“I think we got the contract as good as we can get it.”
That’s the reason Randy Wyse, president of the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters, said the union agreed Saturday to tentatively accept the city’s proposal for a new employee pension plan.
The Fraternal Order of Police also tentatively agreed to the proposal.
The city’s public safety plan includes a 20 percent salary increase over the next three years for police officers, corrections officers and firefighters, plus a one-time lump sum payment to current employees equal to 3 percent of their annual salary.
Judicial officers and sworn bailiffs would receive a 14 percent pay increase over three years.
Active and former employees would retain existing benefits under the proposal, but new hires would enroll in a defined contribution retirement plan with a contribution of 25 percent of the employee’s salary from the city and 10 percent from the worker.
The city previously reached a tentative agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and is still negotiating with three other unions.
Voters approved last year a referendum to extend the Better Jacksonville Plan’s half-cent sales tax to help pay down the city’s $2.85 billion pension debt.
The initiative required closing up to three of the city’s underfunded defined benefit retirement plans and increasing employees’ contributions for those plans to at least 10 percent.
Wyse said Monday that Saturday’s action put the union “one step closer” to inking a new pension agreement the city, but “there still are a lot of people who have to weigh in.”
The next step is for the union’s 1,200 members to vote on whether to accept the proposed plan.
Wyse said he expects a ballot to be conducted either the first or second week of March.
Steve Zona, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 530, posted a statement about accepting the city’s proposal on the union’s Facebook page.
It said the decision was motivated by his commitment to be transparent and include the members in making decisions.
“After much deliberation, I feel negotiations have brought us to a point where the voice of the body needs to be heard by way of a vote on the current proposal offered by the city,” the statement said.
Union spokesman Shannon Hartley said the FOP will have no further comment on the issue until the proposal has been presented to the members.
If union members approve the city’s proposal, legislation that would codify the new pension contracts will be introduced to council.
The tentative agreement with AFSCME members includes a 14 percent salary increase for full-time employees and a 12 percent hike for temporary and part-time workers over the next three years plus a one-time lump sum payment of 3 percent of the employee’s annual salary.
As with the public safety unions, new hires who are AFSCME members would be enrolled in a defined contribution plan with the city contributing 12 percent and the employee contributing 8 percent to the plan.
The city is still negotiating with the Jacksonville Supervisors Association, Communications Workers of America and the Laborer’s International Union of North America, said mayor’s office spokeswoman Tia Ford.
Deadline for negotiations with the supervisors and laborers unions is Feb. 25; the communications workers have until March 2 to agree to terms of a new pension agreement, she said.
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