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CELINA - Police officers and sergeants will see their wages jump a staggering 27% over the span of three years now that new contracts have been reached with Celina City Council.
With total compensation packages for police, dispatchers and firefighters set to escalate greatly, councilors indicated they must take a look at bumping up the base city income tax rate to maintain a balanced budget.
Councilors at Monday night's special meeting suspended the rules requiring three public readings and unanimously passed as an emergency measure an ordinance authorizing mayor Jeff Hazel and city safety service director Tom Hitchcock to enter into a three-year contract with the Fraternal Order of Police, Ohio Labor Council Inc., representing police sergeants.
The police sergeants' new contract includes a restructured wage scale and substantial raises. It's retroactive to Feb. 11 and runs through Dec. 31, 2026.
The terms mirror those granted to patrol officers earlier this year, Hazel said. Sergeants and police officers will receive a wage increase of 20.09% the first year, 4% the second year and 3% the third year. Police officer pay will climb from between $24.68 to $26.73 in 2023 to between $29.07 to $32.10 this year and sergeant pay from between $29.56 to $30.72 in 2023 to between $34.82 to $36.92 this year.
The newly agreed upon wages will make the Celina Police Department competitive with other area law enforcement agencies, Hazel said.
"I know it's a significant increase but we did hear the officers very clearly, and we also heard the public," Hazel said. "We are analyzing all the budgetary impact, keeping in mind the half-percent (income tax) that we have is supplemental, that is not a permanent tax."
City voters in May 2022 renewed the 0.5% income tax for police, fire and street improvements for seven more years, keeping the overall income tax rate at 1.5%
The 0.5% income tax revenue supports capital equipment purchases and capital improvements for the city's police and fire departments and public right-of-way improvements to city streets, curbs, sidewalks and alleys and for items and materials related to those improvements.
However, revenue from the 0.5% income tax cannot directly support payroll, Hazel stressed, saying councilors need to consider raising the city's base income tax rate of 1%.
"We can still make it for another year or two without really probably having any impact because our goal is to not raise taxes, it's to maintain what we have in here," Hazel said. "But we also can't ignore what has happened in the economy the last few years."
From 2023 to 2026, total annual personnel costs -including pension, Medicare and workers compensation - are projected to increase from $1.47 million to $1.94 million for the police department, $260,157 to $369,054 for dispatchers and $1.6 million to $2.1 million for the fire department, according to figures presented by city administrators.
Something will need to be done to maintain a balanced budget, Hazel said.
"I'm glad we're getting these contracts to a point where we're being competitive and getting readjusted, like you said, to reflect the current environment that we're in," councilman Eric Baltzell said. "The public came out, supported that … just reinforced that we needed to make those adjustments."
Having said that, Baltzell added his biggest concern is the budget, questioning the sustainable of those raises without augmenting revenue.
Councilman Eric Clausen voiced similar unease.
"We felt the public was in support of that. Is it safe to assume that the public will be in support of a tax increase?" he asked. "If they want to push us to give these safety service people the money they need, hopefully they're in the same boat when it comes to (keeping the city solvent)."
