Council approves 2025-26 salary schedule and union wage addenda, citing comparability studies

The Hastings City Council unanimously approved the citywide 2025-26 salary schedule and wage addenda for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 9 and the Hastings Firefighters Association, Local 675 (IAFF) after staff explained the comparability process used to set the adjustments. The three items passed on voice or roll-call votes recorded as 8–0. City staff explained that nonunion salary adjustments are set on off-years by surveying a municipal array (Grand Island, North Platte, Scottsbluff, Norfolk, Columbus, Fremont and Kearney) and that police and fire contracts require annual comparability studies with a police/fire array (Columbus, Fremont, Grand Island, Kearney and Norfolk for police; Beatrice, Columbus, Fremont, Grand Island, Norfolk and North Platte for fire). In the absence of a formal comparability study for nonunion employees this year, the administration recommended a 2.5% adjustment and reported police and fire arrays also supported approximately the same adjustment. “We just went with 2 and a half percent for the adjustment to the salary schedule,” a staff member said during the presentation. Councilors asked for clarification about which cities are in the arrays and why counties are not used as comparators; staff said the array composition and process derives from state statute and municipal practice. The approved actions separate the salary-schedule adoption (required by ordinance separate from the budget) and the union wage addenda (contractually required) from the general budget adoption process. What happens next: the approved wage addenda and salary schedule will be incorporated into department budgets and payroll for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2025.