From: Jacob Patterson
To: City Clerk
Cc: Whippy, Isaac; Cervenka, Neil
Subject: Public Comment -- 9/9/24 CC Mtg., Item No. 5B (The agenda is missing Item Nos.) Ordinance 672 Adjustments Date: Saturday, September 7, 2024 12:25:46 PM
City Council, Manager, and Chief,
I am concerned that the City does not appear to comply with the full scope of requirements of Ordinance 672 through this action and past similar actions. The Police Captain was added even though it appears to have been left off during prior years. However, by the express terms of Ordinance 672, the annual salary survey and adjustment applies to "police officers AND EMPLOYEES" of the Police Department. IMO, that means it applies to everyone except the Chief of Police (because Department Head executive-level positions are not included within the legal definition of employee) but we have consistently failed to include the rest of the Police Department employees besides the police officers and CSOs.
Such covered employees would include the Administrative Analyst-Police (Leslie), the Administrative Assistant / Property & Evidence (Laura), and the Care Response Unit team members. The City may owe these employees pay increases and they might even be legally entitled to back pay for prior years when they were also not included. This oversight is very concerning and patently unfair to these City employees who are explicitly-covered by the voter-adopted Ordinance 672 (i.e., since they are employees of the FBPD).
IMO, this should be remedied at the City's earliest convenience. I know that if I were one of them, I would soon be speaking with an employment attorney if the City does not preemptively address this apparent oversight.
Regards,
--Jacob