Muddled Propositions E, F on Contracts, Police Pay

To put pressure on the City of San Diego during an impasse in contract negotiations earlier this year, the Police Officers Assn. began a push to place a measure on the ballot mandating a 17% pay increase for police.

The POA stopped supporting the initiative in March when it reached agreement with the city on a two-year contract, but the measure had already qualified for the Tuesday ballot. Now, after its initial push from the POA, Proposition F has gathered its own momentum and threatens to nullify the current police agreement.

“It would wreak havoc with the city’s budgetary process,” said Jack McGrory, the city’s management assistant for labor relations. “We worked very hard this winter and spring to work out an agreement that is fiscally responsible with the police. We’d hate to see this thing disrupted by the passage of Proposition F.”

The one-year, 17% pay raise called for by Proposition F would cost the city as much as $10 million more than the current police contract, which contains a 17% increase over two years, McGrory said. The additional cost would necessitate cuts in other city services and could scuttle plans to hire 89 new police officers, he said.

To prevent this, city officials have sponsored an alternative measure, Proposition E, which would allow the city to enter into multiyear contracts with its employees. Under the City Charter, neither side is legally required to fulfill the second year of the police contract, though the city is “morally obligated” to abide by the pact, City Atty. John Witt said.

Besides giving the current contract a legal foundation, Proposition E also could protect the city against the passage of Proposition F. If both measures receive a majority of “yes” votes, only the one with the most votes will be enacted, Witt said.

Statements supporting E and opposing F appearing in the voters’ pamphlet prominently mention the POA’s endorsement. The statements are signed by acting Mayor Ed Struiksma, City Councilmen Bill Cleator and Mike Gotch, Civil Service Commission President Margaret Sellers and J. Terence O’Malley, president of the San Diego Taxpayers Assn.

However, Proposition F is endorsed by four citizens’ groups, which have assailed Proposition E as a “fraud” and “election tampering.” Leading this vigorous dissent is Olin Thompson, chairman of Citizens for Fair Pay, who says the POA leadership is out of touch with the 1,500 officers it represents.

“The rank and file hates E and loves F,” Thompson said. “Many of them think the POA got sold down the river on this thing.”

POA President Ty Reid said he appreciates Thompson’s concern that police be well-paid, but stressed that the current pact with the city is “probably . . . the best contract, percentage-wise, negotiated by any police association anywhere in the nation.”

Thompson said he has received expressions of support from many police officers. But, he added, Proposition F is more a community issue than a police labor matter.

“The police officers aren’t the only ones in the city voting on the issue,” he said. “It’s also the citizens, the 70,000 citizens who signed petitions because they wanted this on the ballot. . . . I don’t think the city has the right to take that away, regardless of whether Bill Cleator thinks I’m too stupid to understand the issue.

“It’s a very simple issue: police officers should be paid what they’re worth.”

Thompson said his group, operating with a budget of only $130, is nonetheless campaigning aggressively for Proposition F, posting flyers all over San Diego. City officials, though, have dismissed Citizens for Fair Pay as “a small fringe group.”

“They may be well-meaning, but they’re misguided,” Witt said. “I think it would have been better for everybody if (the POA) would have waited until negotiations were concluded before placing something on the ballot.”

And although the POA no longer supports Proposition F, Reid said the initiative provided crucial leverage in negotiations with the city.

“Without that, we would’ve been looking at your basic 4% or 5%,” he said.

Proposition F will probably fail because of the city’s opposition and a lack of POA support, Reid said, but he added, “it might pass, because there’s nothing wrong with it.” City officials have exaggerated the budgetary chaos that would ensue if the initiative passed, Reid said.

“There’s not going to be any more chaos than there’s been at City Hall for the last year anyway--win, lose or draw on E or F,” Reid said.