The City of West Sacramento now has a new contract with its police officers, while the officers could be in for a nice raise should voters approve a tax measure on the fall ballot. "If the tax measure passes we will essentially be bringing all of our police officer at least to average (pay) for the area," said Nick Barreiro, vice president of the West Sacramento Police Officers' Association. Barreiro claims that West Sacramento Police Department have been earning about 18 percent less than the average officer at other regional law enforcement agencies for at least the last years.
Should voters reject the tax increase, then officers in West Sacramento will still receive a five percent raise starting in July. Barreiro said the association will then go back to the table to renegotiate with city officials. The contract will run through 2019 if the tax measure fails, but it will run through 2020 if voters approve the measure. "We've looked at all of the numbers, and we're pretty confident that the tax measure will pass."
With this new agreement, as of July 1, 2018, a new officer will make $5,817.00 per month, while veteran officers at the top of the pay scale will earn $7,089.00 per month.
The contract also provides new hires at the West Sacramento Police Department with starting pay that is considerably more than rookies at most any other agency in the area. New officers will also receive health care benefits similar to what employees in the private sector receive. Those benefits will be base on health savings accounts that will depend on stock market performance to grow. City contributions will be fixed.
A call for comment to the City of West Sacramento was not returned at the time of posting for this story.