Although the Winnemucca City Council approved a seven percent Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase for the next two years for city employees, they denied a request by the Winnemucca City Employee Association (WCEA) and the Winnemucca Police Officers Association (WPOA) for a retention bonus. The decisions came during a regular meeting June 6.
The Council voted unanimously to deny the WCEA's request of a one-time $1,500 bonus per employee (totaling $37,000) and the WPOA's request of $2,500 (totaling $97,00 if exempt employees are included). Many council members did not want to reopen the contracts that the council, WPOA and WCEA approved through a collective bargaining agreement previously, in June 2022.
“I’ve never even heard of reopening the contract on a one sided request…during negotiations we chose the very best for our employees for two years,” said councilman Mike Owens.
WCEA Union President Heather Elder represented the city’s employees spoke to councilmen about what other similar municipalities are doing with American Rescue Act Funds, or COVID relief funds, noting that many have chosen to reward employee retention with a one-time bonus in an effort to balance increasing inflation. WPOA Union President Chuckuma Jones was unable to be present.
“The city’s law enforcement officers will only be receiving a 1.5% raise on the take home wages in July 2023 to July 2024," Elder said. "At the low end that is 41 cents per hour for Step 1 officers and 63 cents at the highest end, which is Step 8 —sergeants. Inflation is still estimated above 5% and last year was 8.38%."
The city reportedly has approximately $3 million in unspent ARPA funds, although that amount has been committed according to officials.
Elder noted the city's high turnover rate, adding, "the job pool is very tight and even worse for government and law enforcement. Attracting — and most importantly keeping — qualified employees is very challenging in these careers," she said. "Since July 2022, 20% of the city workforce, excluding officers, have moved to employment with Humboldt County. The turnover rate for city employees, excluding officers, since July 2022 is 44%.”
According to Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers Executive Director Andrew Regenbaum, the contractual agreement and COLA increase was approved before Nevada’s PERS significantly increased the amount that each employee must contribute, effectively eliminating the increase that was negotiated. Coupled with inflation, these increases are virtually “wiped out.”
“These (PERS) increases will effectively wipe out the entire cost of living increase that all of the city employees had negotiated to receive in their contract," Regenbaum said in an email. "This was not planned and is an injustice to those employees who care for the community day in and day out. That is why the employees, through their two unions, requested the one-time bonus, using federal funds that the city has not spent, to assist these employees with being able to pay their day to day expenses.”
Mayor Rich Stone said the PERS contribution increase is meant to help employees over the long term.
“Money is not coming back to the city, it is not being taken away from [City employees and law enforcement officers]," he said. "It’s just going into [their] retirement program at a faster rate.”
Elder pointed out that city employees were never compensated with ARPA funds during the pandemic, despite being “essential” and working throughout and that other entities, such as the state of Nevada, are using funds for retention bonuses. Some state employees are receiving $1,000-$2,000 retention bonuses, she said, and cities like Henderson (Nev.,) and Pocatello in southern Idaho are finding creative ways to use funds for retention.
Regenbaum agreed.
“There are no lack of examples from all over the State where federal funds have been used recently to provide bonuses to the municipal employees," Regenbaum noted after the meeting with city officials. "Even the recent State budget includes long overdue bonuses for state law enforcement personnel and employees."
Mayor Stone explained that even though $3 million in ARPA funds exist, monies have already been committed to several projects including improvements to the city's sewer and water system, server and cyber security updates, well improvements and much more.
According to the city’s accountant, under the guidelines for the American Rescue Plan Act in the Federal Register, there must be justification for using the funds for retention, including proof that employees would leave without it. The accountant said proving that point is difficult.
The Federal Register states that, “[ARPA] funds may be used to provide worker retention incentives, which are designed to persuade employees to remain with the employer as compared to other employment options. Recipients must be able to substantiate that the employees were likely to leave employment in the absence of the retention incentive and should document their assessment.”
City Manager Alicia Heiser explained that it is likely that the justification for the bonuses would have to be substantiated with individual agreements with certain retention requirements, but if the employee did not stay with the city, a prorated portion would have to be paid back. If this fell outside of the timeline for ARPA expenditures, the city would have to pay that money back to the Nevada treasury.
Councilman Ashley Maden said, “Of course we value our employees and want to invest back into that long term, but how do we spend $100,000 on that when we know the community needs a multi-million-dollar pool investment, or that there are sidewalks that need repair? That money doesn’t go very far…Those ARPA funds are there to help those long-term investments. I don’t think that anyone out here takes that lightly as far as where to invest.”