Fairview council approves three-year Teamsters contract, city manager says raises and restructuring aim to align pay with market

Fairview’s City Council voted Aug. 6 to authorize the city manager to execute a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters union, a contract the city manager said restructures job titles, funds a comprehensive compensation study and provides near-term pay adjustments to better align city wages with market levels.

Why it matters: the agreement changes pay and classification practices for municipal employees represented by the Teamsters, affects payroll and benefits budgeting, and sets a path for future periodic compensation adjustments tied to a study of comparable jurisdictions.

City Manager presentation: the city manager told council staff worked with union representatives, department heads, HR and finance to reach the deal. He described a compensation strategy that includes a comprehensive study by an external contractor (Lane Council Governments) and a near-term pay adjustment tied to that study. "We did negotiate and reach an agreement that includes a compensation study and adjustments so employees are within a fair market range," he said.

Key provisions described by the city manager included: - A three-year contract term (with an option discussed to extend to five years via future agreement). - A near-term compensation adjustment process tied to the external study; the manager said the council-approved budget included funds to support adjustments and that the parties negotiated a near-term COLA/adjustment arrangement. - A 1 percent employer contribution to retirement (presented as a negotiated match), a change from a higher initial union request. - Clarified and reclassified job titles across departments (for example, reclassifying some administrative and finance assistant jobs to accounting clerk tiers and renaming an IT coordinator to IT manager where duties warrant the title). - Changes to leave administration such as clearer bereavement language and an option to make certain vacation payouts semiannual for long-tenured employees.

The city manager described other non-wage changes he said would improve clarity and practice: cleaning up on-call pay language, formalizing the role of the city manager for certain exceptions, and adding Juneteenth as an observed holiday.

Council action: a councilor moved to approve Resolution 26-2025; the motion passed by voice vote with no recorded opposition. The council did not request a rollback of the agreed terms during the public meeting.

What wasn’t in the meeting record: the presentation included a number of financial estimates and examples but did not list a complete itemized cost to the general fund; the city manager said staff would implement the compensation adjustments in line with the forthcoming study and budget allowances.

Next steps: city staff said they will implement the contract terms, run the compensation study with Lane Council Governments and return to council with specific, budgeted salary adjustments once the study and calculations are complete.

Quotes in this article are taken from presentations and public record during the Aug. 6, 2025 Fairview City Council meeting.