The Ketchikan City Council meets Thursday, and will consider a new contract with the Ketchikan Professional Firefighters Association.
The firefighters’ most recent contract expired in December of last year, and city management has been negotiating a new one. The two sides came to a tentative agreement, which has been ratified by union members, according to a memo from City Manager Karl Amylon.
If approved by the Council, the agreement will be retroactive to the start of this year, and will last through the end of 2017. It includes a 1.6 percent pay raise this year, and 2 percent raises each of the subsequent years, and a reduction in the employee share of health insurance premium costs.
According to the city, the new contract will cost the city an additional $177,661.
An executive session is scheduled, in case the Council wants to talk about the bargaining agreement before voting on the issue.
Also Thursday, the Council will consider an agreement with PeaceHealth related to the purchase of furniture, fixtures and equipment. Those purchases are part of the overall $45 million Ketchikan Medical Center expansion project.
The city expected it would pay about $3 million toward furniture, fixtures and equipment, but according to a memo from Amylon, the city’s share has been reduced to $1.7 million.
The agreement up for consideration by the Council will allow the city to reimburse PeaceHealth for that amount.
Two additional executive sessions are scheduled at the end of Thursday’s meeting, for the Council to discuss the annual evaluations for the city manager and city clerk.
The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in City Council chambers. Public comment will be heard at the start of the meeting.
