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POLICEPAY.NET
NEGOTIATION TRAINING May 1st - May 3rd – JULY 26-27 -
In contract talks, police and From The However, union lawyers blamed the impasse squarely on police
Chief Wayne Tucker and his public pronouncements that the contract's provisions
have made it impossible for him to manage the department. "Many of the problems befalling the Oakland Police
Department are a direct result of the city's failure to adequately staff the
department," according to attorney Rocky Lucia's letter to city
officials. "The suggestion that the OPOA
(contract) is impeding the chief's ability to protect the citizens of Tucker said he was disappointed by the deadlock, adding that his
mission was to bring the Oakland Police Department into the 21st century. Through his spokesman, Mayor Ron Dellums
said he supported the chief and his vision for the department 100 percent. At a community meeting Monday night, Dellums
said it was critical for police officers to be effectively and efficiently
deployed, and he reiterated his belief that community policing is the answer
to the crime plaguing The police union has long been a political force to be reckoned
with at City Hall, with many criticizing its agreement with the city as
overly generous. The impasse is a result of a united City Council, along with
Dellums, who made the contract an issue in the June
election, pushing back in an effort to wrest power from the union, several
City Hall sources said. Oakland police officers are the best paid among California's 10
largest cities, with a starting salary of $69,100, full family health
coverage and a retirement package that allows them to retire at age 50 with 3
percent of their highest salary. "We offered them a generous
package," Tucker said. "They do a tough job." Lucia said the union and its contract were being used as a
"scapegoat" to deflect attention from the city's lack of commitment
to its police department. According to the City Charter, a mutually agreed-upon arbitrator
will write a new contract for the department's officers, sergeants and
lieutenants. That lengthy, expensive process could take as long as a year.
Until then, the terms of the contract that expired June 30 will remain in
effect. Lucia said he was looking forward to "aggressively"
representing the union's position in arbitration. The main issue during the 10 months of challenging negotiations
was city officials' demand that the union give up the power to block the
police chief from changing "past practices," such as scheduling,
deployment, benefits for union board members and holiday pay. That clause gives the union a significant amount of leverage
over the operations of the department, and makes it difficult to respond to
emerging crime trends, according to city officials. City officials called the past practices clause "a pig in a
poke," saying the City Council would not be clear on what it was
approving when it ratified the contract. However, Lucia said the city's position does not "withstand
scrutiny" from a legal or historical perspective and officials had never
been able to show him evidence that it had interfered with the chief's
ability to run the department. "The reality is the department does not have enough
officers," Lucia said. "This is a shell game they play with the
citizens of Among the past practices the city wants to do away with include
the department's generous holiday pay policy, which allows officers to choose
to work — and earn 21/2 times their pay — regardless of whether they are
needed on duty, officials said. That provision alone costs the city more than
$1 million a year, officials said. In addition, the city no longer wants to pay the full salary of the
president of the police union and half of the vice president's salary. City officials also noted that the union used the past practices
clause a year ago to block Tucker from redeploying officers to night and
weekend shifts in response to a wave of robberies and homicides. The union
relented when the council threatened to declare a state of emergency and
disregard the contract's provisions. In addition, the city wants to reduce officers' sick leave from
60 days a year to 30 and to cut the amount of compensatory time an officer
can accrue from 480 hours to 240. The city's last formal offer to the police union was for a
two-year contract, with 2 percent annual raises. However, after the end of
formal negotiations in October, the city offered 4 percent annual raises in
addition to a 3 percent bonus for giving up the past practices clause,
officials said. That offer is now off the table. Lucia declined to comment on the details of negotiations. The city's goals for a new contract were shaped in large part by
two documents: a 2005 audit of the police department that recommended a host
of changes to reduce the amount of money spent on overtime and Tucker's 2006
plan for the police department. There are 83 officer vacancies in the police department, and 32
