Vote No on Proposition F

There was a time when Proposition F looked as if it might be one of the more controversial issues on the June 3 ballot. As it turns out, it’s hardly being contested at all--but that doesn’t lessen the importance of voting it down.

Proposition F, on the ballot in the City of San Diego, is the result of a successful petition drive by the San Diego Police Officers Assn. Its aim was to require the city to grant a one-time 17% pay raise for most police officers and peg future increases to the average salaries of officers in four other California cities and the Highway Patrol.

It was a bad idea from the beginning in that it was not fiscally responsible, and it meant setting one group of city workers’ salaries without regard to other salaries or other needs.

Since the issue was certified for the ballot, however, the POA and the city have reached agreement on a new salary schedule, and the POA has dropped its support of Proposition F. Under the plan ratified by 75% of the association members and approved unanimously by the City Council, the annual base salary of an experienced officer will be increased by 17% over a two-year period, to $34,200.

But the City Council does not now have the authority to enter into multiyear labor contracts, so it has placed Proposition E on the ballot to amend the charter to allow them.

The police officers are more than entitled to the raise they have sought. POA leaders have argued that the council never would have come to grips with the issue without the threat of the ballot measure they viewed as intolerable. That may be right.

But voters should not be careless when voting on these two police pay questions. Proposition E should be passed, allowing the city to enter into multiyear contracts; Proposition F should be defeated.