SAN JOSE — On the heels of an ice-breaking police contract, the San Jose Police Department is looking to unclog years of recruiting stagnation with a spirited campaign to attract high-caliber cadets and lure back former officers.

The department is authorized to add as many as 200 officers to its ranks.

“Today is the first step of our rebuilding of SJPD,” Mayor Sam Liccardo said Tuesday.

A 20-percent pay raise over the next 3½ years is a centerpiece in the latest push for recruitment, which languished over the past decade as police salaries in San Jose lagged markedly behind neighboring cities. The force lost over a third of its officers during that period to early retirements and pay-fueled departures to other departments.

“We can once again compete for officers,” said Sgt. Paul Kelly, president of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association. “It’s time to get back to work now and get this police department back on track.”

The police rank-and-file ratified the contract Monday, formally ending years of acrimony between the city and police union that under new leadership forged a pact that, after hurdling past taxpayer group challenges and voter approval last November, became the newly minted agreement.

The new contract was approved on an 8-2 vote, with Councilman Johnny Khamis and Councilwoman Dev Davis opposed. Councilman Sergio Jimenez was absent.

Khamis questioned whether San Jose — a city strapped by a spike in pension and labor costs — can afford the “highly generous” 10 percent raises cops will get in the first year of the contract.

By the end of the new contract, a base-level police officer in San Jose will make a minimum annual salary of about $100,000.

According to city records, the police contract will cost $4.65 million in one-time costs and estimated $49 million in ongoing costs. Those costs are much higher that city leaders projected — draining city finances by an additional $29 million by 2020.

Khamis, who said he’s never voted against police raises during his time on the council, said the contract sets a “dangerous precedent” and could bury the city in debt.

“Other city councils in the past didn’t have the courage to say no to pension increases,” Khamis said. “What ended up happening is we put the city in debt and had deep layoffs. I feel like we’re walking down a fiscally irresponsible path.”

His concerns were echoed by newly-elected Councilwoman Dev Davis: “For me the big question is whether we’re going to be able to afford this deal?”

Liccardo said city leaders have to balance the risks, but often make decisions based on “imperfect information” on financial forecasts and city budgets.

Kelly has said allowing police staffing to continue atrophying would be disastrous, and called Khamis an “obstructionist” who is “allergic to facts and truth.”

SJPOA President Paul Kelly announces that police union ratified new contract now up for council vote. Time to "get this dept. back on track" pic.twitter.com/JpQgzUrccX — Robert Salonga (@robertsalonga) February 7, 2017

City and police brass are now turning their attention to marketing the pay raise and stabilizing of benefits as soon as possible.

“This department is open for business,” Chief Eddie Garcia said.

The chief also took a moment Tuesday to recognize a rank-and-file that shrunk from about 1,400 in 2009 to just over 900 now. The staffing shortage spurred a declaration of a technical state of emergency last summer to ensure enough officers could patrol the streets, infamously signified by the revelation the increased workload led to an increasing number of officers living in RV’s parked across from police headquarters.

“No one has done so much, for so long, with so little, than the members of this police department,” Garcia said.

He added that besides attracting new officers, SJPD aims to get back many seasoned officers who left for greener financial pastures, and reclaim their institutional knowledge. On Tuesday, the department announced plans to “aggressively” reach out to those officers and released a draft of a corresponding letter highlighted by the message “We want you back!”

Garcia said he knows of “several” officers who are eyeing a return but were waiting for pay raises to become official before exploring it further. One officer who left and came back ahead of the contract is LeeAnn Alfonzo, a 19-year police veteran who left San Jose in March 2015 to join Atherton police but saw hopeful-enough signs in negotiations that she came back six months later.

Alfonzo sees a lot of kindred spirits elsewhere in the Bay Area.

“It was such a difficult decision to leave, and it was purely a financial decision. Most people left for pay,” she said. “It’s now getting back to the way it was. And there are so many non-monetary things that are here, with both development and expertise.”

That’s music to the ears of Lt. Heather Randol, who oversees recruiting and backgrounding at SJPD. The momentum of negotiations appears to have bolstered recruitment: upcoming academy classes are now topping 30 cadets, a considerable improvement from the seven that filled out the class exactly one year ago.

The city also secured a “clawback” provision requiring academy graduates to pay back an amortized amount of their training costs if they leave before five years of service, spurred by a string of such departures over the past few years that left San Jose on the hook for essentially training other cities’ cops.

But all things considered, Randol believes the competitive leveling offered by the new contract is vital to recruiting, which she says has become increasingly difficult in recent years amid a national climate of increased scrutiny and distrust of police.

“Recruiting people into law enforcement is more difficult now,” Randol said. “With a smaller pool of applicants, this gives us an edge.”

KEY CONTRACT PAY PROVISIONS

The contract expected for approval Tuesday between the city of San Jose and San Jose Police Officers’ Association includes several pay-based incentives that officials hope will boost recruiting:

A 20-percent raise phased in over three years, starting with 10-percent bump in the 2017-18 fiscal

$5,000 one-time retention bonus to current officers upon ratification of agreement

Incentives of up to $7,500 for recruiting cadets or lateral officers from other agencies

Officers who left the department can return under higher Tier-1 benefit levels as opposed to Tier-2 for new hires

Requiring police academy graduates to pay back their training costs if they leave before five years of service, amortized to that term

Staff writer Ramona Giwargis contributed to this report.