Council approves three-year contract for public-safety managers after debate over cost presentation

The Oxnard City Council unanimously approved a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Wednesday between the City of Oxnard and the Oxnard Public Safety Managers Association (OPSMA), a bargaining unit that represents mid- and senior-level police and fire managers.

Steve Novo, the city—s human resources director, summarized the agreement: "The item before you tonight is to approve a memorandum of understanding with the Oxnard Public Safety Managers Association. It's for a 3 year term," Novo said, adding that the package includes step and salary adjustments, standby pay and holiday hours and that the total percent increase over the term is 15.09 percent.

The MOU covers police commanders, assistant police chiefs, fire battalion chiefs and assistant fire chiefs. The staff report estimated the cost using two methods. Novo said staff included both approaches "because finance people look at it a particular way where it would be 1.7 [million], and labor folks would look at it as it's a year over year increase." His presentation identified the labor-methodology cost as approximately $869,121 (year-over-year deltas) and the budget-methodology cumulative cost as $1,714,859.

A public speaker, identified as Mr. Patel, challenged the city—s presentation, calling the lower labor-method number "misleading and a misrepresentation of the truth." Patel urged the council to present the cumulative budget methodology as the headline figure and said the true three-year cost was $1,714,859.

Council members discussed recruitment and overtime pressures in public safety. Police Chief Benitez and Fire Chief Hamilton described fewer applicants in recent years and an upcoming wave of retirements among chief-level staff. "People do not want to do this job as much as they did 7 years ago," Chief Benitez said, noting applicant totals fell from about 1,300 in 2017 to just over 600 in 2023. Chief Hamilton said the fire department had seen a roughly 30 percent drop in applicants between recent academies.

Several council members framed the wage adjustments as a response to wage compression between managers and staff who earn substantial overtime; Councilmember Osterholm said the increases address "compaction" and recommended staff lead future contract summaries with the budget-methodology cumulative figure so the public can see total outlays.

After discussion, Councilmember Perez moved to adopt the MOU as recommended by staff; the council approved the MOU 7-0.