Juneau police union has mixed feelings about new contract reached with city
- Jasz Garrett
- 12 hours ago
- 4 min read
Agreement includes wage and health insurance increases; police union says more competitive wages still needed to address staffing problem
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
The Juneau Assembly unanimously ratified a labor agreement between the City and Borough of Juneau and the Public Safety Employees Association on Wednesday.
Sterling Salisbury, president of the PSEA Juneau chapter, said after the long process, which included arbitration, the new contract “didn’t feel like it hit the mark with the struggles we’re facing.”
“There’s parts of it that we’re happy with and parts of it we wish would be better for recruitment and retention,” he said in an interview.
The city and the Juneau police union tentatively reached an agreement earlier this month, a year after negotiations began. The contract expired on June 30 of last year and the union declared an impasse in August. The agreement negotiated between CBJ and PSEA for a collective bargaining agreement went into effect on July 1, 2025, and expires June 30, 2028.
The new agreement includes a 3% to 5% annual wage increase for the three years of the contract, employer contribution increases to health insurance, and lump sum payments of between $2,000 and $2,750 the next two years. The fiscal year 2026 wage increases were not implemented retroactively and went into effect on Feb. 9. The contract also gives police employees Juneteenth off.
The Juneau Police Department currently has 12 police officer vacancies and five dispatch vacancies in a department that has 98 employees when fully staffed (55 sworn officers and 43 civilians). Salisbury said with the new agreement, the union was hoping to be more competitive than what was ultimately agreed upon.
The union’s last offer was $500,000 to $800,000 more than what the city offered as a total general compensation package over three years, he said.
Salisbury said the vacancies are taking a toll. Some of the union’s concerns with compensation packages stemmed from dispatchers working 60-hour workweeks. He said there is an “exorbitant amount of overtime that’s happening throughout the year” for patrol officers as well.
Public safety was listed as a priority by Juneau residents in a city budget survey released Monday.
The city acknowledges recruitment and retention challenges have persisted for 15 years, according to Salisbury. He has been with the police department for nearly 20 years. Salisbury said past contributions from the city for retirement alternatives have been helpful, along with leadership changes.
“We are very, very happy with the leadership at JPD,” he said. “But when you just look at the overall cost of living — when you look at how expensive it is to live here — we’re just not getting a lot of people that want to come and stay here because they can make more money elsewhere at a cheaper place.”
In an interview, JPD Deputy Chief Krag Campbell said pay is only one element of recruitment and retention.
“Everybody loves being paid more, but in contrast, you can pay someone a ton of money, but if it’s a crummy place to work, people aren’t going to stay,” he said. “Pay is not always going to keep somebody there. It’s a part of a puzzle. And probably one of the biggest pieces in there is just a positive work environment. You have a good culture, you have good morale, you feel like you are respected and trusted and valued as an employee.”
Campbell said under new leadership, JPD has streamlined its hiring and work processes, built the department’s wellness program to offer support to employees and their families, and implemented technology updates. He said the department has also raised hiring standards, helping retention by drawing higher-quality applicants. At present it takes about three to four months to hire an employee.
“One of the things that has been really positive for us is we have a recruitment coordinator position that actually deals with the recruitment,” he said. “That got implemented two years ago, roughly. We’ve seen a huge positive increase on that, because it’s someone who can stay active with applicants and communicate with them and walk them through things and help them to get to resources within the department to provide information.”
Campbell said vacancies at the department do mean staff are working overtime and additional shifts to provide minimum coverage. It can also mean fewer staff working at a time and delayed response for calls. He said leadership is continuing efforts to create a positive work environment.
“Especially in police work, you have a lot of negative things that you deal with that are just the nature of the job, but having a work environment that you feel valued and respected just makes a great place to work,” he said. “That’s one of the things that we can strive for and give to the employees, whether it’s how we communicate, how we treat people, and trying to just do things and listen to people.”
Juneau’s high living expenses are driving the need for competitive wages by other unions whose contracts have not yet been reached, according to representatives.
The city is still at an impasse with the firefighters’ union, which represents the majority of firefighters at Capital City Fire/Rescue. The Juneau School District has scheduled an arbitration hearing in April with the Juneau Education Association, the teachers’ union. The school district is also in mediation with the Juneau Education Support Staff.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
