Jefferson City Council and firefighters to negotiate contracts

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Monday, Jefferson City Local 671 will meet with the City Council to negotiate their contract. With money from the public safety tax passed in November, discussions will focus on a progressive pay plan.

At a time when public safety recruitment is on a downward trend, this discussion is especially important. James Noah, president of Local 671, said this pay plan would help with employee retention.

"Employee retention is a huge process for us," Noah said. "With the amount of money it takes to bring a new firefighter in, outfit them appropriately, sometimes sending them to extra training. We want to maintain that investment we have without employees and our members to keep them committed to Jefferson City."

Noah said this pay plan will provide a roadmap for new recruits to know what their pay would look like for the next nine years.

"Our pay scale that we're proposing, the progressive pay plan that we have, as we have said time and time again, it's a good faith measure to incentivize people for their longevity and their years of service in the city," Noah said.

The union shares that it's been working on these negotiations for a year and they hope to come to a solution at this meeting.