Mayor Accused of Undermining Offer to Police : Contracts: Council members say Riordan failed to hold line that latest proposal was city’s last.

Three Los Angeles City Council members sharply criticized Mayor Richard Riordan on Wednesday, saying he has potentially prolonged contract talks with the police union by releasing a statement that suggests the city is flexible in its bargaining stance.

Riordan said in a prepared statement that he was “looking for a responsible counteroffer” from police officers, just a day after the City Council made what it called its last, best offer Tuesday to settle a nearly 2-year-old contract dispute.

Three council members who led negotiations with the union said they were startled and dismayed by Riordan’s statement because they believed he had agreed that the city’s final proposal was already on the table.

“When you make your last and final offer, you keep your mouth shut,” said City Council President John Ferraro. “We didn’t (all) keep our mouths shut.”

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said her “heart sank” when she read the comments. “I think it will make things more complicated and more difficult. If the Police Protective League thinks (Riordan) has a role on his own, they will try to deal with the mayor.”

Besides saying he expected a counteroffer, Riordan also stated that he hoped the police union would accept the city’s “generous offer, or something close to it.”

Council members took this as another sign of equivocation, but Riordan aides denied that.

“The mayor is not saying anything new,” insisted spokesman David Novak. “He is not saying there is a new offer. He is just saying . . . we are willing to listen.”

Novak added later: “The mayor stands behind the city’s offer as the best and final contract offer.”

The 7,500-member Police Protective League and city have been locked in a bitter contract dispute for nearly two years. During that time, officers have marched on City Hall, staged a mass sickout and, finally, posted controversial billboards that depicted a woman being carjacked.

The City Council in the last month made its first formal offer of a pay raise. On Tuesday, lawmakers refined the proposal to include a 3% pay raise this year and next year and a one-time 2% bonus for patrol officers.

Just hours after the offer was made, however, delegates from the Police Department’s 18 divisions cast a unanimous vote against the proposal.

The officers objected to a proposed delay, from July until October, in implementing the raises, saying it would effectively reduce the increases to 2.25% annually. And officers continue to oppose work rule changes that would make it easier for management to reassign detectives and sergeants.

League President Danny Staggs said he believes that Riordan is “willing to be flexible” and that the union is “much better off” negotiating through him than the City Council.

“I believe some of the City Council members are just posturing and trying to look like fiscal saviors of the city for their own gain,” Staggs said.

The police union planned to present Riordan with a counteroffer late Wednesday or early today, asking him to forward it to the City Council.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, Ferraro and Goldberg said, however, that the union should not forget that the City Charter gives the council the power to make contracts with employees.

The three council members said Riordan had agreed that the offer should be the city’s last when they met in a negotiation strategy session last week.

When the full City Council affirmed the proposal Tuesday and presented it to the police union, council members believed Riordan was solidly in line.

But Riordan’s statements Wednesday made the city lawmakers doubt his resolve.

Ferraro, a close ally of Riordan, was surprised that the mayor’s statement did not jibe with the council’s tougher position.

“The mayor was in the meeting when the agreement was made and he never changed it,” said Ferraro. “I don’t know what this statement is about.

“I think if you look at the rules, you see that the City Council makes the final decisions,” he added.

Yaroslavsky said it is “critical that the council and mayor speak with one voice, or else we give the wrong impression.”

Goldberg said: “The problem with the mayor’s statement is it sounds like (the contract offer) isn’t as far as we are going to go. As long as you raise someone’s expectations, there is no reason for them to settle.”

Riordan predicted Wednesday morning at a meeting in the San Fernando Valley that the police contract will be settled soon. Novak said the dispute had done nothing to change that prediction.