Wasilla City Council ratify new contract for Wasilla police, dispatchers.

During the Nov. 14 Wasilla City Council meeting, in keeping with current city code, a public hearing was held on ratifying the collective bargaining agreement between the City of Wasilla and the Wasilla Police Department Employees Association (WPDEA).

The previous collective bargaining agreement expired back in June of this year, and negotiations had already begun after the Wasilla City Council adopted a resolution, in accordance with Wasilla Municipal Code to begin contract negotiations with WPDEA.

After lengthy, and sometimes difficult negotiating, a tentative agreement was reached and subsequently ratified by WPDEA members on October 26, 2022. The tentative agreement covers both Police Officers and Dispatchers.

The agreement calls for a 7% pay scale increase in Fiscal Year 2023, plus 1-step, removing the dispatch trainee classification. b. Three-year average CPI in FY24, plus 1-step. 1-Step increases occur annually at the end of the fiscal year, working on the presumption of good performance. Within the WPD, there are currently 17 steps and upon reaching that marker, employees would then be subject to whatever grade scale increase was available.

The new agreement also calls for premium pay incentive increases to encourage skill advancement and compensation for additional responsibilities. The estimated fiscal impact to the FY2023 budget is an increase of $343,000.

WPD Officer Ryan Hellman, who is also the acting WPDEA President spoke in support of the agreement during the public hearing:

“Last year the Association spent many hours and a lot of free time working towards making a comprehensive list of items we wanted to see addressed along with some concerns going into contract negotiations this year. As with all negotiations, pay and benefits are at the top of the list. The last 2 years have been especially hard on our families with the sharp and dramatic increase in the cost of goods and services most of us rely on.”

Officer Hellman said that when negotiations began, a lot of trust was put into the process in producing a good contract and he said that he believes they have reached it.

“It was a very difficult negotiation, as a lot of times these can be,” he said before adding, “Besides the inflation, members have had to work with severe staffing shortages and thousands of hours of overtime, all during a time of the pandemic. All the while, everyone has done their jobs to provide the best service to the citizens of the borough and the city.”

Officer Hellman also said that while pay and benefits are not the only metrics for bringing in new personnel such as dispatchers or police officers, they play a considerable role in acquiring the best applicants.

“For many years, the Association members went without step increases, meaningful raises or competitive benefits for years. The last contract started the process of rectifying that. This contract, I think goes even more in that direction.”

Councilman Tim Johnson commented that the contract calls for a 7% pay increase, but upon doing his own research, the current rate was 8%.

“I worry that we’re not really keeping up with inflation, at least for police and considering that we’re already down 4 officers I have a concern that we’re not actually bringing us up to the place where we should be as far as police officer hiring or possibly even retention.”

He said that he wasn’t part of the negotiations and but felt the percentage of raise was “a little thin.”

His concerns were addressed by the Wasilla Financial Director, Joan Miller, who said, “It is a difficult time because of the inflation rate. However, arriving at the 7% increase rate-most city employees received a 2% increase, and that was sort of the golden standard- and if we had followed in accordance with that, it would have been a 5% increase.” She believes that with the pay increase, WPD is in line with similarly staffed police:

“With this increase, I feel this places us 4th in the core community of AST, APD, Anchorage Police and Fire, and then you have Wasilla. I feel we’re competitive now.” She also remarked that the city currently pays 100% of the insurance whereas the entities she mentioned do not. We’re where we need to be now to support recruitment and retention.”

Meanwhile, Councilman Simon Brown inquired if the new contract would enhance retention levels, to which WPD Chief Bill Rapson said, “I’m going to support the contract; we worked hard with it. It’s a key component, but not the sole component. I think there’s a lot of decisions that we can make internally within the department to help with recruiting…With this (new contract), it does help us be competitive with surrounding agencies.”

MATCOM Communications Manager Jacob Butcher agreed, adding that with the elimination of the dispatch trainee position, the new contract will bring MATCOM up to a starting pay that is competitive throughout Southcentral Alaska.

Councilman Stu Graham was concerned about the amount of discussion revolving around pay, and if that was the only thing needed to recruit and retain police.

“It is a key component, but that job opportunity is ranked higher by employees,” said Chief Rapson, who then clarified.

“What kind of opportunities are people going to have within the job? Right now, we’re at critical staffing levels and there is no opportunity. Opportunity is working patrol. Opportunity is we’re forcing people to come in on their days off, so to provide that opportunity is very limited.” He then cited examples of WPD staffing levels being such that they have not been able to provide staff when the Alaska Department of Public Safety called for investigators to be added to a drug unit, there weren’t enough bodies to support that. And recently, the WPD had to remove School Resource Officers from the school district due to staffing shortages, and can’t add to that right now.

“Those are the opportunities people are looking for, and I think getting the staffing levels back up to where they need to be, it starts accommodating that need for opportunity the officers want. Their families, the health benefits are a big factor, but it’s also the money.” Chief Rapson also pointed to the growth the Mat-Su Borough and the City of Wasilla have witnessed over the past several years.

“We’re growing out here. The Mat Su is growing and that’s how we’re going to attract people, how we take care of the employees, from a money aspect and from a benefit aspect, and the opportunity aspect.”

Councilman Graham persisted with his question about how WPD plans to get more people, asking if the City Council might need to address is separately or if it could be done internally through the WPD and its administration.

“Is this contract you’re putting forth today going to be sufficient to waylay potential recruits or transfers?”

“Nationwide there is an issue recruiting. Nobody has the magical answer for how we are going to fix this. How we can fix this is (by) changing the culture for making it appealing for an officer, and that is changing the things we have control over. Is this the full plan of how we can get recruits? I don’t think so, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. Is this (contract) going to be what opens the floodgates for applicants? It’s hard to tell.” He did say there has been an increase in WPD applicant and to him, it correlates with the new agreement.

“I can tell you that for the first time today, I had 9 applicants that have applied. Most of them are promising and a lot of them are laterals, and I don’t think that’s just a coincidence.”

The council later went on to unanimously adopt the new agreement.

Wage increases are intended to be made retroactive to July 1, 2022, with other changes becoming effective upon the ratification.

The 3-Year Collective Bargaining Agreement will carry through June 30, 2025.

The next regular Wasilla City Council meeting will be held Monday, November 28 at Wasilla City Hall.