BUENA PARK : Workers for City Hail New Contract

City employees who have worked without raises for up to five years recently hailed contract negotiations that resulted in a 7% increase in wages and benefits over the next three years.

The warm mood at a City Council meeting earlier this month was in marked contrast to last year, when unions harangued council members about a unilaterally imposed one-year contract that reduced benefits by 2 1/2%.

“It is now fitting that you should hear from our organizations when we are not angry,” said John Sells, president of the Buena Park Police Assn. The bargaining process “was the best, the most fair, the most professional, and one we can all be proud of.”

The three-year contract for the city’s five bargaining units--police, fire, general employees and police and city managers--is retroactive to April 4, said Lawrence Temple, director of administrative services.

“I think the spirit of cooperation was very evident in the negotiation process,” Temple said. “We did not use attorneys on either side, so the adversarial element was removed.”

Two associations, police and police management, decided to allocate some of their increases into benefits, while the others went for a straight pay raise, Temple said.

“This certainly was not a huge raise over a three-year period, but at least it starts us on the road to recovery,” Mayor Donald L. Bone said.

The city was able to offer the raise because of savings from transfer of the Fire Department to the county, a large credit from the state retirement system and a balanced budget for the first time in years, Bone said.

Councilwoman Donna L. Chessen, who is giving up her seat to run for state Senate, said the contracts will make it easier for her to leave after nine years on the council.

“In all the years I’ve been doing negotiations, this was by far the easiest one,” she said. “It takes all these nine years and puts it into a fine package.”