Police to Revote on Wage Issue as Questions Arise

Members of the San Diego Police Officers Assn. (POA) will be forced to revote today and Friday on a proposed pay increase for police because of questions about the propriety of the first election Wednesday.

The nearly 1,500 members of the POA voted then on the tentative agreement with the San Diego City Council that, according to sources familiar with the proposal, calls for a pay increase of 9% on July 1 for officers with more than two years’ experience, followed by an 8% increase in 1987. Officers with less than two years’ experience would receive 4% raises both years.

Wednesday’s election was invalidated, however, because of uncertainty over whether non-union police officers also might have cast ballots, according to POA Director Dennis Sesma.

Normally, POA elections are conducted via ballots on which police officers list their name and identification number as a means of verifying their union membership, Sesma explained. However, the ballots used Wednesday included no identification.

“There were questions whether some of those who voted were, in fact, POA members,” Sesma said. “There were no actual allegations of wrongdoing, but because we didn’t follow our normal procedure, we couldn’t be sure that some non-members hadn’t voted.”

POA officials have said that the proposed two-year salary increases would bring San Diego officeres’ salaries up to the average earned by their counterparts in Los Angeles, San Jose, Long Beach, Oakland and the California Highway Patrol. A starting officer in San Diego earns about $20,000 a year; officers and detectives earn a maximum salary of about $29,000 after five years. Those officers with ranks of lieutenant and above earn more.