A divided police union narrowly approved a one-year contract
with the city that will avoid layoffs while saving Gilroy $1.1
million, city and union officials said.
A divided police union narrowly approved a one-year contract with the city that will avoid layoffs while saving Gilroy $1.1 million, city and union officials said.
After a three-hour meeting Tuesday night, an embittered Gilroy Police Officers’ Association approved the deal by just five votes, 28-23, POA President Mitch Madruga said. The vote comes a week before the fiscal year ends and two weeks before the council will formally vote on the agreement at its July 6 meeting.
While the near-done deal avoids layoffs, the vote breakdown reflected officers’ resentment toward the city council for its unwillingness to dip into the general fund reserve – which holds nearly $18 million compared to $37 million in expenditures – or sell city property to spare an already-strapped department, Madruga said. Officers also fumed over part-time council members’ unwillingness earlier this month to cut their $64,000 in annual health benefits – which the body will reconsider July 6 – and Madruga called the past three months of negotiations a “ridiculous” process that should’ve lasted only a couple of days.
“There’s been a total lack of leadership from this council,” Madruga said.
Echoing other union representatives, he also knocked the council for not selling Gilroy Gardens – which the city bought in March 2008 for $13.2 million out of restricted funds that cannot pay salaries.
“Basically (POA) members see that as the council thinking property is more important to this city than its employees, that they’re lower than pieces of dirt,” Madruga said. “Everyone was angry, but at least 28 recognized that if they didn’t ratify this agreement, they were going to lose friends and POA members.”
Earlier this month, the council voted 5-2, with Councilmen Perry Woodward and Craig Gartman voting no, to direct staff to hammer out a deal with the POA mirroring a deal struck with Fire Local 2805, Gilroy’s two non-emergency unions and non-unionized department heads. Woodward voted against the council’s direction to cut the police department because he said it amounted to a misunderstanding that all unions should be treated equally.
“We need to step back and realize police officers are unlike any other city employees, and there’s a reason why they carry guns,” Woodward said. “We’re doing permanent damage to the department, and the concessions the police have offered us have been very serious … We have officers leaving, and we’re creating an environment where it’s going to be very difficult to attract lateral police officers. What we’re likely to get in the foreseeable future is an environment where the only officers we’re able to attract are those right out of academy who will use Gilroy as a training ground and then leave.”
Police Chief Denise Turner was relieved her officers can start getting back to fighting crime instead of stressing over their jobs.
“I’m glad this part’s over, and I’m looking forward for all of us to move on and get back to work,” Turner said Wednesday morning. She declined to describe any shift changes or deployment tweaks that may affect residents’ perception of the department until the council’s July 6 meeting.
Agreements with Gilroy’s managers and other non-emergency employees included raise postponements and furloughs that will effectively close City Hall the first and third Fridays of every month and save the city $1.6 million annually, beginning July 1, over the next two years.
Those savings lowered next fiscal year’s deficit to $3.6 million out of $37 million in expenditures, according to city figures. The POA agreement will bring that deficit down to $2.5, and Fire Local 2805’s agreement will further lower that debt. Savings from the fire union’s deal – which includes closing Sunrise Fire Station in north Gilroy for an unreleased number of days each month while avoiding layoffs – remain unknown until the council formally approves that agreement July 6.
Other unions had contracts stretching into the future, with planned raises that union members forfeited to save money and avoid layoffs. The POA’s contract expires at the end of the month, which meant the union had no future raises to bargain with. The POA’s $1.1 million deal includes a future contract, but Madruga would not say what the union and city have agreed regarding future raises.
There are two types of raises at City Hall – so-called cost-of-living adjustments and merit-based pay hikes. The council has frozen both over the next two years for Gilroy’s non-emergency employees. The body halted merit-based hikes in February but when it approved the non-emergency union deals earlier this month, it also restored eligibility for those employees who were set to receive merit evaluations between March and June. Until the council’s July 6 vote, it is unclear if emergency employees will receive back-dated evaluations or future evaluations.
Fire Local 2805 Representative Jim Buessing would not detail the union’s agreement or the vote breakdown, save to say the meeting earlier this month involved a “deep explanation of concessions” to the union’s 33 members, “an overwhelming majority” of which approved the deal.
Gilroy Fire Department Chief Dale Foster and his battalion chiefs have already agreed – along with the city’s managerial brass and the bulk of its non-emergency employees – to take a 9-percent pay cut annually over the next two years through raise forfeitures and furloughs every other Friday starting July 1.
By nixing expensive projects and laying off 48 full-time employees Jan. 31, the city cut nearly $8 million from its original $40.7 million budget this fiscal year, which ends June 30. Included in those savings were the layoffs of six firefighter positions – two of which were vacant – along with six paid-call firefighters and four support staff, Foster said. While no sworn police officers lost their jobs in January, the savings included the planned retirements of Detective Frank Bozzo, who said he will retire June 30, and Sgt. John Sheedy, who said he’ll probably leave before Christmas. Those two positions will save the city more than $360,000 if they are not replaced.
While no sworn police officers lost their jobs in the January round of layoffs, the department was already down nine positions at the time, and layoffs put extra stress on officers by cutting 14 support positions. Two officers have since accepted jobs with the Watsonville Police Department amid uncertainties surrounding their positions – which will remain unfilled – Turner said. About 30 patrol officers belong to union, which also includes detectives and administrative staff who do not patrol the streets.
Status of city-union negotiations
Gilroy Police Officers’ Association, 58 members
-Union narrowly approved to save $1.1 million in undisclosed, non-personnel cuts
-Deal avoids laying off 12 sworn officers
-Two officer positions to be left unfilled after officers leave for Watsonville
-Council will vote July 6
Fire Local 2805, 33 members
-Council and “overwhelming majority” of union approved agreement
-Details sealed until council approval July 6
-Proposal includes the occasional closing of Sunrise Fire Station
-Six firefighters’ jobs likely spared
Gilroy Manager’s Association, 23 members
-Union approved furloughs and temporary pay cuts to save $300,000
-Saved four positions
AFSCME, 103 members
-Union approved furloughs and temporary pay cuts to save $1.1 million
-Saved 13 positions
Gilroy non-unionized Employees, 7 members
-Includes city administrator and department heads
-Agreed to furloughs and temporary pay cuts to save $200,000
Source: City of Gilroy, unions and council members
