EPHRATA — The union representing Ephrata Police Department officers has come to an agreement with city officials on a new collective bargaining agreement. Ephrata City Council members approved the new contract at the regular meeting Wednesday. 

The contract will expire January 1, 2029. The previous contract expired in 2024.  

Officers will receive a 5% salary increase in 2027 and a 4.75% increase in 2028. A 4.1% raise for 2024 was in the final contract, along with a 4% raise in 2025 and a 4.5% raise in 2026. Qualifying EPD officers will receive retroactive pay for 2024 through 2026. 

"We kept in with the terms of the prior agreement during that time frame, and now that the new agreement has been adopted, we are going to go through and grandfather that back to the end date for the past agreement," said Ephrata City Clerk Rob Miller. "Our officers will get back pay and so forth associated with the time frame between then and now." 

Miller said city officials worked to balance fair accommodation for EPD officers with the city's finances. 

"We can make sure everything is taken care of, and they can get the back pay they are due while we look out for the city's best interests from a financial standpoint," Miller said. "We do want to make sure they are well compensated. They put their lives on the line, and they serve us very, very well." 

City administrator Ray Towry said the two sides had been negotiating, off and on since 2024, a process that eventually ended in arbitration. Salary was one of the sticking points, he said. 

"We were just really far apart in the financial piece of the negotiations, and it took time to break those numbers down and come to an agreement," Towry wrote in answer to an email from the Columbia Basin Herald. 

A combination of factors converged to prolong the negotiations, he said.  

"This was an old contract, so we updated a lot of the language to bring it into alignment with current practices and changes in both federal and state laws," Towry said. "Also, when we reached a point that we couldn't come to an agreement and the union filed for mediation, the state mediator had a family emergency and had to be called away out of state. That added about four months to the process. If there was one thing the union and the city agreed upon, it was that the mediator was not helpful even after that wait, so when we then filed for arbitration, that waiting list took several months. So at least one year of the whole process had to do with waiting for the state." 

A contract that was in negotiation for two and a half years is unusual for Ephrata, Miller said. 

"Both parties felt that it was more important to do it correctly and to make sure that the officers and our residents were taken care of than to rush through it when we had something in place that could take care of things for now while we set up a solid agreement for both sides," he said. 

The contract also includes changes to the EPD retirement plan, at the request of the union, Miller said. Some additional upfront contributions by police officers will result in upgraded post-retirement benefits.  

While the contract doesn't expire until January 2029, Miller said both sides preparing for the next one.  

"We're going to work ahead. They're already looking at when they need to start negotiations for that next contract to make sure that we don't have any lapse like occurred this time," he said. 

    The Ephrata City Council ratified an agreement between the city and the union representing Ephrata Polie Department officers last week.