Council Makes Weak Vow to Hire More Police : Government: It makes promise as part of compromise with police union, but San Diego’s economic woes make even the modest hiring doubtful.

Making a promise it admits may end up broken, the San Diego City Council unanimously approved a policy Monday that requires it to hire 250 new police officers by the end of 1998.

The policy, adopted unanimously, 8 to 0, with Mayor Maureen O’Connor absent, does nothing more than attempt to hire the officers starting July, 1993. It offers no guarantee that they will ever be brought on board.

If economics prohibits the city from hiring the officers in the mid- to late-1990s, it will not be obliged to do so. San Diego has been criticized for not hiring enough police officers to ensure public safety; the city has one of the lowest ratios of officers to population among the nation’s big cities.

The policy was approved as part of a compromise between the city manager’s office and representatives of San Diego’s police labor union, which agreed to stop collecting signatures for a November ballot initiative that would add 1,313 officers by the year 2000.

Union leaders had vowed to gather the signatures after the City Council refused in February to place the measure on the ballot, saying it was too expensive at $145 million and would decimate other city services.

Last month, in an abrupt switch and with two-thirds of the signatures needed, the San Diego Police Officers Assn. entered into a two-year collective bargaining agreement with the city and agreed to abandon the ballot drive. The association represents most of the city’s 1,850 officers.

In addition to the council’s commitment approved Monday, the police union got a 2% raise next fiscal year. But the raise has strings attached: The council can rescind the deal if general revenues fall below 1% projected come April 1, 1993.

Some police officers were outraged that the union agreed to the deal because members had already been guaranteed a 4% raise next fiscal year. Yet, nearly 81% of the membership ratified its terms, union President Harry O. Eastus said.

Eastus said the union switched its position because it realized the city was still mired in a poor economy, and that it could not force the city to come up with revenues it does not have.

On Monday, even council member Ron Roberts, who joined in the unanimous vote, said the policy to promise new officers is much weaker than what the union had originally intended.

“Practically speaking, this doesn’t bind” future councils to hire the officers, Roberts said. “If you were a critic of this, it would be because it doesn’t bind” the council.

Roberts, along with council members Bob Filner and Tom Behr, had supported the union’s request that the measure be placed on the ballot this November. And, if the measure had passed, the council would have been forced to find the money to pay for the added police force.

Their three votes were the only ones in support, however, and the measure was defeated, 6 to 3.

The Police Officers Assn. gave Roberts its enthusiastic endorsement for mayor. But Roberts did not make the November runoff.

“My personal belief is that (the policy approved Monday) is a weak substitute for what the Police Department was working on originally,” Roberts said.

Council member Judy McCarty commended the Police Department for coming to terms with the city manager without forcing the council into spending millions for new officers.

“This is feasible, which I don’t think the other one was,” she said.

The city manager’s office has budgeted 52 new officers for fiscal year 1994 and would have to hire 40 more each year for the following four years. However, the city normally hires an average of 50 officers a year anyway, and the policy approved Monday does no more than keep up with the average. It does not take into consideration retirements or resignations.

If the officers are hired, their salaries will be paid out of the city’s general fund, the council said, but the motion passed Monday does not preclude the council from raising special revenues, such as taxes, to pay for more police.

Police Chief Bob Burgreen could not be reached for comment after Monday’s vote but has praised what he called the “maturity” of the police union for understanding the city’s economic realities in ending its signature drive.