Santa Ana Police Call In Sick in Contract Clash With City

Most of the Santa Ana Police Department’s graveyard-shift officers called in sick Wednesday night in a contract dispute with the city, police union and city spokesmen said.

However, the shift had a full complement of officers working overtime and there were no problems, City Manager David N. Ream said.

Don Blankenship, president of the Santa Ana Police Benevolent Assn., said city officials obtained a temporary court order Thursday to prevent the union from telling its members to telephone in sick if they are not actually ill. Blankenship said the police association would comply with the order.

‘Statement of Solidarity’

“The officers were trying to make a statement of solidarity and express their extreme displeasure” with contract negotiations, Blankenship said.

Blankenship said at least 99% of the graveyard shift, or about 28 officers, did not report to work at 11 p.m. Wednesday.

However, Ream said about 18 officers, still a sizable majority of those scheduled to work, were involved in the sick-out, which he said had no effect on police operations. The subsequent Thursday day and swing shifts were fully staffed with the usual number of officers reporting, he said.

The 329 sworn police officers represented by the Police Benevolent Assn. have worked without a contract since June. The city has offered a 4 1/2% pay raise for the coming year and a 4% raise for the following year, Ream said.

Seeks to Match Irvine

But Blankenship said the police association wants to match the pay scale of the Irvine Police Department, which is Orange County’s highest-paid department.

Santa Ana officers are paid $2,463 to $2,995 a month, Blankenship said. Irvine officers’ pay ranges from $2,483 to $3,352, he said.

“It’s hard to get officers to work here because it’s a dangerous place to work,” Blankenship said. “The extra money is needed to entice people to come over here and do this kind of a job.”

Ream said: “We’re very proud of our Police Department, and we feel we have always treated them fairly in our negotiations, and that’s our intent now. We’re in negotiation with all of our employee groups right now but this is the first job action we have had.”

In January, 1986, after working seven months without a contract, Santa Ana police agreed to the city’s offer of an 8% pay raise with a second 7% raise beginning in November of that year.

At the time, a Police Benevolent Assn. spokesman termed the pact “a good offer from the city and a commitment on their part to recognize the police officers’ value.”

Nevertheless, some police personnel were dissatisfied with the city’s refusal to agree to other demands, including a four-day, 10-hour-a-day work schedule.

In October, 1983, when contract talks stalled between police and city negotiators, officers staged a ticket-writing slowdown, hoping to drain city coffers of about $5,000 to $7,000 a day in traffic fine revenue.

The 1983 ticket-writing slowdown ended after five days as their dispute went into mediation, which they had requested. Two months later, police officers voted to accept a 10% salary-and-benefit increase spread over two years.