Police agree to pay cut, saving jobs
The Redondo Beach Police Officers Association this week agreed to a six percent wage concession, preventing the city from implementing a proposed “Plan B” to layoff six officers.
“We didn’t want to lose any members,” said Officer Dave Tanneman, the POA president. “That was our goal all along. The important part is we didn’t want to leave the city without the resources of our complete police force.”
The police union was the last of the city’s six bargaining groups to agree to the salary rollback. The POA’s agreement, which still must be ratified by the union’s membership, will save the city $652,000 this year. All totaled, employee concessions saved the city $3.5 million and along with program cuts allowed the City Council to balance a new budget despite facing a $7.2 million shortfall.
Mayor Mike Gin effusively praised city workers at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. He said the concessions were made necessary by declines in nearly every form of tax revenue the city receives.
“I will tell you, I know it’s been a very difficult issue for all our groups, and I just want to say how grateful all of us are for what you have sacrificed,” Gin said. “I know it’s taken a little longer with the officers, but I know it’s been very tough with them and a very tough battle to get through. But I’ve just got to say we are honored by your commitment.”
This is the second year in a row all city employees have agreed to a six percent concession and forgone normally scheduled cost of living increases between two and four percent, meaning they have effectively agreed to a 16 to 20 percent reduction in wages.
Tanneman said that POA members have not contested losing the cost of living increases but were more focused on not losing officers and thereby lessoning the department’s abilities to serve the community.
“We know a lot of people are suffering in this economy,” he said. “We are paid well to do what we do. We wanted to do right by our members and do right by the community.”
The six other employee unions settled more than two weeks ago before the council passed the city budget. At Tuesday’s meeting, an agenda item proposed sending out layoff notices to six officers, all of whom are relative new hires. The council tabled the item until its July 20 meeting. Pending the POA’s ratification, the notices will not be sent.
Sources familiar with the negotiations said the sticking point between the POA and the city was the impact the six percent rollback would have on retirement. As many as four officers nearing retirement were reportedly prepared to retire immediately should the six percent cut be implemented. Maximum benefits accrue at 30 years experience, when public safety employees are able to retire at 90 percent of their highest salary – meaning some officers could feasibly find themselves in a position, after pay cuts, in which they would earn more in retirement than by continuing to work.
Tanneman confirmed that some officers were prepared to retire. He said the city, however, found a way to take the six percent in a way that does not reflect a salary cut far as the Public Employment Retirement System is concerned – using a combination of holiday and vacation pay reductions and implementing the wage concession as a deduction rather than a salary decrease.
“It probably did save some guys from leaving,” Tanneman said.
Tanneman said that regardless of the agreement, four officers are scheduled to retire later this year and will not be replaced, bringing the force down to 88 sworn officers. He noted the force had 103 officers when he joined in 1986, and said that the decreasing numbers could begin seriously impacting the level of public safety.
“We are getting dangerously close to that number” Tanneman said. ER