CYPRESS : Police, Backers Picket for Better Contract

About 50 people--police, their families and city residents--picketed outside a City Council meeting Monday night demanding that pay be increased between 5% and 7% and that at least eight sworn police officers be hired.

The picketing was the city’s second ever by police, members of the Cypress Public Safety Employees Assn., who have been at odds with the City Council over contract negotiations.

They first picketed last month before the council’s last meeting.

Officers have worked without a contract for the last year and haven’t received a pay hike in two years.

Matt Robinson, the union president, said the council has turned down every contract proposal police have offered and accused council members of not acting in “good faith.”

He said that crime is increasing and that the Police Department is so understaffed that officers from surrounding cities are often called in to help patrol Cypress’ streets.

“We are critically understaffed,” he said.

More than 15,000 of the association’s newsletters will be mailed this week to residents, asking for support.

Police hope pressure from residents will cause city officials to grant the pay raises and hire more officers.

“Our poor guys,” said Yvonne Greenelsh, a 14-year resident of Cypress who picketed alongside police. “I’ve watched the city grow in population and crime, and we need more police.”

Other residents expressed similar opinions.

Mayor Richard Partin said the city does not have the money to increase salaries or add officers to the force.

“We’re doing everything we can to reach a settlement with” police, he said. “We have turned down everything that involves increasing costs to the city, and we’re just trying to hold the line with where we are. . . . We expect to have less money this year than we had last year, and there’s nothing we can do at this time.”

However, he said, the city’s fiscal advisory committee is preparing a report in which recommendations for budget cuts will be made.

Partin said that perhaps cutting some programs will free up money for the Police Department but that nothing is certain.

The report is expected to be completed in February.