Fremont police get 11.5 percent pay raise over two years

Fremont police officers and their bosses will get an 11.5 percent pay raise over this year and next.

The City Council approved the salary increases for 187 officers and sergeants represented by the Fremont Police Association as well as for the police department’s top brass at its July 16 meeting. As a result, salaries for this fiscal year went up 7.5 percent beginning July 1 and will climb an additional 4 percent July 1, 2020.

A police officer fresh out of the academy now makes a minimum base salary of $106,581, with step increases up to $129,580. The base salary will climb July 1, 2020 to $110,845 with step increases up to $134,763.

Sergeants in Fremont, who are also represented by the association, get the same bump, to a minimum of $128,118 this fiscal year and up to $155,725 with step increases, and from $133,242 to $161,954 starting July 1, 2020.

City staff reports justified the raises by saying police positions are “difficult to recruit for.”

The city also agreed to give the same 11.5 percent raise to the department’s 11 lieutenants and captains.

All police contracts also saw increased health benefit allowances.

In all, the new contracts will cost Fremont an additional $4.063 million over this year and next. The raises mean the city will also have to spend an additional $589,000 in pension benefit contributions commensurate with the higher salaries, according to city staff.

The salaries of police officers in nearby departments vary. Hayward, with a population of 160,000 compared with Fremont’s 235,000, pays beginning officers $97,219. Pleasanton, population 82,000, pays new officers slightly less than $95,000. Milpitas, popu

lation 80,000, pays new officers $108,238, according to city documents.

San Jose, with more than 1 million residents, starts officers at slightly above $98,000. Santa Clara, with about 130,000 people, starts new officers at $131,304.

Fremont also increased the pay of its 126 firefighters, fire engineers and fire captains, as well as six battalion chiefs, by 8 percent over this year and next.

The pay and health benefit increases for fire department employees will cost the city $2.512 million over the two years, and pension contributions an additional $267,000.

City Manager Mark Danaj, who has been on the job less than a year, got a 4 percent pay bump for a base salary of $310,960. City Attorney Harvey Levine got the same raise for a base salary of $302,672.