Editorial:

Threats of Police Department layoffs have proven themselves far from idle. On Tuesday, the City Council passed an $808-million budget that, among other cuts, included a rollback of community policing programs and, likely, pink slips for three sworn officers.

It didn’t have to be that way. The council had been pressing the Glendale Police Officers Assn. to give up to 2% of its planned 6% raise for members starting Wednesday. But the union, despite warnings that it would mean the loss of some its own, held firm.

As we pointed out in our editorial last week, the argument about the deservedness of the raises was never even a question. Of course Glendale’s finest deserve a raise, but as has been repeated over and over again, this economic recession debunks all notions of entitlement, or at least it should.

It seems all the city’s unions save the police got the message. Arguments about whether the motivations behind the concessions offered up by the general employee, managers and firefighters unions were political or altruistic are nothing more than red herrings dangled by vested interests who’d rather the public forget the police union’s selfish play.

The fact is, had the union conceded 2% of the planned 6% raise, the City Council would have had a couple of million more dollars to work with, surely preventing the officer layoffs and harsh program cutbacks. Nevermind the ongoing budget crisis in Sacramento that may yet wreak even more havoc on our city finances in the coming months, necessitating yet another round of funding reductions. What then?

In this economy, getting a raise of any sort should be considered a prize, whether it’s 4% or 6%. Sadly, this was lost on the police union’s leadership. And as a result, it looks as if Glendale’s already-fragile officer-to-population ratio is going to take another hit.