The Jamestown City Council voted last night to provide hazardous duty retirement for the city’s police officers.
The topic was brought up by Mayor Regena Hinton at last night’s meeting, with some information she had gathered over the last few weeks.
Hinton said switching to the hazardous duty system would result in the city increasing its retirement contribution by about $7,000 per officer per year.
Hinton said there is a process the city must go through to get back into the system, but Jamestown Police officers will soon be under the hazardous system.
Councilman Dwight Richards made a motion to approve implementing the hazardous duty system and it was seconded by Councilwoman Gail Robertson. The motion was unanimously approved by the council.
Hinton and Jamestown Police Chief Jeff Kerns say they believe implementing hazardous duty will be a valuable recruitment and retention tool for the police department.
Jamestown has previously been in the hazardous duty system, implementing it in the early 2000s and ending it around 2012.
