TO: ADAM PIRRIE, CITY MANAGER
FROM: JAMIE EARL, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER
DATE: JUNE 25, 2024
Reviewed by:
City Manager: AP
SUBJECT:
Title
MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE CITY OF CLAREMONT AND VARIOUS EMPLOYEE ASSOCIATIONS AND A RESOLUTION FOR UNREPRESENTED MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES IMPLEMENTING WAGES, HOURS, AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT FOR FISCAL YEARS 2024-25, 2025-26, AND 2026-27 (FUNDING SOURCE: VARIOUS CITY OPERATING FUNDS)
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SUMMARY
Members of the City’s Negotiating Team (CNT) and representatives of various employee bargaining units have been meeting and conferring in good faith since February 2024 regarding wages, hours, and terms of conditions of employment. The CNT has reached tentative agreements with five of the City’s six employee bargaining units, all of which have a respective Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) expiring on June 30, 2024.
Further, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) requires the pay rate for each job classification (“Salary Schedule”) be available on a publicly available pay schedule, duly approved and adopted by the governing body. Accordingly, Salary Schedules are included in each MOU, and can be found in Attachment A to this report. Similarly, Salary Schedules for certain unrepresented management classifications can be found in Attachment B, which is a Resolution setting forth their wages, hours, and working conditions.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommended Action
Staff recommends the City Council:
A. Adopt A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING CLAREMONT ADMINISTRATIVE AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION (CATSEA), CLAREMONT EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION (CEA), CLAREMONT MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (CMA), CLAREMONT PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION (CPEA), AND CLAREMONT POLICE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (CPMA) MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING AND AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO IMPLEMENT WAGES, HOURS, AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT THROUGH JUNE 30, 2027; and
B. Adopt A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA, SETTING FORTH THE HOURS, WAGES, AND WORKING CONDITIONS FOR CERTAIN UNREPRESENTED MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES THROUGH JUNE 30, 2027.
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ALTERNATIVES TO RECOMMENDATION
In addition to the recommendation, there are the following alternatives:
A. Take no action.
B. Request additional information.
FINANCIAL REVIEW
The additional costs related to the approval of the Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and approval of the unrepresented management Resolution are approximately $2,088,979 in 2024-25; $2,577,889 in 2025-26; and $3,083,613 in 2026-27. Funding for these additional costs is included in the adopted budget for 2024-26. Costs associated with 2026-27 will be included in the 2026-28 operating budget.
The staff cost to conduct employee negotiations, draft necessary documentation, and prepare this report is estimated at $40,000 and is included in the operating budgets of the Administrative and Financial Services Departments.
ANALYSIS
Members of the City’s Negotiating Team and representatives of various employee bargaining units have been meeting and conferring in good faith since February 2024 regarding wages, hours, and terms of conditions of employment. Members of the CNT consist of the following City management employees: Jamie Earl, Assistant City Manager; Katie Wand, Assistant to the City Manager; and Jeremy Starkey, Finance Director.
The CNT has reached tentative agreements with five of the City’s six employee bargaining units, all of which have a respective Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) expiring on June 30, 2024: Claremont Administrative and Technical Support Employees’ Association (CATSEA); Claremont Employees’ Association (CEA); Claremont Management Association (CMA); Claremont Professional Employees’ Association (CPEA); and Claremont Police Management Association (CPMA).
Background
In July 2021, the City entered into Memoranda of Understanding with the City’s six bargaining units. After facing several years without employee salary increases due to the City’s budget constraints, in 2021 all bargaining units negotiated multi-year contracts that consisted of a 3 percent salary increase effective July 1, 2021; a 2 percent salary increase effective July 1, 2022; and a 2 percent salary increase effective July 1, 2023. All groups with the exception of the Claremont Police Officers’ Association (CPOA) agreed to contract terms ending on June 30, 2024. CPOA, whose contract expires on June 30, 2025, also negotiated a 2 percent salary increase effective July 1, 2024.
Since the City Council last approved MOUs with the City’s six bargaining units in July 2021, labor/workforce and economic trends have changed, which has led to staffing challenges for many public sector agencies. The City of Claremont is not immune from such challenges, which have directly impacted City employees and the City’s ability to provide public service without operational challenges or delays. While in years past the City would receive several qualified applicants for most job openings, in the past three years it is not uncommon for the City to post job openings on an “open until filled” basis due to lack of qualified applicant pools. The City has also lost several talented employees to other municipalities, with employees primarily citing higher pay, better benefits, and/or promotional opportunities offered at other agencies as reasons for leaving Claremont.
2024 Negotiations
After being granted authority by the City Council to initiate negotiations with bargaining units whose MOUs were set to expire on June 30, 2024, members of the City’s Negotiating Team began the “meet and confer” process in February 2024. The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA), which governs the labor-management relations in California local government, including cities, counties, and most special districts, provides that the governing body of a public agency shall meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations (i.e., unions or bargaining units). The MMBA defines meeting and conferring in good faith as having the mutual obligation to personally meet and confer promptly upon request by either party and continue for a reasonable period of time in order to exchange freely information, opinions, and proposals and to endeavor to reach agreement on matters within the scope of representation.
