Warren council approves new contract with dispatchers

Staff report

WARREN

Warren City Council has approved a 21/2-year contract with 11 dispatchers in the police department that doesn’t change the city’s cost.

The contract calls for three 1.5-percent pay increases — one retroactive to July 1 of this year, one July 1, 2015, and one Jan. 1, 2016.

It will raise the pay rate of a standard dispatcher from $19 per hour to $19.58 per hour and a dispatching supervisor from $20.44 per hour to $21.06 per hour. Those increases will cost the city $31,312.

But those costs are expected to be offset by the additional amount those employees will pay for health care, said David Daugherty, personnel supervisor for the city.

The workers, represented by the Ohio Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, will begin paying a capped 10-percent share of their health-care premium, which is a contribution rate of up to $40 per month for single coverage and up to $80 per month for family coverage in 2014 and up to $50 single and $100 family in 2015.