• A 2.9% cost of living adjustment (COLA) for each year of the two years of the contract;
• An absence control agreement in which an employee may be subject to progressive discipline for using sick leave under false pretenses, for repetitive tardiness or sick leave use, or for using sick leave more than three times in conjunction with scheduled days off, legal holidays, weekends and similar times;
• A pay for performance feature in which an employee who does not earn at least a "meets expectations" rating in any of seven major areas during his or her annual performance evaluation will not be eligible for a pay step increase or incentive/certification pay for the next year;
• An increase in the amount of the City's payment applied to an employee's gross pay for retirement that is limited to the City's actual increase in the premium or 15%, whichever is less;
• An increase from four to six visits in the number of City-paid trips to Employee Assistance for officers and their families;
• An increase from 24 to 48 hours as the maximum amount of standby for which an officer is authorized;
• Allowing an officer to volunteer to work two full shifts straight for additional pay, relieving the least senior officers from absorbing all of those shifts;
• Including the Police Chief into the first step of the grievance process;
• Increasing by one minute the time which an officer has to pass the Montana Physical Fitness Test to be consistent with a change made by the Montana Law Enforcement Academy; and
• Creation of a dedicated, recorded phone line that officers can check the day before trial to make sure they still need to come in to testify on their days off.

If the contract is ratified by the MPEA, the Council may:

• Approve the contract as presented, with pay retroactive to July 1, 2013;
• Postpone action on the contract to obtain additional information; or
• Deny approval of the contract, forcing negotiations to resume.

A 2.9 percent COLA will cost $249,400 for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 and $256,633 for FY 15.

The cost of the health insurance to retirement benefit will depend on any increase in premiums that occur in January.