From: Oakland Tribune
Heather MacDonald
3/20/07
The Oakland Police Officers Association has asked an Alameda County Superior Court judge to block the continued use of retired officers to fill the gaps left by the Oakland Police Department’s severe staffing shortage.
Rocky Lucia, an attorney for the police union, said the city refused to bargain in good faith with OPOA officials and unilaterally continued employing the roughly 40 retired officers after an interim agreement expired Feb. 28.
“We’re protecting our rights under state law,” Lucia said.
The suit says the employment of retirees takes work from union members and limits their ability to earn overtime.
Union president Bob Valladon said Monday the city was attempting to civilianize the police department.
Police Chief Wayne Tucker said the department simply did not have enough officers to do crucial police work, and by employing retirees, no union members would be adversely effected.
“I’m disappointed,” Tucker said. “The lawsuit isn’t in the public interest.”
Deputy chief Howard Jordan said losing the 37 retired officers would be an enormous loss for a department struggling to fill 83 vacancies while coping with violent crime and federal court oversight.
Lucia said public safety would not be compromised by the loss of the retired officers.
The retired officers, who are paid $41.60 an hour and cannot work more than 960 hours a year, are performing investigative work and examining the background of prospective police officers, Jordan said.
One retired officer, assigned to the missing persons unit, was able to clear a backlog of 500 cases and reunite a man — considered dead — with his family, Jordan said.
“These are dedicated officers that were forced to retire in many cases because of medical concerns,” Jordan said.
A retired homicide investigator has been assigned the department’s “cold” cases that have forensic evidence. She has developed more than a dozen new leads, Jordan said.
The retired officers do not earn benefits, do not carry a gun or a badge and cannot arrest anyone, Jordan said.
Earlier this month, contract talks between the police union and city officials broke down over the city’s demand that the chief have more flexibility to run the department, and the union declared an impasse.
Several city sources said the union was unwilling to cooperate with city officials after the negotiations ended.
Lucia said the two matters were entirely separate.
Jonathan Holtzman, an attorney for the city, said union representatives unambiguously told city officials they would not extend the interim agreement reached in May after a public outcry prompted by a surge in violent crime.
Lucia disputed Holtzman’s statement.
“If they met with us, we would have come to an agreement,” Lucia said Monday.
The suit was filed Wednesday, and a hearing is set for April 25.
The city’s case is based on a state court of appeal ruling in a case brought by the Sacramento Police Officers Association against the city of Sacramento. A three-judge panel found unanimously the police department could hire retirees in response to an “abrupt” staffing shortage without bargaining with the police union.
“That case is directly on point,” Holtzman said.
However, Lucia said the facts of that case differ significantly from the situation in Oakland, where city leaders and police commanders have known for more than a year the department was severely short-staffed.
