YACHATS – The Yachats City Council on Tuesday approved a new two-year contract with its unionized employees, agreeing to a 6 percent salary increase but also giving the city a year’s time to determine jobs in city hall. The contract replaces a five-year agreement that expired July 1.
Most city employees not working under temporary contracts through an employment agency are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.
The city and union held three negotiating sessions since July. The council was briefed on a tentative agreement during an executive session Tuesday, then went in to open session and voted 3-0 to approve it. Councilors Greg Scott and Anthony Muirhead were absent.
The city and union agreed to a 6 percent wage increase effective July 1 and a 4 percent increase next July 1. Union members are also getting a one-time payment equivalent to 2.24 percent of their salary – or 46.67 hours of work – to make up for changes to the schedule of when the city pays them.
The new contract includes a “memo of understanding” that allows the hiring of temporary, non-union employees in city hall for 12 months “such as extra summer time work, to ascertain job skill matches and the job needs of the city, and filling vacancies on a temporary basis.”
That was a council goal to allow more time for city manager Heide Lambert to better determine an organizational structure and job duties in city hall and then to recruit and fill those.
The city also has to recruit and hire three public works employees – two additional workers authorized in the 2022-23 budget and now a third to replace longtime employee Russ Roberts, who retired recently.
There are currently six union employees – five in public works and one, deputy recorder Kimmie Jackson, in city hall.
Pay for union workers, for example, ranges from $38,486 a year for a starting utility/maintenance worker to $49,777 after 14 years. Salary for a city hall administrative assistant would start at $43,016 a year and top out at $55,635 after 14 years. Benefits include health, dental and vision insurance, 11 official holidays, eight hours sick leave a month up to a maximum of 720 hours, and 6.6 to 16 hours a month of accrued vacation time, depending on how long the employee has been with the city.
— Quinton Smith/YachatsNews