Chehalis City Hall as seen on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016
The Chehalis City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the Chehalis Police Officers Guild for 2017 to 2019 on Monday.
During the negotiation process, the city looked at eight comparable cities with similar populations and assessed valuation to Chehalis and discovered the the uniformed police officers in Chehalis are 5 percent below the average pay, detectives are 6 percent below the average pay and sergeants are 10 percent below the average pay. Over the course of the agreement, the wages of the guild members will be increased to the average.
For uniformed officers, the wages will be increased by 4 percent each year of the agreement. Police sergeants will have their pay increased by 6 percent in 2017 and 2018 and then by 4 percent in 2019.
Other changes include increases in the meal allowance from $6 to $15. Field training officer specialty pay increased from 2.5 percent to 5 percent. The clothing allowance will be increased from $560 to $600 annually.
The wage increases have been included in the 2017 and the 2018 city budgets.
