Santa Clara County supervisors, sitting as the board of the Central Fire Protection District, are set Tuesday to introduce a salary ordinance that puts into effect the second of four raises in the district's 2025 contracts with its firefighters.
The ordinance applies a 6% general wage increase to employees in International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1165's general membership and battalion chiefs units and to the district's unrepresented employees. It also adds a 1.5% realignment for the battalion chief, assistant chief, deputy chief and fire chief jobs and several director positions. The ordinance would be introduced Oct. 20 and adopted Nov. 3.
Fire Chief Suwanna Kerdkaew's report says the change has no effect on the county's general fund and that the cost was included in the fire district's 2026-27 budget. The district is funded by its own revenue.
The contract behind it
The board approved the four-year agreements in November 2025, after talks that began in April of that year. They run through Dec. 2, 2029, and set general raises of:
- 6% on Nov. 24, 2025
- 6% on Nov. 23, 2026
- 4% on Nov. 22, 2027
- 4% on Nov. 20, 2028
At the time, staff put the net cost of the raises for the 2026-27 fiscal year at $5.7 million for the general membership unit and $497,000 for battalion chiefs. Costs for the later years were projected to require use of the district's unassigned fund balance, which stood at about $44.2 million on June 30, 2025.
The 2025 report said the raises would not put the district at the top of the comparable market but would keep it competitive, which it called critical to recruiting and keeping enough staff for its Zone 2 area and the newly added Zone 4.