Officers’ Grievances Increase : Simi Valley: Police union says its contract has been violated and communication is strained.

The Simi Valley Police Officers Assn. has filed a record 16 grievances with the city in the last four months, complaining that its contract has been violated and that communication between department heads and officers is severely strained.

Sgt. Fred James, president of the 94-member union, said the complaints concern promotions, overtime pay, benefits and work schedules. He said more than half of the grievances have been resolved in favor of the officers.

The union is preparing to file three more grievances, some of which could end up in court, James said.

No grievances had been filed this year before August, and only three grievances were filed in 1990 and five in 1989, city officials said.

In the past, officials from the police union simply met with department supervisors to iron out individual complaints, James said. But he said lately supervisors have been unresponsive. As a result, the union increasingly has taken its problems to City Manager Lin Koester or Assistant City Manager Mike Sedell.

“We have been having some major problems with the Police Department’s administration,” James said. “There is very little, if any, communication within the department.”

Officers were reluctant to talk about the grievances but generally agreed with James.

“They just want us to keep quiet and go away,” Officer William Lappin said. “The only way we’re going to get their attention is to inundate the city with complaints.”

Police Chief Paul Miller did not return several phone calls Friday.

James said city officials told the union in August that it was skirting the regular grievance process by not trying to settle differences with department officials before going to City Hall. The union was told it would no longer be able to hold informal discussions with city officials about complaints, but would have to file written documents with the city manager’s office.

Sedell said the reason for this was that “we were getting more and more complaints.” He said of the 16 grievances received, five were settled with the help of the city manager’s office and the rest were referred back to the Police Department.

Sedell said he could not comment on the specifics of the complaints but described them as minor technical differences on provisions of the union’s contract, which expires in mid-1992.

“I would not call them major issues,” he said. “It’s about small detail issues.” However, Sedell said some of them could set precedents and that is why the city has to be careful how they are handled.

James said one of the disputes concerned the assertion that supervisors reserve overtime for favored officers. Officers also complained that they were not getting full overtime pay for appearing in court, James said.

Mayor Greg Stratton said he was unaware of any major conflicts within the Police Department.

“As far as I know the department is being run relatively well,” he said.

But James said tension is growing in the department because of the complaints.

“It’s creating animosity among some police officers and their supervisors,” he said. “It’s widening the gap. And the fissure is just going to get wider and wider.”