Vallejo council backs contract, will cut number of officers
Vallejo council backs contract deal, will cut number of police officers
From The Vallejo Times Herald, January 28
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VALLEJO, CA – The Vallejo City Council voted 5 to 2 late Tuesday night for a controversial and heavily debated deal that will mean fewer cops on the streets, but also could save millions for the bankrupt city.
The vote followed a presentation from a city negotiating team -- including City Manager Joe Tanner -- that unanimously backed the new contract with the Vallejo Police Officers Assn. The deal, which rank-and-file officers okayed over the weekend also calls for the union to withdraw its opposition to the city's bankruptcy actionc filed last May.
Opposing the deal were longtime public safety union critics, Council members Stephanie Gomes and Joanne Schivley. They objected to the deal as not going far enough to erase the city's deficit, and also that its provision for a two-year contract extension.
It's uncertain what effect the deal with the police officers will have on several other employee unions still in a legal fight over the city bankruptcy. The city firefighters are scheduled to meet today with Vallejo negotiators about their contract.
The police officer deal limits health care coverage -- though members will not have to pay any portion of their premiums. It also ensures that pay raises, aligning the department with an average of other police departments, will be reestablished in 2010, extends the contract from 2010 to 2012 and agrees to pay the union a set amount of damage claims for their pay reduction.
Before the roll call, a handful of residents spoke out against the contract deal, contending it likely would cost more than the city could provide in future years. Many, however, seemed resigned to the impending 5-2 vote. Robert McConnell, a Vallejo resident and bankruptcy attorney, said unless the city can establish how it will come up with the money for police wages, it will face a second round of bankruptcy in just a few years.
Former Vallejo police union head Burky Worel was the sole public supporter of the new deal. He said the council should trust in the unanimous support of the new deal by the city's negotiators.
While backed by the union, the concessions did not come without a cost to its members. The city will be able to reduce the police force as much as needed during continuing lean financial times. The most recent police contract required the city to bring the department up to 145 officers by 2010; latest personnel numbers set sworn officers at 114 in number.
City lead negotiator Sandy Salerno said Tuesday that the minimum staffing requirement was very expensive for the city. According to a budget projection presented by city Finance Director Rob Stout, the city's general fund faces a potential $10 million deficit in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
Councilwoman Schivley said she did not put as high a value on elimination of the minimum staffing level, as she felt it should not have been included in the police contract in the first place.
Though she said she felt the contract was negotiated in good faith by all, she found the contract extension and guaranteed raises "more of the same that got us into our current situation." Since voting for the last public safety contract deal in 2004, Schivley has consistently opposed contract extensions.
Consideration of the modified contract comes a week before a federal bankruptcy judge is set to consider Vallejo city officials' request to break open remaining employee contracts set to expire in 2010.
City negotiators have been meeting with Vallejo's four unions -- VPOA, the International Association of Firefighters, Confidential, Administrative, Management and Professional Employees and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers since last fall in an attempt to settle the contract issue out of court. No other labor group deals have been announced thus far.
