Four Year Agreement Reached
At the October 11th, 2023 Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s (MROSD) public meeting, the Board of Directors voted to enter into a four (4) year contract with the Midpeninsula Rangers Peace Officers Association (POA). This vote was the final step needed to enter into the contract as the POA ratified the contract on September 11th, 2023.
Parts of this contract are retro active and start on July 1st, 2023, and the expiration of the contract will be June 30th, 2027. This is the first contract between MROSD and the POA, and it was reached after more than two (2) years of negotiations.
Achievements of the contract include:
A 15.9 % salary increase over 4 years
Deferred compensation account: $50/paycheck and 3% match of base pay with an increase to 5% in 2026
Medical contributions raised to current 2023 Kaiser costs
Industrial disability retirement to be provided by the middle of 2024
An increase in night shift differential pay and uniform allowance
Double time pay for overtime on a holiday
The MROSD Board approved the contract with all seven board members voting in favor. MROSD Board President Yoriko Kishimoto described the agreement as a “breakthrough” and expressed her congratulations to both sides for reaching this agreement.
POA President Alexander Hapke provided the following statement regarding the ratified contract:
“I’d like to acknowledge the time and effort of both negotiations teams to get to a signed agreement both sides could accept under the current circumstances. Both sides willingness to have a mutual dialogue on the issues raised allowed this contract to come to fruition. For the association, this is the culmination of 5 years of work to improve the rangers salaries, benefits, and working conditions, and there’s still more to do.”
This agreement is a starting point as the first contract applying to all rangers, but unfortunately it was not a perfect deal as shown by many POA membership votes not to ratify this contract. Those who voted not to ratify this contract would say that what was provided is insufficient to meet their needs. We do appreciate the District's acknowledgement that as peace officers we have access to benefits that do not apply to other staff. However, compared to other peace officers, firefighters, and first responders who have safety retirement, a stand-alone defined benefit pension, MROSD rangers are still contracted under a miscellaneous retirement plan designed for administrative staff and will likely be reliant on the cycles of the stock market to determine whether they will be able to afford to retire.
The association will therefore continue to exhibit events that occur in the field which show that District rangers need the protections of public safety retirement benefits.
