City Council backs historic contracts with police and firefighter unions

Agreements with the police and firefighter unions that will award double-digit pay raises this year and return pensions for new hires in 2027 won support from Jacksonville City Council members who said in the same breath the contracts will constrain what the city can afford in future budgets.

Mayor Donna Deegan's administration negotiated the three-year agreements and said they will give the Sheriff's Office and the Fire and Rescue Department the ability to compete with other cities and counties for the most talented first-responders.

City Council members, who unanimously voted Tuesday for the agreements, said during committee meetings last week the pacts come at a financial cost but validate the importance of public safety. "This is an easy vote with a challenging aftermath," City Council member Nick Howland said.

"It's very expensive but I believe it's absolutely necessary for us to maintain the police and fire we all need and want for this community," City Council Finance Committee Chairman Ron Salem said. "We have some huge challenges as a City Council paying for this."

In addition to boosting pay for police, firefighters and corrections officers, the city will once again offer pensions by 2027 for new hires in those jobs. Todd Norman, chief of employee and labor relations for the city, said when Jacksonville ended pensions for new hires in 2017, city leaders expected others in Florida would do the same. That didn't happen.

"The pension is still the gold standard in public safety," Norman said. "It's the 'golden handcuffs.' It keeps folks on board, and it's what is expected."

He said combined with pay raises and higher starting salaries, the city will be able to "hire and retain the best and brightest first responders."

Fraternal Order of Police and firefighter union won big pay raises

Police officers would get an initial 13% pay raise starting Oct. 1. They would get another 5% pay raise in the second year of the contract and a 5% raise in the third year.

Corrections officers would get pay raises of 15% the first year, 8.5% the second year and 7% the third year.

The city has struggled to recruit corrections officers. Their starting pay will go from $48,000 to $60,000. The agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police also will boost starting pay for police officers, rising from $52,000 to $65,000.

Firefighters will get a 12% pay raise in the first year followed by 5% raises each of the following two years.

The cost of the agreements will add about $50 million in the first year and then another $25 million in the second year and then $25 million more in the third year. Also in the third year, offering pensions could result in another $20 million in additional cost, and that expense for pensions will keep increasing as more public safety workers go into the Florida Retirement System, according to an analysis by the City Council Auditor.

Council member Diamond: 'We are broke after this'

City Council member Rory Diamond said combined with the stadium renovation for keeping the Jaguars in Jacksonville, the city has hit its spending limit.

"There's no money for cute programs after this," Diamond said. "... If you see these programs coming here and people saying how great this program is going to be, just remember that we are broke after this."

City Council member Matt Carlucci disputed Diamond's characterization, saying the city is in good financial shape and council shouldn't use the contracts with the police and firefighters as an excuse to stop taking on other challenges facing Jacksonville.

"I definitely want to pass this, but I don't want to pit this against other good programs that we should fund," Carlucci said.

He said the garbage fee , which the city hasn't raised since 2010, only covers a fraction of the cost for collecting garbage and forces the city to pull millions of dollars from elsewhere in the budget. And Carlucci said if a property tax increase would help the city pay for programs that residents consider important, council members shouldn't reflexively say they won't support a future increase in the tax rate.

The city's own pension funds have billions of dollars in unfunded obligations, which prompted then-mayor Lenny Curry to win support from voters for a half-cent sales tax to pay down that debt. Curry also convinced City Council to end pensions for new hires.

The city isn't reopening its own Police and Fire Pension Fund to new entrants but instead would put them into the statewide Florida Retirement System. The proceeds from the sales tax can only go toward taking care of the city's pension funds, not the cost of putting public safety employees in the Florida Retirement System.

Police contract: Deegan says people want "safe streets" and new labor contract will help Sheriff's Office

Firefighter contract: Jacksonville firefighters would get 12% first-year pay raise in new contract

Currently, police and firefighters hired since October 2017 get 401(k) style accounts. The city puts in 25% salary matches. For the Florida Retirement System, the city would contribute 33% of a police officer or firefighter's salary and also provide them Social Security, which the city doesn't do now for its employees.

Police and firefighters hired since October 2017 would have a one-time opportunity to enter the Florida Retirement System. Others hired after the city enters the state system would automatically go into it for their retirement benefits.

The labor contracts also would return pensions for corrections officers but the city would need to get a change at the state level to allow corrections officers to make that move without doing the same thing for all city employees.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Pensions will return for Jacksonville police and firefighters hires