Arnold Police officers are receiving significant pay raises.
The city and members of the Eastern Missouri Coalition of Police Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 15 have agreed on a new two-year collective bargaining agreement that will increase officers’ salaries by a total of 30 percent over a two-year period.
The new deal will increase salaries for officers, corporals, sergeants and lieutenants by 20 percent this fiscal year, which begins Sept. 1 and runs through Aug. 31, 2024. Then those same Police Department employees’ salaries will increase by 10 percent for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which will run from Sept. 1, 2024, through Aug. 31, 2025, according to the agreement.
“We are very pleased with the (agreement)” said Susie Petersen, the attorney for Lodge 15. “We are also very thankful that throughout the negotiations the city took the time to sit down with us, keep an open mind, listen to our issues, and we are really impressed that the message they sent to the officers is that the city cares.
“The Arnold Police Department is a great police department. They are a regional leader. The people who are going to benefit the most are the residents of the city of Arnold. This strengthens the Police Department as far as recruiting top candidates, keeping qualified officers there and they are all very dedicated to the service of the community of Arnold.”
Finance Director Bill Lehmann said the city will spend a projected $934,303 more on officers’ salaries and benefits in the 2023-2024 fiscal year than the previous year.
He said Arnold is projected to spend $7,881,561 on officers’ salaries and benefits in the upcoming fiscal year after paying $6,947,258 for officers’ salaries and benefits during the current fiscal year.
City Council members voted unanimously Aug. 17 to approve the new collective bargaining agreement, which includes the salary increases. Members of Lodge 15 voted unanimously near the beginning of August to approve the CBA, Petersen said.
Petersen said about 50 of Arnold’s 55 officers are members of Lodge 15.
“It was a good negotiation,” Richison said. “It is nice when both sides at the table have a common interest.”
With the pay increases, the starting annual salary for a new Arnold Police officer will jump from its current $55,140 to $66,168 on Sept. 1. The starting salary will increase to $72,784.80 on Sept. 1, 2024.
An Arnold Police officer earning the highest annual salary on the city’s salary scale will increase from the current $77,188.80 to $92,626.56 on Sept 1 and to $101,889.22 on Sept. 1, 2024, according to city documents.
Arnold City Administrator Bryan Richison said city officials compared the starting salary for Arnold Police officers to those at 41 other area law enforcement agencies to determine what a competitive salary would be in the area.
Before the 20 percent salary increase, Arnold Police officers’ starting salary ranked 32 out of 42 departments. With the 20 percent raises, the department will have the seventh highest starting salary among the 42 departments city officials studied, according to documents Richison provided.
As of Sept. 1, the only police departments that will have higher starting salaries than Arnold will be Clayton ($71,667), Frontenac ($70,507), Ladue ($69,503), Kirkwood ($68,401), St. Charles ($68,278) and Maplewood ($66,436), Arnold documents show.
Richison said the salary information was provided by the St. Louis Area Police Chiefs Association.
“The city (of Arnold) has an interest in staying competitive with our pay,” Richison said. “That is a huge issue. Police salaries have exploded, and we have seen a decrease in the applicants for openings. There is a real shortage, so it was definitely one of the city’s goals that we are competitive.
“We know we will never be at the top. There will always be some places that pay more than us. But, we would like to try to stay in the top quarter. We know other places, as they have raises, will leapfrog us. We are hoping we will not be leapfrogged out of the top quarter in the next two years.”
The city will fund the officers’ salaries with revenue from a 1-cent sales tax increase voters approved in April to fund the Police Department, Richison said.
That additional 1-cent sales tax raised the city’s overall sales tax from 1.25 cents per $1 to 2.25 cents per dollar. With the approval of the April sales tax measure, the city lowered residents’ property tax from 0.363 cents per $100 assessed valuation to 0.1815 cents per $100 assessed valuation.
The total sales tax people pay in the city ranges from 9.35 cents per $1 to 11.35 cents per $1 depending on where they shop because some stores are in special taxing districts.
In addition to the 2.25-cent sales tax that goes to the city, the overall sales tax includes 4.225 cents for the state, 1.625 cents for the county, 1/2 cent for the Rock Community Fire Protection District, 1/2 cent for Jefferson County 911 Dispatch and 1/4 cent for the Rock Township Ambulance District.
The sales tax to fund the Police Department is expected to generate about $7.5 million for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to the budget council members approved on Aug. 17.
Arnold is projected to spend about $9.4 million to operate its Police Department during the 2023-2024 fiscal year. In addition to the pay and benefits for the department employees covered under the collective bargaining agreement, the costs include salaries and benefits for the police chief, major and three office staff members, the purchase of six new police cruisers, a new speed trailer and two motorcycles, as well as the lease on three more Flock license plate-reading cameras, as well as other costs.
The city will transfer about $1.8 million from its operating fund to cover the Police Department costs not funded with the 1-cent sales tax. However, Arnold will still have a surplus revenue of about $1.2 million in its general operating fund because the city is no longer completely funding the Police Department with general revenue, according to the budget.
“The general fund is in a much healthier place,” Richison said. “What the new tax allowed us to do is move quite a bit of police expenditures out. The $1.8 million is a lot less than the (general operating fund) would be paying for police expenditures without the tax.”
Dispatchers
Council members also voted unanimously Aug. 17 to extend the city’s current collective bargaining agreement with Arnold Police dispatchers for 90 days.
Richison said the current four-year deal was extended by three months because Arnold has contracted with Jefferson County 911 Dispatch to handle emergency calls. In addition, the duties city dispatchers perform have changed.
He also said the city previously entered CBAs with the members of the police union and dispatcher union at the same time, but because of the dispatchers’ change in duties, the agreements are no longer similar.
“(Arnold dispatchers) still answer non-emergency calls, and when we have people in the jail, they monitor them,” he said. “They have taken on additional clerical work, such as filing reports. Their jobs are very different than when we started the previous contract.
“We will have to look harder at some numbers. What we will compare (dispatchers) to is other clerical and administrative staff. We haven’t done any work on it yet. This is all new, and I really don’t know how it will play out. There are no proposals on the table yet, which is why we needed the extension.”
City documents show a first-year dispatcher is paid a $49,892.80 annual salary, and a dispatcher at the top of the city’s pay scale may earn a $58,656 annual salary.