Police Tentatively OK Lower Pay Raise to Stave Off Job Cuts

Glendale police officers have agreed to accept a lower pay raise to avoid proposed job cuts in the wake of reduced city revenues due to the recession.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously ratified a tentative agreement giving officers a 2% pay raise rather than the 3.5% pledged in a 1989 contract. The new agreement, to take effect July 1, still requires formal approval by members of the Glendale Police Officers’ Assn.

City Manager David Ramsay said the lower salary increase will save the city $239,000. In exchange, the department will be allowed to fill four police positions left vacant by last year’s hiring freeze. Two park-ranger positions, authorized last year but not filled, also have been restored, allowing the department to keep all of its 208 positions.

The city is still proposing to cut up to 85 positions in other departments, some possibly through layoffs, to make up a $1-million deficit in next year’s $288-million budget. The 1992-93 budget is $8 million less than the current budget because of decreased revenues from sales taxes, interest earnings and other income affected by the recession, officials said.

All of the city’s more than 1,600 employees have been asked to accept lower cost-of-living raises and staff reductions to make up for the shortfall. Negotiations with two other employee groups--the Glendale Firefighters Assn. and the Glendale City Employees Assn.--are continuing.

If those groups refuse to accept reduced raises, up to 19 workers could be laid off, Ramsay said. Even with lower raises, as many as 66 vacant staff positions could remain frozen, Councilman Larry Zarian said.

Multi-year contracts negotiated between the city and employee groups generally call for yearly raises based on regional indexes for inflation and comparable raises granted to similar groups of employees, according to the annual budget report. The average raise that all Glendale employees were eligible for this year was to be 3.6%.

Raises for police officers are 1.5% less than the agreed-on amount. In addition to restoring staff cuts, the city has agreed to give officers a 4% raise in 1993.

The agreement also will permit patrol officers to work a new 12-hour shift, three days a week. Officers will use the remaining four hours in the workweek to make court appearances and complete other duties, Ramsay said.

The schedule change, to become effective by January, will increase the number of officers on active patrol and reduce the amount of overtime paid, Ramsay said. “The willingness of police officers to work with us is appreciated,” said Mayor Carl Raggio.

The city is expected to complete employee contract negotiations and adopt the budget by June 30.