In an effort to retain employees and become more competitive with cities comparable to Batavia, the deal was struck to bump up salaries with a 3 percent increase the first year, followed by a 2.5 percent for each second and third year, Assistant Manager Erik Fix had said.
The total budget impact for the three-year deal is an extra $296,220.
At that time, Councilman Bob Bialkowski asked if the extra holiday would cause any issues with overtime for officers, and Chief Shaw Heubusch didn’t believe it would. During this week’s meeting, Bialkowski said that he’s been waiting for a list of police salaries and has not received them yet.
Councilwoman Tammy Schmidt told him about the online site of seethroughny, which lists salaries for any government position in New York State. Bialkowski still wanted to obtain a current list from management, he said.
"Remember why we did this,” Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said.
Jankowski wanted to remind Bialkowski and others that the reason they approved the raises was to align the salaries with comparable areas to attract quality candidates for vacancies and retain current employees.
The city of Geneva has been previously used by officials and consultants for comparison to Batavia. Geneva has a population that is smaller -- just under 13,000 -- and a median yearly wage larger -- $44,000 -- than Batavia. Top pay in Geneva for the police/fire departments is $125,633, with many salaries falling within the $70,000 to $90,000 range.
Batavia’s population is about 15,000, with a median yearly wage of $33,000.
Batavia’s highest salary is $141,275, and has a few in the $50,000, $60,000 range, and several in the $70,000, $80,000, $90,000 and $100,000 range.
More specifically, a longtime, upper level position of sergeant is in the $140,000 range, and a police officer that began in 2020 makes $68,382. Another officer that began in 2022 makes $50,815.
With the new contract in place, that new officer will go to $52,339.45 in the first year, to $53,647.94 the second year, and $54,989.13 by year three, for a total raise of more than $4,000 over three years. For an officer making $68,682, that will put him at $73,999.16, or $5,317 more, by year three. Obviously, the higher the salary is, the more the cumulative raise will be.
This part of the 2023-24 budget has already been sealed with council's vote to approve the contract. A public hearing for the budget and related tax cap override has been set for 7 p.m. Feb. 27 at City Hall.
Filel Photo of Councilman Bob Bialkowski by Joanne Beck
