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Police, fire get pay hikes

Council members defend police raises
Longmont police report
Longmont Public Safety (photo courtesy of LPS)

City Council members last week defended approving new three-year contracts for the city’s police and firefighter unions, fending off criticism that the pay raises for police are too high.

Police will be seeing 4% raises annually across the board for sworn personnel and three percent annually across the board for civilian personnel in 2022, 2023 and 2024, Jim Golden, Longmont’s chief financial officer, said via email.

According to the step pay salary schedule under the new contract, a police officer 1 will be paid $5,660 monthly; a master police officer will receive $8,273 and a sergeant gets $9,836.  

Four percent raises may seem high but people should consider what police do every day in Longmont, Councilmember Polly Christensen said. 

“Our police take care of us, they take care of our town,”Christensen added. “These are not normal, 9-5 jobs. I think four percent is not a large amount of money to pay the people who keep us safe.”

The city council voted for the pay packages on Tuesday, a few hours after members of Washington D.C. Capitol Police testified about being assaulted during the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol building. “To hear them explain what they went through, is unbelievable,” Christensen said.

Councilmember Marcia Martin added police officers face more pressures and demands than ever before. 

“How much are we demanding from our public safety officers now?” Martin told the council. “We need to understand this is a high pressure job” and that police have not been “particularly popular over the last few years.”

The raises will also keep Longmont competitive in the job market for police, she said.

For 2022, most firefighter and firefighter/paramedics are receiving a 6% pay increase, Golden said. Firefighter/paramedic step 3 employees are receiving a 4.79% increase; engineers are getting a 7.17%; firefighter/engineer/paramedics are receiving an 8.66% increase, Golden said.

Lieutenants will get a 6.98% increase; and captains receive a 6.72% increase. In 2023 and 2024, increases are 4% across the board, Golden said.

Under the new salary schedule for 2022, a firefighter 1 receives an annual base wage of $62,652; a fire lieutenant gets $110,098 and a captain receives $123,166. Firefighter positions also receive shift hourly base pay and day hourly base pay, according to the pay schedule.