The Philomath City Council approved a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Philomath Police Personnel Association on Monday night by a 5-1 vote.
The agreement, formalized through Resolution 26-24, covers July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2029, and replaces a previous contract that expired June 30.
According to information published with meeting materials, the contract includes a pay increase in its first year aligned with council direction and the adopted budget, followed by cost-of-living adjustments in years two and three intended to keep wage growth in line with comparable agencies.
Other changes include adjustments to vacation accrual rates, updated holiday pay practices, minor changes to special assignment and incentive pay, and a shift to a fixed employer contribution — rather than a percentage of the deductible — for employees’ health reimbursement accounts.
Assistant City Manager Chelsea Starner, who helped lead negotiations alongside the city’s labor attorney, described the process as a difficult one, pointing to the lengthy budget discussions that preceded it, much of which centered on the police department.
“It was a difficult process because of some of the reasons that we’ve already extensively talked about in some of those dozen or dozens of hours,” Starner said. “That being said, I really want to express appreciation to the (Philomath) Police Personnel Association’s members who came to the table — did this hard work with myself and our labor attorney.”
Starner credited city employees broadly for their dedication through what she described as a demanding process.
“We are very lucky here to have just so many employees that are very, very dedicated to the community and the city and just work very hard to get through these processes,” she said.
The new contract raises the wage for police officers by 7.8% effective July 1, retroactive to the start of the fiscal year. According to a bargaining note included with the agreement, that figure breaks down into a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment, a 4.5% market adjustment and 0.5% tied to the elimination of a $35 monthly uniform cleaning fee the city had previously paid. Under the new pay schedule, a starting officer’s hourly rate rises from the prior contract’s rate to $32.13, while a top-step, seven-year officer earns $43.05 an hour. The contract calls for 4% increases to the wage schedule in each of the following two years.
Starner addressed how the pay increases were structured.
“The cost increases were increased per council guidance and then set cost of living for the following two years to try to maintain that little bit of increase that we had,” Starner said.
Mayor Christopher McMorran said he valued the effort staff put into the negotiations but repeated concerns he’s raised previously about the timing of union bargaining relative to the city’s budget calendar. He also flagged the contract’s longer-term budget implications.
“I am a little concerned about the impacts this will have on our budget moving forward,” he said. “I just hope we kind of keep that in mind — it’s not just this one bump then two additional bumps after that. I know those bumps are smaller but they’re also larger than what we’re giving to our other union and to our unclassified staff. I think it’s deserved, it’s just something we’ll need to really keep a strict eye on when we’re budgeting moving forward.”
Councilor Jessica Andrade said she struggled to support the agreement in part because of the tight budget but also given how other city employee groups have fared in comparison.
“If we’re going to do this much for the police, I don’t like not being able to do it for those other employees,” she said.
Andrade cast the lone no vote and Councilor Teresa Nielson appeared to have dropped out of the teleconference as the collective bargaining agreement discussion was beginning, which factored into the 5-1 tally.
