New Corning employee contracts ratified

Four Corning city employee units had contracts unanimously ratified by the City Council on Tuesday.

In addition, the council was introduced to the city's newly hired Assistant Public Works Director Steve Lindeman, previously of the Red Bluff Public Works Department where he lead the street department.

"It's great to have that behind us," Mayor Gary Strack said. "It's good to have the employees off furloughs and receiving a 2 percent raise. We will get a lot done this year."

One of the employment groups is the Management Association, which includes the fire and police chiefs, public works and planning director, assistant public works director, building official and police administrative services manager.

Two of the contracts are related to law enforcement — the Corning Public Safety Bargaining Unit which represents the police officers, sergeants and police detective, and the Corning Dispatcher's Association Bargaining Unit.

The fourth ratification was for the city manager position, and administrative assistant to the city manager, both of which are not represented by an employee association.

Each of the agreements is for the period of one year, Jan. 1-Dec. 31.

All of the employees represented in the contracts will receive a 2 percent pay increase, Corning City Manager John Brewer said.

For Brewer, that will add $1,783 to his $89,184 annual salary; the police chief will see an annual increase of $1,425 to his $71,256 salary; and the Fire Chief's salary of $81,228 will go up $1,346.

New Public Works Director Patrick Walker will see an raise of $1,346 to his annual salary of $67,320.

The contracts also reflect legislatively mandated retirement benefit formulas in line with the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013, which was passed in both legislative house on the final day of the 2012 legislative session and then signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. It applies to new employees hired after Jan. 1, but also includes four provisions that impact current CalPERS members.

It has been reported the act makes changes to public employee pensions in-part by including establishing a cap on the amount of salary that can be used to calculate a retirement benefit, raises the retirement age for both public safety and miscellaneous employees, implements cost-sharing, uses the average of the final three years to calculate final compensation, and other aspects.

Brewer said the Miscellaneous Unit contract which covers public works employees and part of the city hall staff, ends June 30.

"We will be going into negotiations on that contract soon," he stated.