Riordan Says LAPD Will Be Offered a Raise

Mayor Richard Riordan said Wednesday he will propose a new contract for Los Angeles police officers that will include the city’s first offer of a pay hike, raising hopes that the contentious, 21-month contract dispute may be nearing an end.

Riordan declined to disclose the size of the raise, but sources familiar with the offer said it would amount to roughly 6% over two years. Riordan, who will present the offer next week, is also proposing controversial work rule changes that could meet with serious opposition from the police union.

Danny Staggs, president of the Police Protective League, declined to comment on Riordan’s proposal but said the two sides “are getting pretty close, I think.”

The movement in the city’s position came as a renegade group of LAPD officers planned a “blue flu” for this morning to protest the stalled negotiations.

The union said that anonymous flyers were sent to some police stations this week encouraging officers to participate in a three-day sickout, beginning today. The union, which represents 7,000 officers ranked lieutenant and below, said it did not authorize the protest.

The one-page flyer said individual officers were organizing the “Operation Quiet Storm” protest without the help of the union in order to sidestep a court order issued in November, during a previous mass sickout, that banned the union from planning such events.

Chief Willie L. Williams said he is monitoring the situation. He would not say whether he planned to hold officers over for double shifts Wednesday night or activate the city’s Emergency Operations Center, actions he took during the union-organized sickout last fall.

“We don’t know whether we just have something that is a very sick game being played by some individuals or something that’s real,” Williams said.

Police have been working without a contract since June, 1992, and the dispute has grown increasingly rancorous. Earlier this week, the league launched a campaign against the city’s tourist industry by mailing letters and brochures warning of rampant crime and low police morale in the city.

As further pressure against elected city officials, the union said it has plans to put up billboards and release a 10-minute video knocking the city’s reputation unless a deal is reached soon.

In an interview in his office Wednesday, Riordan said officers will be offered a three- or four-year package that will include a pay raise and concessions that would give Williams more freedom to transfer and reassign officers.

Although Riordan declined to disclose the size of the raise, two sources familiar with the offer said it amounted to roughly 6% over two years, beginning July 1. It would grant no retroactive raises, as the police union has requested, for the nearly two years that police have gone without a contract.

Beginning LAPD officers make $33,157 a year--more than officers in several of the nation’s largest police departments. However, the pay level of new LAPD officers has slipped to eighth among the 10 largest departments in California.

The 3% yearly raises would equal the settlement reached between the city and Department of Water and Power employees last fall, although the utility workers got the hike for three years, not two. Since the settlement, Riordan has said he regrets granting such a generous contract to the DWP.

Riordan did not disclose how he would pay for the police pay raise, which would cost an estimated $30 million a year, but he said he would make room for the expenditure in his upcoming budget. To raise more revenue, the mayor has said he intends to consolidate departments, reduce contributions to city pension funds and draw more money from independent city departments such as the DWP.

The pay increase may satisfy officers, but some union members said they will not look kindly on Riordan’s effort to change work rules. City Hall sources said they expect Riordan to ask for the creation of a single rank of detective, instead of the current three-tiered system of investigators.

The change would allow supervisors to transfer detectives back to patrol assignments without their permission. Supervisors have supported such a change, saying it will help to weed out stale and inefficient investigators. But detectives say that seasoned veterans who have developed their skills over the years could be moved on a whim, or because of personality conflicts with supervisors.

“It will be a deal-killer,” one officer said of the idea. “It will completely destroy any chance of ratification by the membership.”

Riordan works with a committee of four City Council members to draft contract proposals. The mayor described council members as being “very agreeable” to his proposal.

Riordan, who is intent on drastically expanding the police force during his tenure, called on officers not to follow through on the blue flu or other job actions as negotiations reach a critical stage.

“We will negotiate in good faith at the bargaining table, not through media-garnering tactics and tactics that could impact public safety,” he said. “The police still have the public on their side. The tactics the league is implementing and threatening to implement only work to lessen that support.”

The council members on the negotiating team--Marvin Braude, John Ferraro, Jackie Goldberg and Zev Yaroslavsky--either declined to discuss specifics of the negotiations or could not be reached. Negotiations are expected to resume Friday.

Yaroslavsky said a “premature” discussion of any proposed pay increase could bring demands from thousands of other city employees for higher pay, which the city cannot afford as it prepares to wrestle with a massive deficit.

Union officials for the city’s firefighters said Wednesday that Riordan has promised them the same raise as police.