The Turlock Irrigation Board of Directors granted a 3 percent pay raise to 150 employees on Tuesday.
The pay increase will affect all TID employees in the Managerial, Supervisory, Professional and Confidential labor group. The MSPC employees had not received a pay increase since April 2009.
The pay increase was not based on individual merit, but was an across-the-board raise. The new wages are part of a one-year labor deal between TID and MSPC employees.
Directors unanimously approved the pay increase with little discussion.
On Tuesday, the TID Board of Directors also:
• Continued labor negotiations with the Turlock Irrigation District Employees' Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The IBEW has been without a contract since December 2011; the labor dispute led to a 45 hour electricity outage for 49 TID customers in September 2012, when IBEW workers declined to fix the issue, then interfered with other work crews.
• Authorized TID General Manager Casey Hashimoto to negotiate with the City of Turlock to purchase the current home of the Turlock Police Department.
The building, located at 900 N. Palm St., will become vacant once the department moves into the new Public Safety Facility later this year. The City expects to sell the building as part of its plan to finance the Public Safety Facility.
TID has expressed interest in the site, adjacent to its Canal Drive main office, to allow for future expansion and to relieve overcrowding at existing facilities.
• Issued a resolution adopting annual energy efficiency goals through 2022. The resolution calls for TID to reduce about .6 percent of its retail electric load through energy efficiency measures.
The new goals are 35 percent lower than goals set in 2010, due to decreasing load forecasts and lower projected savings from certain efficiency measures. Compact florescent light bulbs, for example, are already used in the majority of households, reducing the potential savings TID could eke out from a light bulb replacement program.
• Began the process to approve two inclusion requests, adding 16.70-acres, owned by B-6 Dairy, into the Carlson-Jerner-DeLong Ditch, and adding 67.90 acres, owned by Peterson Trust A and Peterson Trust B, into the Ahlem-Clauss Pump.
• Heard a presentation from the Association of California Water Agencies, which issued a resolution commending Robert Nees, former TID Assistant General Manager of Water Resources and Regulatory Affairs. Nees retired in December.
He was a major player in state water issues for decades. Among his many successes, Nees negotiated on behalf of the Delta and surrounding regions during the major state water policy reform in 2009.
• Heard weekly updates on electric service, power generation, and irrigation water levels.
• Heard a monthly report on activities of the Resource Management Administration.
• Conferenced with legal counsel regarding a “significant exposure to litigation.”
The TID Board of Directors will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Board Room of the TID Main Office Building, 333 E. Canal Dr.
