurance payments are set to go to $608 a month this year, which is up from $500 a month for each employee. Next year the monthly payment will increase to $675, and then $752 a month in the third year of the contracts.

The budget for the current fiscal year, which began July 1, accounted for increased health insurance costs, but did not include money for employee pay raises. Mayes said that money will come from a contingency fund, which is money not originally designated for a specific purpose.

The city has 164 employees, including 27 police and 15 firefighters.