City prepares 2024 budget

Fire, police contracts settled with new pay structure; council to hold public hearing Sept. 25

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The financial picture in 2024 for the City of Kokomo is starting to come into focus. The city recently settled labor contracts with Firefighters Local 396 and the Fraternal Order of Police. And on Sept. 11, the Kokomo Common Council passed the annual budget on first reading.

If adopted as written, the 2024 budget will be $85,307,396 with a little more than $75 million of that coming from local property taxes. By comparison, the 2023 budget totaled $79,452,693, with $71.3 million coming from local property taxes.

The council will hold a public hearing on the 2024 budget at its Sept. 25 meeting. Copies of the proposed budget salary ordinances are available to review at www.cityofkokomo.org.

According to Kokomo Common Councilman Tom Miklik, who serves as a council finance chairman, there were few surprises in the proposed budget. Only a new air conditioning system at Fire Station No. 6 and a crack sealing process for streets stuck in his mind as major new expenses from a capital expenditure standpoint.

But there is a major adjustment in the way the city will compensate its firefighters and police officers. Both unions successfully negotiated new, three-year contracts with the city, and thanks to the firefighters’ bargaining team, their members and retirees will enjoy significant pay and benefit increases.

In 2024, the city will spend an additional $2.1 million on police and fire protection, which accounts for more than half of the city’s budget increase. According to Local 396 President Dan Guffey, the firefighters proposed a pay structure similar to that used by the U.S. military, which features an increase in base pay, a five-phase boost to that base pay governed by years of service, and an additional longevity pay scale. Special pay categories for training and specialization no longer exist in the contract.

New firefighters can expect an annual income of $52,947, which will increase to $62,291 in the third year. The longevity increases kick in after five years of service, with the phased boost kicking in every five years, and the longevity scale rewarding firefighters annually for their continued service.

“It's a different pay structure than we've ever had before,” said Guffey. “The team went up to the controller’s office and went over things to let him better understand it. We didn't invent the wheel. We just found the wheel that fit us.”

Mayor Tyler Moore broke with tradition and sat in on the negotiations between the city council, the firefighters, and the police. Typically, the mayor does not participate by design. He said it allowed him to remain informed without having to deal with second-hand information or rumors circulating around city offices.

Moore was pleased with the demeanor of the bargaining teams, the progress made, and the final product.

“We're just as pleased as they are with the way both parties not only negotiated at the table, but worked together away from the negotiating table,” said Moore. “I was impressed by the preparedness of the firefighters’ team, bringing us a pay structure that gave us the base to build from with them. We introduced that as a counter to the police's requests, and we’ll use that same structure for both bodies.

“At first, we were hesitant. But when we dug into the numbers and better understood it, I think it ended up being a win-win.”

The firefighter retirees see a third win in that scenario, particularly those receiving benefits under the 1937 Pension Plan. The 1937 pensioners’ pay is based on that of a first-class firefighter. At 20 years of service, their pension pays 50 percent of their salary. They can earn an additional two percent for each year of service beyond 20, to a maximum of 74 percent of their salary.

The new contract greatly increases the base pay of a first-class firefighter, so the pensioners will see a significant increase as well. Chuck Sosbe was the next to last firefighter to be hired under the 1937 plan. He was amazed by the outcome of the negotiations.

“I've never seen an increase like this as a retiree,” said Sosbe. “An $11,000 increase in our pension base? I've never seen that before. Ever.  There were some other things in the contract that we've tried to get through the years, like moving the clothing allowance and the extra pay jobs and things like that into the base salary. But it’s still a very big raise for our pensioners.”

Guffey expressed his appreciation for everyone involved in the bargaining and explained that the firefighters came to the table ready to dramatically restructure the contract.

“We actually started meeting last year and came up with a plan on how we wanted to approach this,” said Guffey. “We set some goals and parameters for ourselves, and then we went forward. I couldn't be prouder of the people that sat on my side of the table to represent the membership. We worked well together. We had an agenda that we wanted to achieve in this contract. And we were able to do that.

“I'm super proud of the city for allowing us to bring forth ideas and for bargaining in good faith. The city is taking care of the KFD family. Everybody on their side treated us with respect. We were never given ultimatums. I just can't stress enough how pleasant it was with the city, and they made a commitment.”

Guffey proposed that the sizeable increases in base pay and the restructured compensation schedule will allow the city to attract and retain firefighters and police officers. With retirements keeping rosters understaffed, those incentives will be vital.

“Financially, this puts us back in the game,” said Guffey. “You're going to love this job and want to do it for what it is, but there's a lot of sacrifice to this. Helping people is a good thing, but at the end of the day you still have to pay the bills.”

How that staffing happens and the speed at which hiring takes place, however, is very much an open question. Moore admitted that the investment made in this contract will impact the city’s ability to maintain staffing.

“I mean, we won't be as aggressive as we've been in the last three years,” said Moore. “But we'll still be able hopefully to net gain employees each year with members from each department still aging out.”