Buena Park’s Police-Fire Pay Offer Hit

About 100 picketing Buena Park police officers and firefighters joined a contingent of residents and packed a City Council meeting Monday night to protest a contract offer they say would keep them among the lowest-paid public safety employees in the county.

The police officers and firefighters were protesting a proposed 3-year contract that would give them a 5% increase each year, with additional raises in the final year of 1.68% for Fire Department employees and 2.16% for police, said Buena Park Police Sgt. Robert Chaney, president of the police officers’ association.

Officers would have the option to divert 1 percentate point of the salary increase toward health benefits, Chaney said, reducing their raise to just 4%.

Buena Park firefighters and po lice officers have been without a contract since October. Police officers earn up to about $3,386 a month in wages and benefits--the lowest of nine comparable police departments surveyed by the City Council, Chaney said.

The highest-paid officers of those studied work in Irvine for $4,161 per month, he said.

“We’re willing to settle with just being brought up to the average,” said Chaney, who declined to say how much more money the association wants.

City Council members “always want to give us the salary in the average, but they don’t want to give it to us in the other areas,” he said, referring to other benefits.

Police officers and firefighters picketed outside the council chambers for about an hour before the 5 p.m. meeting, then joined residents inside and took their case directly to the council.

One officer announced that he is quitting the department and going to work for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department because he cannot afford to live in Buena Park on his current salary.

Better Pay and Benefits

Eric Fairman, 24, a 3-year veteran of the department, said: “The L.A. sheriff pays a lot better, and the benefits are a lot better” than in Buena Park.

Celeste Wickstrom, a 17-year resident of Buena Park, supported the police and firefighters: “We need quality people. No qualified persons are going to come for the pay. There are too many places that pay more.”

Steve Grasha, another resident, echoed that sentiment: “They are being forced to beg the City Council, and I think the city owes them more.”

Because the issue was not on the council meeting agenda, council members and city officials did not directly respond to the officers and residents who spoke during the meeting.

Mayor Donna L. Chessen did say, however, that what the city has offered “is fair and reasonable. . . . We have stayed within our budget constraints.”