WATSONVILLE – Police officers have agreed to less pay and smaller pensions for new hires in a tentative deal announced by city officials Thursday.
The deal, which will go before the City Council on Tuesday for ratification, saves the jobs of seven officers slated for layoff while cutting compensation approximately 9 percent, officials said.
“I am thankful to our police officers, sergeants and lieutenants for the progress we have made,” said City Manager Carlos Palacios in a written statement. The deal “assists in addressing the city’s serious budget shortfall due to falling revenues over the last several years, which have yet to rebound, and increasing pension costs.”
The agreement, ratified Wednesday by the Police Officers Association and the Public Safety Mid-Management Unit, calls for officers to take eight furlough days in each of the next two years and to defer a 5 percent raise, scheduled to be implemented in 2.5 percent increments in July and January, until 2013.
