Police union won’t budge

GLENDALE — The Glendale Police Officers Assn. has declined to reopen its contract for possible concessions on a planned 6% raise despite repeated pleas from the City Council as it works to close a projected $9.7-million budget deficit before July 1, according to an e-mail obtained by the Glendale News-Press.

The City Council last week agreed to postpone a planned budget study session as city executives continued to hold out for possible concessions, and police union President Larry Ballesteros has repeatedly described talks with the city as ongoing.

But in an e-mail sent Monday from the leadership of the Glendale Police Officers Assn. to City Hall, the union notified council members that it “declines your request to modify the contract for the upcoming fiscal year, July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010.”

Ballesteros could not be reached for comment Friday.

City Manager Jim Starbird on Friday described the association’s decision as “tremendously disappointing” and said that, in the absence of any union concessions, executives would likely recommend 5% in cuts to the Police Department, an option that includes potential lay offs of sworn officers.

The police union has been under increased pressure to make concessions after the other three city employee associations agreed earlier this year to either forgo planned cost-of-living pay increases or cede other planned pay bumps.

In May, the council gave direction for cuts as high as 7.5% for the majority of the city’s departments, but the council, hoping to avoid laying off sworn officers, held off on the Police Department, noting that pay concessions could help alleviate budget issues.

The lack of concessions makes it more likely that deeper cuts will have to be elsewhere, officials said.

As part of the police union’s four-year contract negotiated in 2007, all officers are due a 6% increase on July 1. Each 1% concession would have saved about $347,000, with a full concession penciling out to nearly $2 million, Human Resources Director Matt Doyle said in an e-mail.

A full 5% cut to the department’s budget outside of salaries would bring additional layoffs of six sworn officers and two non-sworn positions to a department already lean after last year’s unpopular cuts of sworn officer positions, according to the proposal Interim Chief Ron De Pompa presented in May.