City of Chehalis Gives Police Officers Raises Under New Contract

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The City of Chehalis recently approved a new collective bargaining agreement between the city and the Chehalis Police Officers Guild. The previous agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2019, which included a three percent raise for each year of the contract; 2020, 2021 and 2022— a total of a 9 percent raise by 2022.

“We are hopeful that (the raise) will keep the salaries competitive with cities of comparable size and population. Police officers are in high demand and it’s a difficult position to fill,” said Chehalis City Manager Jill Anderson.

The employees of the Chehalis Police Officers Guild will increase their contribution to their health insurance plan each year by 1 percent as they receive the raise making the contribution go up from 7 percent to 10 percent by 2022.

 “Some larger cities are offering signing bonuses to lure police officers away from other agencies. It is important to keep those salaries competitive so we can maintain our police force,” Anderson said. 

The two parties began negotiations for a successor agreement on Aug. 8 of 2019 and held four negotiation sessions since then and then after an agreement had been reached there were three meetings with the mediator which started early November and concluded on Feb. 7, according to information in the city’s agenda report.

The 2020 adopted budget included a 2 percent raise so a budget adjustment will have to be made to include the additional 1 percent increase.