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City employees urge Chula Vista to update outdated pay comparators and compensation policy
Summary
Union representatives and city employees urged the council to update salary comparator agencies and the Employer Employee Relations Policy (EERP), arguing outdated comparators and a 1999 policy dampen pay competitiveness and contribute to vacancies across departments.
Representatives of multiple bargaining units and city employees asked the City Council to update the city’s compensation comparators and the Employer Employee Relations Policy (EERP), which speakers said have not been comprehensively updated in decades.
Mayra Estrella, president of the Association of Chula Vista Employees, said the unions delivered a petition asking for ‘‘equitable, fair, and competitive pay for every City of Chula Vista employee’’ and asked for transparency in the wage‑setting process because many comparator agencies are out of date. "When outdated comparators are relied upon, wages become artificially compressed," Estrella said, and she told the council many city classifications now fall behind regional market rates.
Jennifer Lima and Thomas Swanson, representing other bargaining units, reinforced the request, saying comparator lists include agencies that have not been updated since 2013 and the EERP was last revised in 1999. Swanson, representing the Western Council of Engineers, told the council that updating comparators and the EERP is critical to competitive salaries and said he expects the policy to be updated before the next negotiation cycle in 2027.
Speakers linked pay compression to recruitment and retention problems across public safety support, street maintenance, parks, libraries, engineering and other services. They asked the council to commit to updating comparator agencies, to add transparency to the process and to begin a collaborative review with bargaining units.
City officials acknowledged the concerns and county/region wage pressures described by speakers and the mayor and council indicated willingness to work with staff and labor representatives on updated comparators and an EERP review.
