To implement all the proposed compensation adjustments, staff recommended a General Fund budget amendment of $1.11 million in fiscal year 2026-27. Photo courtesy of Magnific

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - At the July 8 meeting, the Citrus Heights City Council considered adopting Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) for the Citrus Heights Police Officers’ Association (CHPOA) and the Citrus Heights Police Employees Association (CHPEA), as well as an amended salary table with cost-of-living adjustments, market equity adjustments and amendments to the employer contributions for employee health benefits. 

Projected revenues are not keeping pace with the rising costs of delivering city services, so City Manager Ash Feeney said the city undertook some organizational restructuring to ensure they maintain fiscal stability while also retaining valuable employees. 

Four vacant police officer positions will be eliminated. And the traffic unit will be dissolved, and those officers reassigned to patrol to strengthen that core service. 

To implement all the proposed compensation adjustments, staff recommended a General Fund budget amendment of $1.11 million in fiscal year 2026-27. These costs include salary adjustments, medical benefit increases, and an additional 1.3% cost-of-living adjustment to the 2.5% already budgeted for a total of 3.8% for this fiscal year. 

The cost to implement the proposed salary and medical adjustments for unrepresented employees is $805,265 in fiscal year 2026-27 and $1.19 million in 2027-28. The estimated cost of implementing the CHPOA MOU is $966,787 in 2026-27 and $1.45 million in 2027-28. The estimated cost of implementing the CHPEA MOU is $242,469 in 2026-27 and $388,289 in 2027-28.

To offset these increased personnel costs, the organizational restructuring should result in expenditure savings of $974,645 in fiscal year 2026-27 and $1.24 million in 2027-28. 

The current adopted budget for fiscal year 2026-27 initially had a projected ending reserve balance of around $34 million. Feeney said after these compensation updates and restructuring, the city will still have almost $33 million in ending reserves. 

Mayor MariJane Lopez-Taff said it was a long negotiation, and she appreciated staff’s dedication to ensuring fiscal prudence while maintaining vital services. 

Councilmember Tim Schaefer said Citrus Heights runs efficiently because they have a “small and mighty” staff, which he wants to retain. But he cautioned that the ever-increasing salary costs could eventually put the city into an unsustainable financial position. 

During public comment, two residents said they disagreed with reducing the number of police officers and don’t want to see funding taken away from the police department. 

City Manager Feeney clarified that no officers were laid off during this process; the city is simply removing some vacant positions from the budget. “We actually are increasing the police department budget.” Feeney said the goal is to ensure that the most vital services are fully funded while also ensuring the city avoids a structural deficit: “If you wait to solve the problem later, that problem’s much deeper and much harder to solve,” eventually leading to loss of employees and cuts to core services. 

Feeney said this agreement and the associated adjustments ensure operational efficiency and the maintenance of core services. 

The council voted unanimously to approve the recommended MOUs and salary adjustments. 

Due to the summer recess, the July 22 meeting was cancelled. The next meeting of the Citrus Heights City Council is scheduled for Aug. 12.