For City Council Meeting August 12, 2025
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
FROM: Tanya Williams, City Manager
BY: Shama Curian, Director of Human Resources and Risk Management
Title
Request City Council to: (1) Adopt Resolution No. 8392 Approving the Memorandum of Understanding Establishing Compensation and Related Benefits for Employees Represented by the Rialto Police Benefits Association - Management Employees; and (2) Adopt Resolution No. 8393 Updating the Citywide Classification and Compensation Plan for Full-time and Part-time Employees; to Amend the Salaries for those Classifications Represented by the Rialto Police Benefits Association- Management Unit.
(ACTION)
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1) Adopt a Resolution approving the Memorandum of Understanding establishing compensation and related benefits for employees represented by the Rialto Police Benefits Association - Management Employees; and,
2) Adopt a Resolution updating the Citywide Classification and Compensation Plan for Full-time and Part-time Employees; to amend the salaries for those classifications represented by the Rialto Police Benefits Association - Management Unit.
SUMMARY
The Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) establishes terms and conditions of employment and compensation for City employees represented by the Rialto Police Benefits Association - Management Group (“RPBA-M”). Pursuant to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, the City met and conferred in good faith concerning wages, benefits, and working conditions with this Employee Association. The total projected cost of the agreement is $661,732 over a contract term of 2 years: Fiscal Year 2025-26 through 2026-27.
BACKGROUND
The previous RPBA-M Memorandum of Understanding expired on June 30, 2025. Negotiations began in earnest in April of this year. Both City representatives and the RPBA-M unit initiated a focused negotiation process, which called for commitment from both sides to have as many meetings as possible in an attempt to reach an agreement. City representatives and the RPBA-M partnered together to ensure fair compensation while working towards a common goal of long-term fiscal sustainability.
The City continues to take necessary steps to meet current and future challenges, including continually shifting economic factors, increases to retirement costs, and changing demographics. These issues, along with the ability to provide competitive, fair-market wages, were the tenor of these negotiation meetings. RPBA-M and City management representatives have since held a number of collaborative and productive meetings to discuss the MOU and issues raised by both parties regarding hours, wages, working conditions, and personnel policies.
During the course of negotiations, management representatives met with the City Council to discuss the status and progress and received direction on specific items under consideration.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION
Balancing the understanding that the City continues to compete with surrounding municipalities to attract and retain talent with the possibility of future economic uncertainty, the RPBA-M negotiation team held true to their commitment to the process and worked closely with the City management representatives to reach an agreement. The Memorandum of Understanding (Exhibit 1 to Attachment 1) is a 2-year term commencing retroactively to July 1, 2025, and expiring on June 30, 2027. The membership has since voted to accept the City’s offer.
Detailed information on the most notable revisions for the MOU is included below.
Wages and Other Compensation
The proposed MOU provides for members in the RPBA-M group to receive cost-of-living adjustments in each year of the contracts:
• July 1, 2025: 3%
• July 1, 2026: 3%
(COLA Adjustments are reflected on the Classification and Compensation Plan- Exhibit 1 to Attachment 2)
Medical Benefit Allowance
The City of Rialto is among other public agencies in Southern California that contract with CalPERS to provide medical insurance to its employees. These Cities also provide employees with a medical benefit allowance to purchase medical, dental, and/or vision insurance through City-provided carriers such as CalPERS.
The proposed MOU allows for increases beginning December 1, 2025, to the medical benefit allowance to keep pace with increasing costs of health care premiums. The increases to the medical are over a two-year term:
• Effective December 1, 2025, the City will contribute an additional $175/mo. towards unit employees’ monthly cafeteria allowance.
• Effective December 1, 2026, the City will contribute an additional $150/mo. towards unit employees’ monthly cafeteria allowance.
Deferred Compensation
The proposed MOU also provides for additional contributions to unit employees’ 401(a) plans as follows:
• Effective July 1, 2025: City will contribute an additional $50/month towards unit employees’ 401(a) plan
• Effective July 1, 2026: City will contribute an additional $25/month towards unit employees’ 401(a) plan
Miscellaneous Items
The proposed MOU contains revisions to comply with laws and clean-up language to update practices and procedures. These MOU items were proposed by City Management and RPBA-M to streamline, simplify, and modernize the document.
CITY ASKS:
• Bilingual Pay: The Police Chief will assess the need for bilingual capabilities annually in conjunction with the Human Resources and Risk Management Director who will jointly determine if the position still requires the need for bilingual capabilities.
• Cafeteria Benefits: Those unit employees who go on a leave of absence without pay other than workers’ compensation shall have their cafeteria dollars prorated to hours worked.
• Vacation Accrual Accounting: Other than workers’ compensation, anytime a unit employee is on a leave of absence without pay, the vacation leave accruals will be prorated towards hours worked.
• Sick Leave: Other than workers’ compensation, anytime a unit employee is on a leave of absence without pay, sick leave accruals will be prorated towards hours worked.
• Educational Incentive: Unit employees who have an AA degree or units for an AA degree will no longer receive the education incentive.
• Any unit employee who enrolls into a university or college after July 1, 2025, to obtain a degree, must obtain the degree from universities regionally accredited through WASC or Equivalent Regional Accreditation Agency, or the ACCJC.
• Overpayment in Paychecks: In the event of an overpayment in an employee’s paycheck, the employee will work with HR/RM and payroll to pay back the overpayments in a reasonable timeframe.
ASSOCIATION MISCELLANEOUS ASKS:
• Family Bereavement Leave: Include language of reproductive loss as required by law.
• Add language to the titles of the Retirement Plans to include those employees enrolled with CalPERS or Reciprocal Agencies.
• Include language of underpayments into the overpayment of paychecks.
• Fix numbering throughout the MOU.
With the end of May 2025 Consumer Price Index increase for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in the Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario region being about 2.6%, along with the annual average increase in medical premiums of 7%, the proposed agreement strives to provide a compensation package that keeps up with expected inflation, allows the City to remain competitive in the current labor market pool, but also preserves the City’s financial position to react to potential future budget challenges.
The proposed agreement helps align the City’s workforce strategies with its business and service goals and represents a fair and equitable contract for the employees and the City.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
This request is not a Project as defined by Section 15378 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines. A “Project” means the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. Pursuant to Section 15378 (b)(5), a project does not include organizational or administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY
This action is consistent with Guiding Principle 3A in the General Plan:
“Our City government will lead by example, and will operate in an open, transparent, and responsible manner that meets the needs of the citizens and is a good place to do business.”
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney has reviewed the resolutions and approved them as to form.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Operating Budget Impact
The Agreement with RPBA-M is projected to cost $661,732 for the two-year agreement, including CalPERS retirement costs and all associated costs that are tied to salary and benefit increases. Adequate funding for this agreement is included in the Adopted Fiscal Year 2025-26 Budget, and no additional appropriation is needed.
The costs for FY 2026-27 will be incorporated into the future budget.
Capital Improvement Budget Impact
There is no impact to the Capital Improvement Budget through this action.