Staff is seeking approval from the City Council to enter into side letter agreements for a contract extension with our labor organizations for one fiscal year from FY 21 to FY 22. In exchange for this extension, staff also requests a cost of living increase of 2% for City staff to be effective in the first pay period in July of 2021. Staff is seeking this authorization for two main reasons: COVID-19’s impact on City staff and services, along with its impact on the economy.
COVID-19 Impact on City Staff
Our dedicated City staff is providing essential services to our residents and stake holders during a pandemic. The vaccination roll out for essential workers has been slow, although it has sped up as of late. Additional state and local promulgated safety requirement and guidelines have added an additional burden on City staff when providing City services to the public.
Additionally, employees who are ill or who are exposed to the virus, cannot go to work for 7 to 10 days depending on their job. Their absence provide a great challenge to their colleagues who will have to handle the additional workload.
Negotiations normally calls for employees to take time away from work to engage in the bargaining process. That will add additional strain to an already stretched work force. Negotiating for a reasonable labor contract under normal circumstances is difficult, but it become a bigger challenged under current conditions.
COVID-19 Impact on Local Economy
The full economic impact from COVID-19 is not known. Solano County has lost many small businesses and this has led to an increased unemployment rate. Therefore, before the City can agree to a multiyear agreement with significant cost of living adjustments, staff need to fully understand the economic impact of this pandemic on City revenues. Staff also needs to fully comprehend the federal response to the economic drag caused by this pandemic.
In effect, this contract extension will allow staff to have a better forecast on how City revenues will be effected, and what if any aid the City may receive from the federal government. As reported recently, the American Rescue Plan Act, will provide significant funding, however, the rules around how these funds can be expended have not been finalized. Better understanding both of those impacts will allow for more realistic bargaining goals for both the City and the labor organizations.
Finance staff has reported a moderate impact to the City’s revenues as compared to other similarly situated jurisdictions. Thanks to your due diligence and good planning, Fairfield is in a much better financial situation than some of its neighbors. For the above reasons, staff is seeking authorization to provide a cost of living adjustment in exchange for the contract extension. By providing a cost of living adjustments, the extension of current labor contract made agreement with our labor partners easier. As of the date of this report, all members of our labor organizations have overwhelmingly voted to approve the one year contract extension.
The annual Consumer Price Index in the Bay Area, published By the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is at an approximate annual rate of 1.6% as of February 2021. The cost of living increase of 2% staff is recommending allow City staff wages to keep pace with the increase of the cost of living in the Bay Area.
In an additional gesture of good faith, City staff has also offered to continue to explore other items that bargaining representatives felt needed to be addressed before the expiration of this new extension. Regardless of this extension, staff will continue preparations for negotiations and will start meeting with bargaining representatives in the new fiscal year. Staff has entered into an agreement with a consulting firm which will perform a salary and benefits study of our jobs compared to our comparable jurisdictions to see where we are in the job market.