District employees receive 1 percent raise

Ramona Municipal Water District employees have received a 1 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA), effective Jan. 1.

RMWD directors last week approved a 1 percent COLA increase for General Manager David Barnum, effective Jan. 1. The increase would add $1,654 to his annual salary of $165,444.

Barnum told the Sentinel that RMWD employees will also receive a 1 percent COLA increase, based on inflation, as part of their negotiated employment agreement. Barnum said that, if there had been zero inflation or deflation, employees would not have received an increase.

The 1 percent, he said, will offset the 1 percent that employees now pay into their pension plan.