(Grass Valley, CA September 22, 2021) – The Nevada Irrigation District (NID) Board of Directors has approved a new 2.5-year labor contract, as well as its 2020 independently audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). Directors took action during their Sept. 22 meeting.

The 2020 CAFR showed NID is a better financial position as compared to last year. The District has reduced operating expenses by $3.7 million and increased unrestricted cash positons by $10.3 million, which will position it well to build reserves. The decrease in operating expenses of $3.7 million are, in part, driven from decreases in administration and general expenses and salaries. Long-term debt also decreased by $3 million.

“As a result, the District is doing more with the same amount of money and number of resources,” said Marvin Davis, NID’s finance manager.

The District is required by State statute to publish the CAFR within twelve months of the close of each fiscal year.

In other matters, the Board moved to take steps toward wage equity, and voted to approve a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that adjusts the salaries of union-represented employees to bring them more in line with the market median.

A 2021 salary study indicated that NID employees fell below the median of what employees are paid at 18 similar local government and special district agencies. On Wednesday, Directors agreed to provide a one-time salary adjustment in 2022 to bring all job classifications to within 5 percent of market. This new 2.5-year contract will also provide a 6 percent cost of living (COLA) increase over the life of the agreement.

Directors acknowledged that wages have been lagging behind the District’s counterparts, and said they were proud to take action to begin to close that gap and bring represented staff up to 5 percent of median wage among the 18 surveyed agencies.

“I’m proud and delighted that what we have in this MOU is that we are giving our hard-working men and women, our employees, salary increases that bring them closer to the market. It is something that has been needed in this District for a number of years,” said Director Ricki Heck. “The goal of this Board of Directors was to express thanks to our employees, and this MOU does that.”