Manteca Police Employees Association members are in line for an 8.5 percent pay increase over the next four years.

The City Council Tuesday will consider approving a memorandum of understanding with the MPEA that represents animal control officers, booking officers, code enforcement officers, crime analysts, community service officers, police record clerks, property evidence/officer, public safety dispatchers, and the lead records clerk. The council meets at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center council chambers, 1001 W. Center St.

City employees took hefty pay cuts in 2011 giving up existing pay and forfeiting negotiated raises to help the city weather the Great Recession and subsequent drop-off in municipal taxes. Between pay raises that were given up and existing pay and benefits employees took an average 20 percent hit to their pocketbooks.

 During the last two years a small part of that was returned under contract language that ran through June 30 of this year that called for the city to share a set percentage of property and sales tax as it increase with the employee groups who would decide how it would be distributed in the form of pay and benefits for their particular bargaining groups.

Contract language governing the last five years called  for half of any net annual increase after that of over one percent in combined property and sales taxes to be split among the employee bargaining groups to determine how they’d like it applied to compensation — salary or benefits — within their units.

Salaries represent 85 percent of the general fund expenses with public safety accounting for 63 cents of every general fund dollar spent.  The strategy crafted by the city  to bridge the $14 million deficit caused by a substantial drop-off in property taxes, sales tax and over revenue coupled with four-year contracts with employee bargaining groups that had pre-negotiated annual wages was to treat all municipal employees equally as well as do whatever possible to keep servcie levels up to par.

The first step was for all employees – management included – to take a 3.8 percent across-the-board pay cut in the form of unpaid furlough days.

The new MPEA contract calls for:

2.5 percent increase in salary effective the first pay period in January 2016.

2 percent increase in salary effective the first pay period in January 2017.

2 percent increase in salary effective the first pay period in January 2018

2 percent increase in salary effective the first pay period in January 2019.

elimination of Admissions Day and Columbus Day holidays and replaces them with floating holidays.

elimination of compensatory time off.

reinstatement of the $750 a year uniform allowance.

elimination of hostage negotiation special assignment.

updated health plan benefits with cost reallocation.

updated retirement criteria and retiree health benefits.

The increased personnel cost represented by the memorandum of understanding are already included in the adopted budget for the current fiscal year.