Council to take action on the Memorandum of Understanding between the City Manager of the City of Buckeye and the Buckeye Police Association (BPA) with a term from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2027.

4.A
CITY OF BUCKEYE
Regular Council Meeting
COUNCIL ACTION REPORT
MEETING DATE: 05/06/25
AGENDA ITEM: 4.A. CMO - FY2026 -
FY2027 Police Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU)
DATE PREPARED: 05/01/25
DISTRICT NO.:
STAFF LIAISON: Doug Sandstrom, Deputy City Manager,
dsandstrom@buckeyeaz.gov, (623) 349-6993
DEPARTMENT: City Manager
AGENDA ITEM TYPE: Consent Agenda
Items / New Business
ACTION/MOTION: (This language identifies the formal motion to be made by the Council) 
Council to take action on the Memorandum of Understanding between the City Manager of the City of
Buckeye and the Buckeye Police Association (BPA) with a term from July 1, 2025 through June 30,
2027.
SUMMARY
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Representatives of the BPA and the city met several times over the months of January and February to
review requests, understand the needs, background and driving force behind their requests in order to
develop a recommendation for council that enables our success as an innovative, fiscally responsible,
high-performing organization. The agreed upon items in this MOU meet these criteria and reinforce our
commitment to our residents and our employees. The proposed MOU was approved by the BPA
membership in March and if approved by council will become effective with the new fiscal year in July.
Council approved a two (2) year MOU on June 20, 2023 covering FY2024 and FY2025, the below is a
summary of the major modifications which are proposed for council consideration in the MOU to cover
FY2026-FY2027.
Overtime: All hours worked will count towards overtime. Currently leave such as vacation, sick or
holiday does not count as hours worked when calculating overtime. With this modification,
employees working hours outside of their normal work schedule will generally be paid at an
overtime rate. This is standard practice in nearly all of our benchmark cities.
Specialty Pay: Police employees on special assignments will receive assignment pay equal to
3.0% of the top officer pay ($1.50 per hour). Regardless of number of assignments this will be
limited to a maximum of two specialty pays (increased from one). Moving the basis for this
specialty pay to a percentage will allow the amount to increase based upon any CPI or market
adjustments. 
Step Structure: Police is currently on a step structure based upon the 2022 classification and
compensation study adopted by council. This will capture the structure of the step system with all
steps based on the starting pay of a police officer. Police recruits are 5% lower than a step 1
officer and all steps for officer and sergeant are set at 5%. Future adjustments through a COLA or
Market will be applied to step 1 with the 5% increases flowing through the rest of the structure.  As
presented a 1st step Sergeant will be paid 8.4% more than a topped-out Police Officer, however
the range of all is based upon the 65th percentile of the market and this will continue to determine
the number of steps and separation between grades in the future.
Field Training Officers (FTO's): FTO's will receive 5% of their base pay at all times while

assigned as an FTO, currently FTO pay is only provided when they are assigned a trainee. With
the expansion of our department the number of trainees and lightly experienced officers is such
that we rely on the training and mentorship of FTOs at all times. FTO Sergeants will continue to
receive FTO pay only when assigned a trainee as the number of new Sergeants is less and the
depth of experience is greater.
Swing and Graveyard Shift differentials: Police assigned to a swing shift shall receive 2.5% of
the top officer step pay per hour ($1.25) and those assigned to graveyard shifts shall receive 4.0%
of the top officer step pay per hour ($2.00). Modification to a percentage will allow for adjustment
based on COLA or market changes, while the addition of a higher graveyard rate will serve as an
incentive to get more experienced employees onto the graveyard shift.
City Contribution to Deferred Compensation: The MOU does not specifically require a city
contribution to represented employees deferred compensation, however this will be proposed as
part of the FY2026 City Managers Budget 
Policy language clean-up: In addition to the above changes there have been many changes
which clean up existing policy references, reconciliations to the above modifications and removing
language that restricted the chiefs use of discretion in operations.
BENEFITS:
The Meet and Confer process continues to facilitate open and ongoing dialogue between City of
Buckeye Management and the Buckeye Police Association. The successful conclusion of the Meet and
Confer process, with an agreed upon MOU, continues the foundational agreement previously adopted by
Council. 
FUTURE ACTION:
N/A
FINANCIAL IMPACT STATEMENT:
The modifications included in the proposed MOU are estimated at approximately $224,000 annually,
these costs will be included in the FY2026 Budget. Although inclusion of the salary step structure will
have an impact on costs, the overall plan continues to be based on the council adopted 65th percentile
and contains no modifications to the current structure. Costs associated with a city contribution to
deferred compensation are not included in this amount as that will be a budgetary decision outside of the
MOU.
BUDGETED:
Yes
FISCAL YEAR:
FY2026
Items related to a project or facility location must include an attached vicinity map for Council
Review.
ATTACHMENTS:
FY2026-FY2027 MOU, Buckeye Police Association - Final Redline.pdf
FY26-27 MOU with Buckeye Police Association_Signed by Association.pdf