Police getting big pay boost

Police are in short supply these days, so Cloquet city councilors voted Tuesday to spend the money to keep its department competitive, approving raises of 6, 5 and 4 percent in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Then they voted again after a closed session to make the pay even more competitive: adding a "market adjustment" to police hourly pay, a move that will likely increase taxes, city officials say.

"We value our police department and we want to keep them working in Cloquet," said Ward 4 councilor Kerry Kolodge, who retired from the Duluth Police Department. "It's a tough market. Everybody's looking for officers these days."

It was a hard-fought win for Teamsters 346, the union representing the Cloquet police. Negotiations began in mid-September, and the previous three-year contract expired in December 2023.

According to the staff report, the city and union negotiators could not agree on pay increases, so the two sides entered mediation, which ended in a stalemate. The next step was arbitration, which was binding on both sides. Final briefs were sent to the arbitrator in April and the city received that decision May 25.

That decision set police raises at 6, 5 and 4 percent over the three-year contract - higher than other city staff, which had received raises of 5, 4 and 3 percent over three years. The increases will bring the starting pay for a police officer to $57,600 and starting pay for a detective or sergeant to $64,719, with top pay for those positions at $85,223 in 2024.

After a closed meeting that lasted roughly 40 minutes Tuesday, the council then almost doubled the increase. They voted unanimously to add a $1.78-per-hour "market adjustment" to the Teamsters contract effective July 1, which city administrator Tim Peterson said was equivalent to 5 percent of top patrol pay.

Peterson said the city considered the public safety and well-being of the community, which requires capable and well-trained staff. Officials also needed to balance the need to pay a competitive wage with the impact to taxes. "I think that we have all seen and experienced what it looked like to go through some tough times with our police department," Peterson said.

Peterson was referring to a period of upheaval that began in 2017 and took the city years to recover from. "Currently [we have] a fantastic group of officers providing an extremely high level of service. Command staff, myself and the council are extremely proud of the police officers we currently have. Our desire is to see all of them successful in their careers and we hope that's in Cloquet."

Tight job market

Peterson said the city considers inflation and cost of living in all its negotiations, but the market adjustment is unique to the police department.

"The job market for police officers at all levels has drastically changed over the last several years," Peterson said, pointing out that there are probably over 50 law enforcement jobs open in a 10- to 20-mile radius of Cloquet, including Duluth, Hermantown and Fond du Lac police and St. Louis and Carlton County sheriff's offices. "We're all competing for the same people."

Graduation classes for four- and two-year law enforcement degrees are shrinking as well, so there aren't enough new officers entering the job market either, Peterson said.

The city also tries to hire more officers with experience.

"If you have police officers with five to 15 years of experience, it lowers training costs and makes it easy to onboard employees. Retention is a large part of that, Peterson added.

At-large councilor Lara Wilkinson said the council wants to make sure the city is offering competitive pay, benefits and work experience here.

"We're extremely proud of the department, of the team we have in place and the leadership we have in place, and we absolutely want to maintain that," she said.

Police chief Derek Randall didn't respond to emailed questions from the Pine Knot before deadline. Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake said it's definitely been a challenge to find good candidates, as the number of applicants has drastically decreased over the last couple of years. "Most candidates look at the whole package and benefits of an agency, also considering many factors that the agency has to offer. As it should be, wages are an extremely important factor for candidates to consider," Lake said. "We have seen agencies all around us that have very much increased wage packages, which becomes difficult to compete with, and good-quality candidates will choose to go elsewhere, considering there are so many open job opportunities."

Levy increase likely

But it will take more money, Peterson said, acknowledging that paying for the market adjustment will likely mean a property tax levy increase of 2.64 percent.

"The conversation that took place last night [in the closed meeting] revolved around levy increases," Peterson said in an interview Wednesday. "At this point we've exhausted a lot of the opportunities to lower costs or change providers and cut the budget. I wanted to be honest with the council that this [wage adjustment] will likely be paid through a levy increase."

The police department is approved for 24 licensed officers, including patrol officers, sergeants, detectives, two commanders and the chief. They are currently hiring for two positions.

One officer left the Cloquet department for the Carlton County Sheriff's Department about a month ago, but city officials are hoping the new contract will keep officers here.

The police department budget comes in at just under $4 million for 2024, out of a $9.2 million general fund for the city and a total overall budget of $24 million. Those figures do not include the Cloquet Area Fire District, which is a separate entity with separate taxing authority.