Mediator Backs 9% LAPD Raise; City Faces Dilemma : Contract: Non-binding recommendation exceeds union’s request, would spread increase over 18 months. Both sides refuse comment, citing confidentiality pledge.

An adviser called in to mediate the contract dispute between the city of Los Angeles and its police has delivered pay hike recommendations that strongly favor the salary demands of officers and in fact go beyond what their union had sought, sources familiar with the contract talks said Friday.

The sources said the mediator has recommended pay increases of 9% over the next 18 months, as well as $1,000 “signing bonuses” for all officers and additional stipends for those who work patrol.

The mediator’s recommendations caused dismay at City Hall and created a quandary for Mayor Richard Riordan and members of the City Council: Although the recommendations are not binding on either side, mediation was the city’s idea and the arbitrator--John Caraway of the state Mediation and Conciliation Service--was agreed to by both sides.

Disregarding his recommendations would almost certainly antagonize an already angry police force and could raise questions about the city’s stated commitment to mediation.

The first increase of 2% would take effect in July, followed by identical increases in January and July of 1995 and a final, 3% increase in January, 1996.

The proposed pay raise schedule would be more generous than the one the city gave to Department of Water and Power employees--who received a 9% increase but had it stretched out over three years, as opposed to 18 months--and more than the Los Angeles Police Protective League had sought in its latest proposal to the city. The DWP contract has become an important benchmark in the police negotiations, as many officers say they are unwilling to accept less than DWP workers received.

Neither league directors nor city officials would comment Friday on the mediator’s recommendations, citing a confidentiality agreement that both sides have pledged to honor at least until after the full City Council can be briefed on the contract offer next week.

“We’re trying to live with confidentiality,” said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who heads the council’s Personnel Committee. “I’m disappointed that some numbers were leaked.”

Goldberg emphasized, however, that the mediator’s recommendations are only one step in the complicated negotiation process. She said the council would review those recommendations next week, and she predicted that more talks would have to be held before a deal could be struck.

“There has been progress,” she said. “That’s good. I think it’s unlikely that this means everybody’s going to agree to all the pieces in it, though.”

As some details of the mediator’s recommendations circulated through City Hall on Friday afternoon, sources said city officials were surprised and disappointed. Sources estimated the cost of approving the recommendations at more than $60 million over three years--one source put the amount at $96 million--money that the council has adamantly insisted it does not have.

Another source, however, said the mediator had identified possible sources for the funds, including the Police Department’s overtime account and the salary savings pool created by unfilled LAPD positions. In addition, the source said the mediator recommended that city officials dip into another city reserve fund to help finance the increase.

The starting salary of a Los Angeles police officer currently is $33,157, placing the LAPD eighth among the 10 largest police departments in California. Even with the increase, the LAPD still would pay less than such rival agencies as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, but the pay hike would add about $2,700 to the city’s starting police wage over the next year and a half.

Despite the settlement adviser’s recommendations, some city officials predicted that the council would declare an impasse in the contract talks next week. That would allow the council to unilaterally impose a contract, a move that officers have said they would furiously oppose.

League delegates were holding their annual conference outside Palm Springs on Friday, and directors of the police union said they would not be presented with a contract offer to consider this weekend. Disclosing the recommendations to delegates would effectively make them public and would violate the confidentiality agreement, league officials said.

“We’re not going to break our word,” one league source said. “We want to cut a deal, not ruin it.”

City Council President John Ferraro, the acting mayor because Riordan was out of town Friday, said he was briefed on the details of the mediator’s proposal by the city administrative officer. But Ferraro, who later met with the mediator in person, also declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of the talks.

“In keeping with the strict confidentiality agreement made between the city and the Protective League earlier this week, I must stress that any further comments on this matter would be seriously inappropriate,” Ferraro said, shrugging off questions from reporters gathered at City Hall.

According to sources, the mediator not only recommended pay raises but also a $1,000 “signing bonus” for all officers and a 2% bonus to be phased in over two years for officers who work in patrol. The bonuses would not count toward officers’ pensions, but nevertheless might help create an incentive for police to work in patrol jobs.

The patrol bonus was proposed by the Christopher Commission, which studied excessive force in the Police Department and recommended sweeping departmental reforms. One of the commission’s suggestions was that patrol needed greater emphasis in the department and that experienced officers should be given incentives not to transfer to other duties.

In return for the salary increases, the mediator recommended that police officers give up their request for an additional annual vacation day, which firefighters received in their recent contract. Sources said officers may also be asked to forgo a small chunk of their annual uniform allowance.

Those are relatively modest concessions, however, compared to the salary increases and the symbolically important signing bonus, which league officials had sought as a way to compensate officers for working three years without a salary increase.

Leaders of the Protective League had at first resisted agreeing to mediation because it is not binding on either side and because they worried that the process would be used to prolong the contract talks. Many police officers, who have grown increasingly confrontational in recent months, have threatened to call a wildcat job action during the World Cup games if they do not have a contract by then.

Those officers were concerned that mediation would drag on and would deprive them of the bargaining chip that the threat of World Cup labor action provided.

The league eventually agreed to the appointment of the settlement adviser after receiving assurances that he would return with his recommendations by Friday. But when the adviser returned with those recommendations, many city officials, including Riordan, were out of town, forcing a delay at least until next week before the council can consider the contract proposals.

In agreeing to the appointment of a settlement adviser--the league objected to the term mediator --union officials and the city submitted lists of experienced arbitrators who would be acceptable to them, choosing from among roughly 15 state mediators working for the California Labor Department. Caraway’s name appeared on both lists, and his appointment was approved by both sides.

His name was kept secret, and the talks between the two sides were said to be taking place at an undisclosed location outside the city. In fact, the sessions were held right across the street from Downtown police headquarters, at the New Otani hotel.

As a mediator, Caraway has tackled an array of disagreements, intervening in labor disputes on subjects as diverse as drug sales in the workplace, contract talks by Oakland teachers and salary negotiations involving major league baseball players.

“He’s handled a variety of disputes in the public sector,” said Peter Lujan, Caraway’s supervisor in the mediation service’s San Francisco office. “He’s an effective mediator and has proven himself to be particularly effective in cases when the two sides are locked in and there appears to be no movement.”