Police Union Leaders OK Riordan Deal

In a potential breakthrough in the police labor dispute, Police Protective League leaders on Thursday agreed to a tentative contract proposed by Mayor Richard Riordan and other city officials, but the deal still faces significant opposition on the City Council.

The contract offer accepted by the union board of directors--which sources said would cost the city about $10 million more than the deal officers voted down in May--was presented by Riordan, Councilman Richard Alatorre and others at a meeting Wednesday night at the Biltmore Hotel.

“I think if there is any way possible for the council and (union) members to accept this proposal, it absolutely should be done,” Police Chief Willie L. Williams said in a telephone interview from Philadelphia. “We should do everything we can to restore stability to the LAPD.”

The mayor and his allies circumvented the city’s formal negotiating committee in drafting their package and taking it directly to union leaders. As a result, several key council members were very critical of the plan and said it would cost more than the city could afford.

Those critics said the offer would significantly cut into Riordan’s police expansion plan--resulting in the equivalent of 250 fewer officers on the streets--and would put the city at financial risk.

“Our people, I believe, had no clue as to the cost of what they were agreeing to until after they agreed to it,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, the council’s budget chairman. “It is one of the most appalling things I have seen in 19 years as a member of the City Council.”

Riordan called the plan a “reasonable deal (that) hurts both sides a little.” He conceded that the pay raises could take money away from his plan to put more police on the streets. But he said “ingenuity” could preserve the plan and cited, as an example, a special committee that is looking for ways to reduce the amount of time that police spend in court.

The offer was seen as a last-ditch attempt by city officials to put the contract dispute behind them and avoid disruptions during the World Cup soccer tournament--even if the proposal crimps their future budget plans.

Officials said the $50-million offer would give police a 7% raise over the next 18 months and payments of $1,000 this year and $500 next year to make up for the two years officers went without a contract. Patrol officers would receive an additional 1% hike this year and 1% next year as incentive pay, officials said.

The $40-million deal that officers overwhelmingly rejected in May called for 6% raises over the next two years without the patrol bonus or the retroactive payments.

It is unclear which side would next take action on the pact. Riordan said the offer would be presented to police officers for ratification before a formal City Council vote, which is expected to be close. But police union President Danny Staggs said he believed ratification meetings, scheduled to begin Tuesday, would come after the council gathered the eight votes necessary to approve the contract.

“It is an agreement that . . . everyone, our entire membership, has something in there for them,” Staggs said. “It’s not exactly what we would like. It’s not going to be exactly what everyone would like.”

The proposal, which came the day after the city declared an impasse in the dispute, was presented to the union’s 115 delegates Thursday night at the Police Academy. That move was a first step in gathering officers’ support for the deal.

While the proposal is under consideration, the union called on officers to cancel any unauthorized job actions planned to interfere with the World Cup--including picketing at Los Angeles International Airport that had been scheduled for this weekend.

“We are asking our members, as a show of our good faith and professionalism and for the sake of the public, to refrain from participating in any wildcat actions such as a ‘blue flu,’ which we believe would be counterproductive to the negotiating process,” Staggs said.

Interviews with council members indicate that the vote will be close, decided by one or two swing votes.

In an attempt to kill the deal, Yaroslavsky and Councilman Marvin Braude called a special joint committee meeting for this morning to analyze the plan and disclose how it would affect the mayor’s plan to expand the LAPD.

Yaroslavsky said the deal is far costlier than some officials realize.

He said that Riordan has promised to give firefighters the same raise that police receive--a pledge that would cost the city nearly $40 million in the coming year if the contract is approved, $15 million more than the mayor budgeted for raises.

Riordan “has made the intellectual and political decision not to deliver fully on his Project Safety Los Angeles plan--to have higher salaries and not as many more police,” Yaroslavsky said.

Braude, chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, was concerned that the deal was not presented through normal channels.

“This goes outside the city’s . . . procedure,” Braude said. “Nobody speaks for the city except the City Council.”

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said the unorthodox negotiations might set a dangerous precedent.

“This has made council members feel discounted and unimportant in the process,” Goldberg said. “Now union leaders will think that all they have to do is get one or two key council members and work something out on the side.”

Another critic of the deal, Councilwoman Rita Walters, said she is concerned about the city’s financial future.

“We can’t have a settlement that breaks the bank,” she said, predicting that the offer would trigger aggressive salary demands from other city employees.

But Alatorre, who played a major role in brokering the deal, accused his colleagues of hypocrisy. “Some people keep saying they love the police, but when it comes time for a raise they won’t do it. It’s not going to bankrupt us. That’s just bull,” Alatorre said.

He agreed that money for the raises might reduce a police overtime account, which had been set aside to put the equivalent of about 800 officers on the street in the coming year. “What is the point of saying we are going to increase the force if we can’t even keep the officers we have?” he asked.

Williams said he had been told that overtime accounts for police could be reduced by $10 million or $15 million in the coming year to pay for the police raises.

“But we can still have a major increase in police presence and improvement in public safety,” Williams said. “It will not be 100% of what the public safety plan called for, not quite. But it will (still) be more than a 100% increase over what we did last year.”

Among those who were considered supporters of the deal were Alatorre, council President John Ferraro and council members Hal Bernson, Rudy Svorinich Jr., Joel Wachs and Laura Chick.

Although the union held out the hope that they could sell the deal to officers, they remained cautious and said the two-year labor dispute is not yet over.

“We have an uphill battle ahead of us,” Staggs said. “There are still members of the City Council that view any fair and equitable police contract as unattainable.”

* SWITCHING SIDES: Ousted Riordan aide is police union strategist. B1