New HBPD contract to attract recruits
Signs like this one began appearing throughout Hermosa during this year’s contract negotiations. Photo
Around the beginning of the year, Hermosa Beach residents received a mailer featuring a balaclava-clad bad guy, headlined “2019 was a good year…for criminals.” The mailer was the work of the Hermosa Beach Police Officers Association, the union that represents the bulk of the department’s sworn employees, and it set the tone for months of tense negotiations that concluded at the end of January, when officers and sergeants agreed to a new contract that boosts pay, though less than what the officers had been seeking.
The previous contract under which officers had been working expired in July of 2019. Hermosa officers sought an increase in base salary, pointing to a streak of years during the Great Recession when they had forgone salary increases to help the city balance its budget. Meanwhile, several officers left the department in the fall and winter for other agencies in Southern California with higher base pay. Combined with injuries and retirements, the number of officers available for patrol fell to the point that it became difficult to staff undesirable shifts, including Pier Plaza on weekend nights. In negotiations with city negotiators, police eventually sought a raise as high as 10 percent each year for three years, arguing it was the only way to attract the officers the department needed.
“We understand that we’re not going to be able to compete with bigger agencies on opportunity. But we have to be able to compete somehow,” said Sgt. Brian Smyth, vice president of the police officers association.
City Manager Suja Lowenthal said the “10 10 10” offer, as it became known, was unsustainable for Hermosa’s budget, and found herself in the middle of a heated debate that dominated Hermosa politics for the first month of 2020. The negotiations, which typically unfold with little public attention, spilled into social media, city council meetings and the streets, with “Save our Hermosa Beach Police” signs dotting lawns. Lowenthal tried to balance the premium residents put on public safety with a hardball-campaign from the officers association; though the officers association mailer had cited a “crime wave,” statistics were level or down in almost every category. She also declined to move money around from other departments to meet the salary boost officers sought.
“If the problem is with police retention and recruitment, we need to look at the police department, and how to solve that issue and the problems that it raises without drawing down other departments,” Lowenthal said.
The impasse ended in late January, with the announcement that an agreement delivering a 19 percent increase in salary over three years, along with hiring bonuses and education incentives. The city hired a new recruit the day after the agreement was reached, and by March had three candidates in the training academy. ER