Police Union, City Agree on Pact

The San Diego Police Officers Assn. has quietly negotiated a two-year contract extension with the city of San Diego that includes a 12% to 13% pay increase over the life of the extension.

Union leaders will brief members on the terms of the pact and recommend ratification in three separate meetings at a Mission Valley hotel today, said Ron Newman, the POA’s president. A vote on the pact by the POA’s 1,700 members will be conducted by mail after the meeting, said Assistant City Manager Jack McGrory.

The extension covers the two years that begin July 1, 1989, and end June 30, 1991. Newman and McGrory declined to discuss the terms of the pact, but a knowledgeable source said the average police officer will get a 12% to 13% raise during the contract extension.

Newman said the pact also includes improvements in some benefits that police already have. “I think it’s very competitive with what is going on throughout the state,” Newman said.

The average city patrol officer earns about $35,000 a year in base salary, Newman said. Under the current POA contract, officers received a 5% pay increase July 1 and will receive a 2% increase Jan. 1, 1989.

The agreement allows the city to add the results of the upcoming Nov. 8 vote on a civilian police review board to the contract extension. Voters will choose between a plan placed on the ballot by the city’s Charter Review Commission and an alternative proposed by San Diego City Councilman Ed Struiksma, a former police officer. The council placed Struiksma’s plan on the ballot in a 5-4 vote July 27.

The POA is strongly opposed to the Charter Review Commission proposal, under which a panel with its own staff and the power of subpoena would review allegations of police misconduct. Witnesses could be compelled to testify under the threat of perjury.

“I don’t like either one of them,” Newman said, “but, of the two, the Struiksma version is the one the police officers could live with.”

Struiksma’s alternative would create a panel without subpoena power, appointed by the city manager instead of the mayor and council members.

Marked Contrast to Past

Under state law, the city can impose the regulations needed to implement the voters’ decision as long as it negotiates in good faith with the POA about how those regulations will change officers’ working conditions, McGrory said. The city does not have to reach agreement with the union on those changes, he said.

In marked contrast to some past negotiations between the city and the POA, the new contract extension was hammered out with little rancor and little fanfare. The tentative agreement was reached Aug. 10, a day after the San Diego City Council approved the general outlines of the pact in a closed session, McGrory said.

McGrory attributed the smooth negotiations to the fact that discussions took place nearly a full year before the current contract is scheduled to expire. Without a deadline looming, neither side resorted to public pressure in an effort to sway the discussions.

Newman also praised the “quiet” talks with the city.

When contract talks stalled in 1985, the POA gathered enough signatures on petitions to place an initiative on the June, 1986, ballot calling for a one-time 17% pay increase for city police.

The two sides eventually concluded a deal before that vote, and the POA withdrew its support for the initiative and helped the city defeat it.