Snag Jeopardizes Proposed 3-Year Police Contract

Negotiations between the city and its police union have hit a snag over who should pay to defend officers accused of wrongdoing in internal investigations, jeopardizing a proposed three-year contract that includes a trio of 5% raises.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to approve the 15% increase, which would cost nearly $100 million over three years, but said that in exchange, officers would have to give up four sick days a year and the union would take over so-called defense reps that help employees who face disciplinary action.

This week, sources close to the negotiations said, the Police Protective League made a counteroffer, saying officers should give up only three sick days annually and that the defense reps question should be part of a broader overhaul of the disciplinary system the two sides would negotiate over the coming year.

The current contract expires at the end of the month.

“The numbers are satisfactory. But the givebacks are going to be difficult for the members to accept,” League President Cliff Ruff said of the pending offer. “I’m trying to lobby defense reps off the table. It’s a very bad sticking point.”

Council members Jackie Goldberg and Laura Chick and Mayor Richard Riordan have all made the union’s takeover of the defense reps a key issue in talks this year. They say that defending officers is the job of a union, not an employer, and want the league to agree to support the necessary change in the city’s charter to change the official function.

But most of the nine members of the Police Protective League’s board of directors either are or were once defense reps, and hold the posts close to their hearts.

On Tuesday, Ruff and other union leaders lobbied officials on the council floor before the panel was briefed behind closed doors on the League’s counteroffer. During that secret session, sources said, staff suggested the city declare impasse and bring in a fact finder to sort through both sides’ proposals.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, who is the city’s top negotiator right now, said he asked the council to delay that decision until Friday “to see if reasoned minds could come to grips with everything.”

Meanwhile, the agreement that seemed so close last week now is beginning to unravel.

“I hoped it was over,” Chick said. “It seems to have been wishful thinking.”

Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this story.