The Ripon City Council will meet this morning on matters regarding the Police Officer’s Association and the Police Sergeant’s Association.

During the 11 o’clock special session in the City of Ripon Council Chambers, 259 N. Wilma Ave., elected leaders will consider staff’s recommendations on adopting the Memorandum of Understanding that covers salary, benefits, and working conditions for the local police unions.

This MOU will be from July 1 of this year through June 30, 2027.

Council will also look to pass the resolution for the financial transfer to fund the off-schedule retention payments of the Police Officers, Sergeants, and Dispatchers over the next three years.

According to the staff report by City Clerk & Finance Director Lisa Roos, these payments will have a fiscal impact of $380,000 over that three-year span.

“If the fiscal year 2022-2023, the City’s General Fund had a surplus of $1,074,441. After the Street & Road Reserve transfer of $354,566 is accounted for, the net surplus amount available is $719,875,” she said.

The funding for this will come from the fiscal year 2022-2023 surplus, Roos added.

 Over the last eight years, she pointed out that 13 sworn officers have since resigned from the local police force or transferred to other police departments.

Of those 13 sworn officers, 10 of them had less than five years of service to the Ripon Police Department.

In an effort to address this unique retention challenge with sworn officers, Roos said that the City has approved off-schedule one-time retention payments for the police officers and police sergeants in the July 1 2024 through June 30, 2927 MOU, as well as the police dispatchers and lead dispatchers through a resolution amending the Ripon Employee Compensation Plan for fiscal year 2024-2025.