PETITION TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS TO AVOID OPD LAYOFFS (Community Voices)
City Council members at groundbreaking, phot by Johnny Z, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcjohnnyz/73648514/
Local resident and engaged citizen Don Link is circulating a petition opposing police layoffs. The text is below--Don writes, "To sign the petition, send your name and Council District to me for inclusion on the list: mailto:don-link@comcast.net
"We the undersigned object to any layoffs of OPD
Officers and ask that the City Council reach an agreement with the
Oakland Police Officers Association that accomplishes that goal. We
understand that Officers are willing to contribute to their pensions and
need assurance that there will be no layoffs for at least one year.
We urge you to get
it done.
signed by: (name & district here)
Background:
On July 2nd, Geoff Collins, Olu Oluwole
(Chair of the CPAB) and Don link met with the President and VP of the
Oakland Police Officers Assn. to find out if anything could be done to
prevent the layoff of 80 officers already given pink slips and scheduled
to be laid off on July 12 The 3 of us don’t want to see the layoff of
any officers, now or in the future. We feel it would be detrimental to
the city and to these superbly (and expensively) trained young officers
who are the future of OPD. They formed a “covenant” with the city when
they signed on to OPD and they feel that that covenant has been broken
by the citizens represented by city government.
What we learned gives cause for concern, because it appears that no one has made any preparations—created a plan—for OPD if the layoffs do occur, and the OPOA is pretty much resigned that they will unless some real energy goes into ending the negotiating impasse and laggard negotiating schedule. There seems to be no sense of urgency on the City Council’s part and palpable drift in the process. The OPOA is willing to meet every day, any day to continue negotiations, but the next meeting is scheduled for Wed. July 7, 5 days before the scheduled layoff of 80 officers is to take place. Why not yesterday and this weekend?
What are the issues separating the CC and the OPOA? It is not the matter of police officers contributing 9% of their salary to their pension. That was agreed to in principle before the last CC meeting. The real obstacle is the OPOA’s need for a guarantee that none of the 770 officers who were on the force in March of 2009 (referred to as “family”) will be laid off, because these officers voted to forego a 4% pay increase scheduled to begin in 2009. The OPOA recognizes and accepts that that increase—while technically put on hold until 2013—is essentially gone due to the economic plight of the city. The CC is willing to guarantee no layoffs for the 770 for 5 months only, until Jan. 2011. The OPOA wants that guarantee for the remainder of the current contract which expires in 2013. When asked if a 1 year guarantee would be acceptable, the OPOA reluctantly said maybe, but it would be a stretch and difficult to get past a vote of the membership. We feel that that guarantee might be enough to get the agreement approved.
There are some ironies in the lagging negotiations and the looming deadline, because the 80 slated for layoff on July 12 are most likely yes votes for an agreement with the city, as are the 150 or 200 officers who could be laid off afterwards in some of the worst case scenarios for early next year. These officers all know their situation because layoffs are based on seniority.
Another irony is the pension contribution. In the opinion of the Pres. of the OPOA, it is now or never. Officers are feeling disrespected and discounted by the citizens and city government, because they are being portrayed as greedy and uncompromising at a time that they have given up much in the way of concessions, They opened their contract and gave back $ 31 M+ in 2009. They agreed to the pension contribution this year. Intransigence is likely to grow exponentially in the future if an agreement cannot be reached now to avoid layoffs and to heal the wounds opened by the layoff threats.
Once we see the layoff of police officers, we will see public safety in Oakland deteriorate and continue to deteriorate for decades to come. Layoffs are the easy WRONG answer. The CC needs to get back to work, doing its job, and fixing this near-term problem. More long-term problems await them to be sure, and they will have to be dealt with as well. That’s their job.
What to do: sign our petition AND contact your Council Member, and Jane Brunner and Ignacio De La Fuente (who are negotiating for the CC) to let them know that you oppose layoffs, period.
Chief Batts has warned that police services
will undergo a dramatic change with significant reductions in service if
the layoffs occur: http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_15431528
Your Council Member
and Brunner and De La Fuente need to hear about widespread opposition to
police layoffs:
mailto:atlarge@oaklandnet.com (Rebecca Kaplan)"
Editor's note: If you have similar petitions etc, OL will publish them with a verifiable name & email; publication does not constitute endorsement.
- Don Link's blog
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Online version of petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?NoLayOff This is not an unconditional cop love petition. Regardless of what compensation package eventually will be negotiated, it has to be a well thought out product of how we the residents agree on how to allocate the our city’s increasing scarce money among different services and programs, a majority of city council members has gone from the extreme of giving cops too much, too easily, to the opposite extreme: playing hardball negotiator, blaming cops for our financial situation and rushing to force the cops to give back previously negotiated compensation. City Council members have not bothered to meet with opoa since wednesday and have not scheduled a meeting until next wednesday. layoffs of the 80 youngest cops start a week after that. Main sticking point is that cc doesn’t want to give a no layoff promise past december 31 2010. cops want something close to 2.5 year no layoff. There is a chance they would vote to accept one year. One year would give the cops and the city time for a mutual reality check on cop compensation and job availability. it would give city time to figure out how to staff with a decimated demoralized police force with a preponderence of older cops. It would give cops time to compare their situation to other cities and decide whether what they are willing to accept or leave. Laying off 80 young cops on one month’s notice is unnecessary, inflammatory and demoralizes people we residents depend on for protection.