other nonsworn openings, including criminalists and fingerprint analysts, despite more than
a year of constant testing and training of recruits. Because of accelerating
retirements, the department is not expected to be fully staffed with 803
officers until 2008. FOP, board
near agreement From The Mercury, March 1, 2007 An affirmative vote by The "sworn" officers (those who may make arrests) of
the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 17 have been working without an
approved labor contract since January 2006. The FOP voted down a tentative
contract agreement earlier this month, but cleared the same agreement with a
vote this week. The second vote came on the heels of a discussion among Riley
County Law Board members on Feb. 20 about declaring an impasse between the
FOP and RCPD. An impasse would force continued
negotiations, with a final decision on contract details left to the law
board's discretion. "It's looking like the end is in sight," board
president Mike Kearns said of the recent vote. The board will still need to
have a special meeting to finalize the tentative agreement. FOP president Steve Gregoire said
about 70-percent of the votes favored approving the tentative contract, which
will cover all sworn officers, including those with the rank of sergeant and
below. The contract includes a 3.3-percent cost of living salary increase for
all, as well as a 1.75-percent salary adjustment for officers. Sergeants will
get the same cost of living adjustment and a 3.3-percent salary increase. One condition of the contract will require the FOP to settle a
bad faith bargaining complaint filed with the Kansas Public Employee
Relations board against the RCPD. That complaint alleges the RCPD
engaged in prohibited practices dealing with the Public Employer-Employee
Relations Act. Specifically, the FOP claimed in April 2006 that the RCPD did not stick to the contract that both parties
agreed upon in June 2005. The contract states an approval will resolve all 2006-2007
contract issues, including the FOP's complaint.
"A lot of officers are unhappy about that," Gregoire
said. "It's kind of a bittersweet ending to this whole deal." Gregoire told the law
board Feb. 20 that morale was because of the failure to reach an agreement.
He said many officers felt wronged because they understood they had an
agreement on the contract, but that a different salary schedule was given by
the RCPD than what was agreed to. "I hope both
sides can lick their wounds and start working together again," he said. The tentative agreement will also bring sworn officers closer to
what the FOP said is the average salary of officers in similar communities,
as described in an FOP salary study. RCPD director
Mike Watson said he thinks the extended amount of time it has taken to reach
an agreement has affected morale for some. But he said a finalized agreement
and pay increases should help. The negotiation process places Watson in an odd situation within
the department as both the official negotiator for the law board and director
of the RCPD. The officers expect him to support
them and their issues, he said. "There is a conflict there, and it's
something that is difficult to resolve," he said. "The board also
has expressed those feelings. Personally, I don't like to be in the middle of
that." Watson will again be in the middle as 2008 negotiations are
expected to begin after approval of the 2006-07 contract. Board member Al Johnson said the board and the FOP will need to
work to get a contract approved before the city and county set their budgets. "That hasn't happened for several years and has been part
of the problem," he said. "We are always behind the
eight-ball." Negotiator
for From The Herald Tribune, February 24, 2007
Deputies
drop bid to form union, will rely on FOP Blount County Sheriff's Office deputies have dropped their bid
to form a union. Deputies and other BCSO employees
voted earlier this month to affiliate with the International Union of Police
Associations, a labor group with about 100,000 members nationwide. Deputies
have pushed for increased pay and benefits for the past few months. After further discussion, deputies decided against forming a
union and will rely instead on the Fraternal Order of Police, BCSO Deputy Ronnie Reagan said in a statement. "A union would not be the best voice for the employees of
the Sheriff's Office to reach the public," Reagan said. "Rather
than creating another body of officers to speak about pay and benefits, we
feel that our employees are being well served by the local FOP on this
matter." BCSO Lt. Tony
Rayburn, who serves as president of "They're wanting to go with the
FOP and speak with one voice," he said. Brian Moran, state president of the FOP, said his organization
would work with the deputies to bring about the changes they seek. "We've got more knowledge, experience and resources than
anybody can offer," he said. "We're not done in CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS POLICEPAY provides
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