PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles City Council has approved a four-year contract with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 997.

The linemen, fleet mechanics and conservation analysts in the union will receive annual 2- and 2.5-percent cost of living adjustments, annual hourly wage increases and increased city matches for deferred compensation, among other perks.

The City Council approved the contract by 6-0 vote Tuesday, with Deputy Mayor Kate Dexter excused.

In agreement

“The city and the union believe that a four-year contract is going to help us attract new employees and retain our current employees,” Human Resources Manager Abbi Fountain told the council.

“Right now the electrical utilities are a very competitive market.”

Fountain said the new contract will keep the city “competitive” and “up to speed” with the compensation packages offered by West Coast electrical companies and certain public utility districts.

“These are the guys keeping our lights on,” Fountain added.

The overall cost of the four-year contract is $372,538, according to a council memo.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 997 represents 22 city employees and another 106 who work for the Clallam County Public Utility District.

“I know that this is a difficult process where we have to balance the ability of our ratepayers to afford rate increases against having a competitive compensation for our employees, who are very valuable,” Council member Mike French said at the meeting.

“And I know that the citizens of Port Angeles very much appreciated the IBEW Local 997 during our windstorm and our winter storms over this last season,” French added, referring to the windstorm last Dec. 14.

“By having the staff to maintain our electrical system and keep it up well,” Council member Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin said, “when we have emergencies like the windstorm we’re able to get it back on line faster than if we were deferring maintenance on our electrical system.”

Meanwhile, the council voted unanimously Tuesday to award a not-to-exceed $125,000 contract to Asplundh Tree Expert Co. of Woodinville to trim trees around electrical lines.

Joaquin’s Tree Expert Co. of Puyallup also submitted a bid.

The tree trimming crew’s hourly rate will be $211.40 per hour.

“It’s extremely important that we’re consistently maintaining trees that are adjacent or abutting our power line system,” City Manager Nathan West said.

“Making sure that we have taken care of those in advance of a storm is really a proactive way to treat the situation, making sure that all of our ratepayers are taken care of and ultimately we have very few outages in the future.”

West said the city and its Light Operations division takes “great pride” in limiting power outages.

“Part of that is proactively maintaining and caring for the trees along our line system,” West said.

The council also voted 6-0 Tuesday to award a $151,106 contract to Titan Electric of Casper, Wyo., to replace underground electrical cables.

Multiple cables at Airport Industrial Park have failed because of the corroded steel conduit they were installed in, Public Works and Utilities Director Thomas Hunter said in a memo to the council.

“To maintain reliability and prevent lengthy outages and loss of revenue to the industrial customers located in the area, this project will replace the failing cables with new cables installed in nonmetallic conduit,” Hunter said.

Palouse Power of Quincy also submitted a bid.

The city set aside $200,000 for the project in its 2019 capital budget.

“This is one of those things that I know we spend money on, but the maintenance of our infrastructure is critical and we have got to continue to do this,” Mayor Sissi Bruch said.

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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.