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Campbell unions can reopen talks
By jeanne starmack
campbell
Campbell’s three unions have the right to reopen negotiations for wages this year under their three-year contracts.
The city settled contracts last year with its police, firefighters and street- department workers.
So far, however, only the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 42, which represents police, has asked for talks, said Mayor Bill Van Such.
Those talks were set Monday, but have been canceled, he said.
City employees have gone without raises for eight years, which is as long as the city has been in fiscal emergency and under the fiscal watch of a state commission.
The police department’s 12 full-time officers make between $30,000 and $40,000 a year; the five full-time firefighters make from $28,000 to $34,000 a year; and street-department workers make between $15 and $16 an hour.
VanSuch said that the city cannot offer raises as long as it still is in fiscal emergency.
“But I’ll listen and analyze the situation and answer accordingly,” he said.
The city had hoped to ask for release from fiscal emergency at the end of last year, but could not because of unreconciled bank statements and a number of uncorrected deficiencies in bookkeeping, accounting and policies that were noted by the state auditor’s office.
The city has resolved those issues and is hoping to ask again for release at the end of this year.