Council Acts to Put Added Police Issue on the Ballot

Over the protests of police officers--some of whom complained they cannot afford to live in the city they patrol--the San Diego City Council on Tuesday gave officers a 5.5% raise for the next fiscal year.

But in an unexpected concession, the council asked its staff to prepare a November ballot initiative that would let voters approve additional money for police.

The referendum would be similar to an initiative that will be before Los Angeles voters next month, according to Mayor Roger Hedgecock, who suggested it. The Los Angeles initiative, which faces strong opposition, would raise a typical homeowner’s property taxes about $60 a year to pay for hiring 1,000 officers over the next five years.

Before Tuesday’s 7-1 vote, with Councilmen Bill Cleator dissenting and Bill Mitchell absent, two council members also vowed to use any reserves from the 1985-86 budget to improve police salaries. The fiscal year begins Saturday and the raise is effective then.

Last week City Manager Ray Blair revealed that there was an additional $2.3 million that could be used to hire 107 new officers. But on Tuesday, council members Mike Gotch and Gloria McColl suggested that they would prefer to spend any additional money on improving police salaries rather than hiring officers or increasing the number of two-officer patrols, which police believe are safer than one-man patrols.

“We knew salary was a priority,” Gotch said to the audience composed largely of officers, “but I did not know it was your No. 1 priority beyond putting more men and women on the street. So I may have been wrong.

“If you think you want it to go to more money on salaries, this can be arranged. It won’t be both.”

After the vote, Police Officers Assn. President Ty Reid said he found the council’s concern for officers “refreshing.” Only one week earlier, Reid had threatened that his 1,380-members might strike if they didn’t get a larger raise. But by late Tuesday’s morning, his tone was conciliatory.

Although the POA will continue to demand a beefed-up police force and more two-officer patrol cars, Reid said he would be willing to “trade off” hiring more officers for higher pay.

POA attorney Chris Ashcraft added, “It’s not a one-to-one trade-off. You have to maintain people here if you are going to fight attrition. . . . Yes, increase the number of officers--but not at the expense of the salary and benefits of police officers.”

Despite the council’s action Tuesday, Reid said the POA still planned ask it to place another initiative on the November ballot seeking either binding arbitration or parity in police salaries here with those of other major California police agencies.

The council’s vote for an initiative supporting police climaxed an emotional hearing in which more than 100 officers--some in uniform but most in civilian clothes--filled council chambers.

They complained that their salaries were 9% to 30% below those of officers in other major California cities, that some could not afford to buy homes here and that the San Diego Police Academy could train 100 new officers a year but that up to 120 San Diego officers a year were quitting for better paying jobs around the state.

City officials suggested the attrition figures were inflated; the city is expecting only 70 officers to leave in the next fiscal year, said Jack McGrory, the city’s labor relations director. Still, other city officials conceded, San Diego officers frequently quit for better paying jobs, including jobs with the San Diego County Sheriffs’ Department.

The typical San Diego officer currently earns $27,435-a-year and the 5.5% pay hike will raise that to $28,943. But for San Diego officers to catch up to their counterparts in nearby cities, Reid and other POA leaders said they need a 5% raise now and another 5% raise Jan. 1.

Joining their protest was Ruth Peyton of the Stamp Out Crime Council who warned council members that if another San Diego officer was killed on the job--and three have died since September --”I shall hold each of you --Cleator, McColl, (William) Jones, (Ed) Struiksma, Gotch, (Dick) Murphy, (Uvaldo) Martinez and (Roger) Hedgecock--personally responsible. That blood will be on your hands.”

Her comments and those of several officers angered Hedgecock who complained at one point that while he was interested in the officers’ plight, they should realize that “we (the council) have a tough job, too.”

Cleator agreed. “In the six years I’ve been on the council, I don’t think I’ve ever gone through a more uncomfortable session,” he said. But Cleator, the lone dissenter on the salary vote, said he supported the officers.

“At my little factory, when I want more production, I don’t take away from those already doing the job (to hire new employees). I give those doing the job a fair deal,” Cleator said. The officers applauded.

While the council’s request for an initiative may have dampened some of the emotionalism surrounding police salaries for the moment, the issue is far from dead.

In hearings June 12 and again June 17, it is expected to be pursued with renewed vigor.