During the meet and confer process, members of the CNT held several meetings with representatives from the following bargaining units: Claremont Administrative and Technical Support Employees’ Association; Claremont Employees’ Association; Claremont Management Association; Claremont Professional Employees’ Association; and Claremont Police Management Association. Bargaining unit representatives primarily expressed concern with their members’ salary and benefit packages being “below market” when compared to other municipalities whose population and agency size are similar to those of Claremont. Specifically, it was noted that while the cumulative CPI increases from 2021, 2022 and 2023 was 14.4%, over the same period, the raises negotiated for City employees totaled only 7%, making it difficult for employees to be able to continue to afford working for the City without significant salary increases.
A summary of the items that have been tentatively agreed upon can be found in the subsequent sections. Items tentatively agreed upon are reflected in each bargaining unit’s proposed MOU, all of which can be found in Attachment A.
Negotiated Salary Increases (NSIs)
Representatives for CATSEA, CEA, CMA, CPEA, and CPMA have tentatively agreed to the following negotiated base salary increases:
• 9% effective July 1, 2024;
• 3% effective July 1, 2025; and
• 3% effective July 1, 2026.
As evidenced during the 2024-26 City Council Priorities Setting process, City Councilmembers and community members have high standards regarding the level of service that City staff is expected to provide. Accordingly, the City Council directed the City Manager to develop a 2024-26 operating budget that reflected increased employee training/professional development opportunities, in hopes of retaining talented employees and developing an effective succession plan to ensure successful continuity in City programs and services for the foreseeable future. This same philosophy is reflected in the tentative agreements that the City has reached with the various bargaining units, who have agreed to new three-year contracts expiring on June 30, 2027 (pending City Council approval). Negotiations with the Claremont Police Officers’ Association (CPOA) will begin prior to their contract expiring on June 30, 2025.
Flexible Benefit Plan
The City currently provides a monthly allowance of $1,014 for miscellaneous (i.e., non-Police Department) employees and $1,294 for CPMA and CPOA to participate in the City’s Flexible Benefit Plan, which consists of medical/dental/vision insurance plans and supplemental benefit options. The allowance amounts have not been increased for several years, and as a result, the City of Claremont’s allowances are below the average of comparable cities’ respective allowances. Further, the average renewal cost increases of the City’s health insurance plans between 2021 and 2024 have ranged between 3 percent and 13.39 percent each year, making the total average cumulative increases between 27.25 percent and 30.84 percent.
Due to the absence of health allowance increases over the past several years, and in recognition of the drastic insurance plan increases, the City and representatives for CATSEA, CEA, CMA, CPEA, and CPMA have tentatively agreed to increase the monthly health allowance to $1,500 for all bargaining unit members.
Other Negotiated Items
During the meet and confer process, the Claremont Police Management Association proposed increasing and additional premium pay incentives for education, POST certificates, Advanced Management Training, and longevity, citing pay compaction issues with Claremont Police Officer Association member pay. The City and CPMA have reached the following tentative agreement (TA) to address pay compaction concerns:
• Education Incentive Pay (not stackable, one or the other only)
o Bachelor’s Degree $500 (current MOU amount)
o Master’s Degree $700 (new TA)
• POST Incentive Pay (not stackable, one or the other only)
o Supervisory Certificate $400 (current MOU amount)
o Management Certificate $500 (current MOU amount)
• Advanced Management Incentive Pay
o SLI $700 (new TA)
• The total “incentive pay” premium will be capped at $1,000 per month (new TA). In the current MOU, incentive pay premiums are capped at $500 per month.
Additionally, the various bargaining units have tentatively agreed to additional MOU language to reflect current City practice/policies; increased boot allowance (CEA and CATSEA); and “clean-up” language to ensure MOUs are compliant with current labor/leave laws.
Unrepresented Management Employees
As noted above, certain management employees act on behalf of the City during labor negotiations as members of the City’s Negotiating Team (CNT). While this has been a long-standing past practice, it has not been formally documented in any City policy or Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”). As a best industry practice, employees acting on behalf of the City in labor negotiations/employee relations capacities should be clearly defined as unrepresented management employees that are not represented by any employee bargaining unit.
As such, in addition to bargaining unit MOUs, the City Council is also being asked to approve a resolution (Attachment B) setting forth the wages, hours, and working conditions for certain unrepresented management employees, as defined in the resolution. If the resolution is approved as it is currently drafted, unrepresented management employees would receive the same salary increases and health allowance increase as represented employees (i.e., bargaining unit members).
LEGAL REVIEW
The resolutions being considered by the City Council have been reviewed and approved as to form by the City Attorney.
RELATIONSHIP TO CITY PLANNING DOCUMENTS
Staff has evaluated the agenda item in relationship to the City’s strategic and visioning documents and finds that it applies to the following City Planning Documents: Council Priorities and the 2024-26 Budget.
CEQA REVIEW
This item is not subject to environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
PUBLIC NOTICE PROCESS
The agenda and staff report for this item have been posted on the City website and distributed to interested parties. If you desire a copy, please contact the City Clerk’s Office.
Submitted by: Prepared by:
Jamie Earl Katie Wand
Assistant City Manager Assistant to the City Manager
Attachments:
A - Resolution Approving MOUs
B - Unrepresented Management Resolution