City Offers Police 3% Raise; Union Assails Proposal

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday issued what it called its last, best offer for a two-year contract with police officers, but the police union’s president said the $40-million package of wage increases and benefits was sure to be rejected without some modifications.

The latest settlement proposal, reached during a lengthy closed-door session of the council, would give the LAPD’s 7,500 officers a 3% pay raise Oct. 1 and again the following October. Officials said it also would include a 2% pay bonus for patrol officers.

“I think what we have offered is an exceptionally good deal,” Council President John Ferraro said after the session, refusing to provide details of the proposed settlement.

But the offer, which one source said was approved by a 12-3 vote of the council, was virtually identical to one already assailed by Los Angeles Police Protective League President Danny L. Staggs after it was recommended by a panel of city lawmakers including Mayor Richard Riordan.

In a letter Monday to lawmakers, Staggs said the raises should begin July 1 of each year, when the new fiscal year begins. Otherwise, league officials say, the raise would amount to only a 2.25% net increase in each of the next two fiscal years. And, Staggs said, the city must significantly improve the benefits package offered to officers.

Late Tuesday, Staggs stood by that criticism of the city’s contract offer. And he repeated his belief that the union’s rank-and-file members will reject any offer that delays raises beyond July because officers, like most other city workers, have gone without raises for two years.

“We have been negotiating for two years and for (the city) to ask (officers) to wait until October is adding insult to injury,” said Staggs, who said the police union board will meet today to draft a counterproposal.

The frustration of officers was evident at a league meeting Tuesday night, when union delegates representing the LAPD’s 18 divisions responded with a unanimous and thunderous “no” vote when asked if the rank-and-file should accept the city’s offer.

“For the last two years they’ve been blowing smoke. . . !” one delegate shouted during the discussions at the Police Academy in Elysian Park. “It’s union busting. . . . Let’s go to war!”

Several of the delegates suggested that the union might wage some sort of protest on the eve of the World Cup soccer playoffs next month, when massive police deployments are planned to help keep order.

“That would give us an opportunity to hold (the City Council) hostage,” a delegate said.

The delegates unanimously approved a no-confidence vote for the mayor and Bill Violante, a former president of the police union now serving as Riordan’s deputy mayor.

Earlier in the day, several council members strongly defended the offer, describing it as generous--especially when the city’s financial woes have precluded raises for virtually all city workers in the last two years. Indeed, several council members noted that the city’s continuing budget problems may mean that all but emergency personnel will go another two years without a pay increase.

“I think it’s a good deal, and I hope they (police officers) take it,” said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, one of several council members whose pro-labor views have been tested against the city’s budget constraints.

“People want pie-in-the-sky,” Goldberg said, “but you are talking about a considerable amount of money” in the $20-million-a-year contract package offered to police.

But police union officials countered that the city could easily increase its contract offer by tapping into a large police overtime fund and by lowering its estimate of the LAPD’s size to more accurately reflect the number of officers likely to be hired by the end of the year.

And while acknowledging that most city workers will go without a raise in the coming two years, police union officials said that fact should not undermine their right to better wages and benefits.

“Police officers should be treated (as) unique and special because their jobs are unique and special,” said Geoffrey Garfield, communications director for the league. “They exist with a lot of difficulties and danger that other city workers do not face.”

Staggs added: “I think you should give (a pay raise) to everyone. But most of all, I think you should give it to police.”

Previously, the association representing city firefighters agreed to accept whatever wage increase police wind up getting.