The police union picked the same city council candidates as the
firefighters union did, but police went one step further by
endorsing mayoral candidate Craig Gartman after the fire union
rejected both hopefuls.
Gilroy – The police union picked the same city council candidates as the firefighters union did, but police went one step further by endorsing mayoral candidate Craig Gartman after the fire union rejected both hopefuls.
Gartman is challenging Mayor Al Pinheiro, and Planning Commissioners Tim Day and Cat Tucker, former Councilman Bob Dillon, lawyer Perry Woodward and incumbents Roland Velasco and Russ Valiquette are running for the three available council seats
The union chose Valiquette, Woodward and Day, but the Gilroy Police Officers Association union picked Gartman over Pinheiro, according to Gilroy Police Department Detective and POA Vice President Frank Bozzo.
“We just thought that Gartman was probably the most suited to represent our city,” said Bozzo, adding that there have been times before when the two unions do not harmonize. Bozzo had no answer to why the union opposed Pinheiro.
“I don’t have any one specific thing I would say was the reason why we didn’t endorse [Pinheiro],” Bozzo said.
Issues considered during the endorsement process included the city’s overall budget, growth keeping pace with services, union negotiations, and the hiring of a new police chief, according to Bozzo and the candidates.
“It wasn’t just public safety issues,” Bozzo said. “A lot of us who work in the police and fire departments, we live in this community, so naturally we’re concerned about community issues.”
The fire union treasurer, Jim Buessing, said the same thing, but after Pinheiro heard of the fire union’s neutral stance on the mayoral race earlier this week, he said he suspected it had to do with his opposition to “binding arbitration,” a process of presenting labor disputes to a three-person panel made up of one representative each from the city and the fire union, as well as a third neutral arbitrator that heads the panel and serves as a tie-breaker.
Both police and fire unions usually favor binding arbitration because safety workers cannot strike, so the arbiter can end a salary dispute without jeopardizing the city’s safety system.
“There’s no question that (the fire union) was displeased with the fact that I brought out the whole issue of binding arbitration,” Pinheiro said. “But I will continue to be someone who supports the fire and police, and it’s a very important part of our community.”
Gartman, Day, Woodward and Valiquette all support binding arbitration for different reasons, but Gartman said that although the issue was important, the appointment of a new police chief was important, too.
The appointment should wait until City Administrator Jay Baksa retires in January, Gartman said, because the new administrator should tap the next chief.
“We can utilize the strength we have in the current police force in the interim period,” Gartman said.
Union negotiations occur every two to three years, though, and both sides of the table value the speedy resolution of those negotiations. Hence the practicality of third party arbiter.
Mayor Al Pinheiro opposes binding arbitration, and during a salary impasse with the fire union in February 2005, the city ended up sticking with binding arbitration after Pinheiro tried to send it to voters for approval.
“We certainly appreciate and respect all the work that the firefighters do, but the current financial picture within the city and state does not lend to providing the kinds of increases they’re talking about,” Pinheiro said in 2005. “We are the keepers of the city coffers and we must make decisions based on what the city can afford.”
Day told the fire union he did not like binding arbitration but would go along with it until something better turned up.
“I don’t know if [binding arbitration] is a defining issue or not because I took a stand not liking it because it leaves a third party involved in city finances, but if we don’t have that, these (police and fire employees) don’t have any recourses, and I think it’s important to citizens that we maintain strong police and fire forces,” Day said.
Woodward told the union they need more officers on the street and said binding arbitration has been approved by voters and is necessary “to break that (negotiating) logjam.”
Woodward was endorsed when he ran 10 years ago, and his two step-fathers were both members of the GPD in the past.
Gartman agreed with Woodward on the issue of hiring more officers to a certain extent when he said police manpower could change after the release of a pending report.
Police Department managers and Baksa are reviewing the draft report from an independent auditor on police staffing levels. The auditor will present the final audit at a Nov. 16 council safety summit.
