Colorado Springs employees can expect a 2 percent merit-based pay boost, raises of varied percentages for police and firefighters and benefits with no increased costs next year, Mayor John Suthers told the staff in a Thursday email obtained by The Gazette.

Staff vacancies went unfilled and workers’ wages were frozen this year as Suthers grappled for money to beef up the city’s stormwater program to deflect lawsuit threats and appease Pueblo County, which bears the brunt of Fountain Creek sedimentation and stormwater.

“I can’t emphasize enough, this money wasn’t easy to come by,” Suthers said in January. “I’ve got a lot of unhappy police officers and firefighters out there.”

The budget he’ll present to the City Council in the next two weeks, however, should help compensate for this year’s sacrifices, according Suthers’ email, which stipulates:

“In early October, I will present a balanced budget to the City Council. It will be no surprise to you that we again face many challenges in supporting our growing city with limited budget dollars, but I am pleased to report on two items of interest specifically to employees of our great city.

“1. I have included in the proposed budget a 2% merit-based pay increase for civilian City employees. What this means is that employees who have performed well can expect to see some level of salary increase this year. I recognize that last year’s pay freeze was difficult on those of you who work hard to move the city forward, and I’m confident that Council will agree with Chief (of Staff) Jeff Greene and I that this expenditure is appropriate.

“2. We have put forth varying pay increases for sworn employees at CSPD and CSFD. Sworn employees who are paid by their rank will receive a 2% across the board increase as long as performance meets expectations. Certain ranks will receive higher increases due to a salary restructure, detailed below.

“3. At the request of Chief of Staff Jeff Greene, the HR staff led a (request for proposals) committee including chiefs, directors and employees who examined vendor options for our self-funded health insurance plan. The chosen solution, which will be shared in detail during open enrollment, will result in no increase in benefit costs to employees.”

The mayor also thanked the staff “for all you do to advance our City on the continuum from good to great.”

The changes are to take effect Jan. 1.

Sworn and civilian employees paid within a range will get raises based on their 2016 performance under an overall 2 percent merit pool, the email stated.

Salary structures will rise for 19 job classifications but not for 375 others.

Sworn employees paid by their rank will get the 2 percent across-the-board raise “as long as their performance meets expectations.”

Police recruits will be paid $50,000 to make the department more competitive.

Firefighter paramedics will recoup their 4.37 percent differential over fire driver engineers. Since that differential was eliminated in 2013, paramedics have been testing for demotion to the driver engineer rank. “The low Firefighter Paramedic staffing significantly increases acting pay and overtime expenses,” the email says, and the renewed differential is expected to stabilize staffing and add incentives for firefighters to seek promotion to paramedic.

Vacation time will be removed from overtime computations.

“Employees will be paid overtime based on their actual hours worked,” the email stated.