Drawing Lines in the Sand

Cops, City Hall at Loggerheads Over New Contract

by Nick Welsh

The bad blood between the Santa Barbara Police Officers
Association (POA) and City Hall over contract negotiations — which
are currently at a standstill — just got a whole lot worse. After a
two-hour meeting at the DoubleTree Hotel, the union membership
voted for the fourth time to reject City Hall’s “best, last, and
final offer.” The night before, the union’s negotiating team and
executive board met for five hours at the Harbor Restaurant,
concluding that a strike was not the way to go either. It is
against the law for police officers to strike. Union president Mike
McGrew — a 20-year veteran of the force — also ruled out any lesser
job actions or work slow-downs. It’s likely, however, that officers
will refuse to respond to certain calls alone in the future and
will wait for backup instead. McGrew also said the union has been
approached by a number of very wealthy, influential citizens who
volunteered to lobby City Hall on the police officers’ behalf.

McGrew acknowledged the city’s offer of 24 percent over three
years was the biggest ever, but said what it gave in increased pay,
it took away in health benefits. He also cautioned that it still
wasn’t enough to prevent the departure of many key, experienced
officers, part of an ongoing exodus that has afflicted the
department over the past several years. Many officers — especially
those commuting from Ventura County — have taken jobs with the
Ventura and Oxnard police departments, where the pay is higher and
the drive to work much shorter.