THE STOCKTON CITY COUNCIL has approved new labor contracts for police officers, firefighters, public safety managers and some nonunion city workers, ending a long and tense negotiation process for several employee groups.
The agreements passed 7-0 on Tuesday as part of the council’s consent agenda, meaning they were approved with other items and were not pulled by councilmembers for a separate vote, drawing a close to more than a year of the city’s public safety employees not having a long-term contract after the previous contracts expired last summer.
The contracts cover the Stockton Police Officers Association, Stockton Firefighters Local 456, fire management, the Stockton Police Management Association and a compensation plan for some nonunion city workers, including certain managers, administrative staff and City Attorney’s Office employees.
The new agreements received widespread support from both councilmembers and the public during Tuesday’s meeting.
During public comment, Zoila Moreno asked councilmembers to approve the police agreements, saying officers deserve support because they “put their lives on the line every day to serve us.”
Yolanda Amen spoke in support of the firefighters’ agreement, saying competitive pay and benefits are needed if Stockton wants to recruit and keep firefighters and paramedics.
“Our firefighters put their lives on the line every day to protect our residents, businesses and neighborhoods,” Amen said. “Competitive salaries and benefits are critical if Stockton is going to recruit and retain the highly trained firefighters and paramedics we need.”
She also urged the city to continue building a fire department that reflects Stockton’s diversity.
“A workforce made up of individuals from different backgrounds and experiences strengthens trust, improves community connections, and helps ensure that all residents see themselves represented in the people who protect and serve them,” Amen said.
She also supported the police management and police officers’ agreements, saying stable staffing and strong leadership are needed as Stockton responds to gun violence, gang violence and other public safety issues.
Police as friendly protectors
Denise Friday, a community activist who often speaks publicly on the city’s policing issues, said police officers should be hired from within the community and should be seen by children as friends and protectors.
“When I was a kid coming up, the police officer was our friend, and he was our protector,” Friday said. “The children in the community now don’t feel like the police officers are their friend or their protector.”
Stronger mental health screening and better suspect-identification practices should also be part of police hiring and training, Friday said. Her son, Colby Friday, was shot and killed by a Stockton police officer in 2016 after being mistaken for another man. The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office later found the shooting justified.
“We know the Police Department has gone for over a year without a contract, and I can’t imagine how frustrating, how discouraging that has been for the staff, as well as their families.”
Councilmember Michele Padilla
Councilmember Michele Padilla thanked firefighters and police officers for continuing to work through the contract process, saying the agreements would help Stockton stay competitive while giving the city “labor stability over the next two years.”
The long police contract process, she said, had taken a toll on officers and their families.
“We know the Police Department has gone for over a year without a contract, and I can’t imagine how frustrating, how discouraging that has been for the staff, as well as their families,” Padilla said.
Vice Mayor Jason Lee, a former union leader, said he supported arbitration as a fair process but was glad the city and employee groups reached agreements before that became necessary.
“I believe in arbitration. I believe in having a process that’s fair to everybody,” Lee said. “I just want to thank the SPOA and our firefighters union and all our other bargaining units on the other side, who worked tirelessly to work with our team.”
After Lee’s comments, Councilmember Michael Blower made the motion to approve the consent agenda, and Lee seconded it. The motion passed unanimously, with all seven council members voting yes.
New contracts end months of uncertainty
The largest agreement is with the Stockton Police Officers Association, which represents most of the Police Department’s nonmanagement sworn officers. The contract runs from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2028, and includes a 6% raise in the first year, a 4% raise in the second year, a one-time $2,500 payment and salary step changes.
City documents estimate the new police contract terms — including raises, one-time payments and pay-step changes — would add about $9.47 million in costs this fiscal year and $8.13 million next fiscal year. Those figures do not represent the city’s full cost for police officer pay. Most of the added cost would come from the General Fund, which pays for basic city services.
The council also approved contracts with Stockton Firefighters Local 456 that cover both the fire unit and fire management. The agreements run from July 1 through June 30, 2028.
Those contracts include a 6% raise in the first year and 2% in the second year, plus salary step changes, higher city health care contributions and costs tied to a limited vacation sellback program, which allows employees to cash out some unused vacation time.
City documents estimate the new fire and fire management terms would add about $4.82 million in costs this fiscal year, with about $3.96 million of that money coming from the General Fund.
A third labor item covers the Stockton Police Management Association and the compensation plan for some nonunion city workers. City documents estimate those new terms would add about $3.24 million in costs this year, including about $2.22 million from the General Fund.
Altogether, the three labor items will add roughly $17.5 million to this fiscal year’s city budget, according to budget amendments attached to the agenda.
The vote follows months of contract pressure at City Hall. Police officers had been working without a new contract for more than a year, and the union had warned last fall that it was prepared to take the dispute to arbitration, a process that would have allowed an outside panel to decide contract terms.
Firefighters faced their own standoff last year. By mid-August, they had gone 44 days without a new contract, with union leaders warning that the delay was hurting staffing and retention. The firefighters eventually reached a tentative deal later that month after the city agreed to add longevity pay, though paramedic pay remained unchanged.
The August contracts covered the unions for one year while the city and unions later moved toward new longer-term agreements. Tuesday’s vote approved the next round of contracts for the affected public safety groups.
The city still has more work to do to grow its tax base so it can better compete on public safety pay, Lee said.
“We know that we have a lot more work to do,” Lee said.
This story originally appeared in Stocktonia.